1. Primary and secondary school students’ motivation and achievement in math and Slovene language Cirila Peklaj and Melita Puklek Levpušček Department of Psychology Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana

2. Why should I learn?

3. Theoretical background Socio-cognitive perspective on academic motivation 1. Course specific motivational variables: Mastery goals, performance-approach goals and performance- avoidance goals (achievement goal theory) Self-efficacy 2. General motivational variables: Skepticism about the relevance of school Self-handicapping strategies.

4. Purposes of the study  to find out the differences between primary and secondary school students in general and course-specific motivational beliefs, avoidance behaviours and achievement (final grades in math and Slovene language)  to find out the relations between general and course-specific motivational beliefs, avoidance behaviours and achievement,  to find out which general and course-specific motivational variables are best predictors of students’ achievement.

5. Method Participants 470 Grade 7 (231 boys and 239 girls), primary school students,12.8 years (SD = 3.9 months); 437 Grade 3 (176 boys and 261 girls) secondary school students, 17.8 years (SD = 4.7 months)..

6. Method Measures Six subscales of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS; Midgley et al., 2000), two general measures and four course-specific measures; 5-point Likert scale (1 - not at all true for me to 5 - very true for me):  General academic beliefs and strategies: self-handicapping and skepticism,  Course-specific motivation in math and Slovene language: mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance goal orientations, self-efficacy.

7. Results Differences between primary and secondary school VariablesMathSlovene language Self-handicapping *** Skepticism Mastery *** Performance- approach *** Performance-avoidance *** Self-efficacy *** Final grade *** Motivational dimensions, achievement: primary school > secondary school Self-handicapping: primary school < secondary school

8. School-related beliefs and strategies Achievement Math Achievement Slovene language Skepticism about relevance of school -.19*** (-.26***) -.30*** (-.24***) Self-handicapping-.31*** (-.29***) -.25*** (-.26***) Course-specific motivational dimensions Mastery.20*** (.56***).08 (.41***) Performance- approach.03 (.28***) -.16*** (.16***) Performance- avoidance.03 (.25***) -.13** (.11*) Self-efficacy.39*** (.40***).29*** (.33***) Results Correlations between motivational variables and achievement

9. Results Students’ motivational variables as predictors of achievement in math Final grade in primary school Final grade in secondary school Predictors β∆R² β Step1: School- related beliefs and strategies Self-handicapping-.19***-.23*** Skepticism-.10*.07***-.18***.11*** Step 2: Motivational dimensions Mastery-07.39*** Performance- approach -.01.10 Performance- avoidance -.07-.02 Self-efficacy.42***.14***.17***.25*** R².20.36

10. Final grade in primary school Final grade in secondary school Predictors β∆ R² β Step1: School- related beliefs and strategies Self-handicapping-.23***-.21*** Skepticism-.14**.11***-.18***.10*** Step 2: Motivational dimensions Mastery-.17**.24*** Performance- approach -.03.17* Performance- avoidance -.13*-.14 Self-efficacy.35***.10***.19***.14*** R².20.24 Results Students’ motivational variables as predictors of achievement in Slovene language

11. Conclusions Further extention of stage-environment fit theory to the transition from upper primary school to secondary school. Mastery goal orientation and self-efficacy are positively related to achievement at both school levels and subjects. Skepticism and self-handicapping are negatively related to achievement at both school levels and subjects. General and course-specific motivational beliefs and behaviours independently predict final achievement in both subjects, even after control for the previous achievement. Self-efficacy in primary school and personal mastery goals in secondary school are best independent predictors of achievement.