Differences in cognitive, motivational and contextual variables between under-achieving, normally-achieving, and over-achieving studentsA mixed-effects analysis

  1. Alejandro Veas Iniesta 1
  2. José Antonio López-López 2
  3. Raquel Gilar Corbí 1
  4. Pablo Miñano Pérez 1
  5. Juan Luis Castejón Costa 1
  1. 1 Universitat d'Alacant
    info

    Universitat d'Alacant

    Alicante, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05t8bcz72

  2. 2 University of Bristol
    info

    University of Bristol

    Brístol, Reino Unido

    ROR https://ror.org/0524sp257

Revista:
Psicothema

ISSN: 0214-9915

Any de publicació: 2017

Volum: 29

Número: 4

Pàgines: 533-538

Tipus: Article

Altres publicacions en: Psicothema

Resum

Background: There are few studies in Spain which analyze the infl uence of individual, motivational and contextual variables, which might be different between underachieving, normally achieving and overachieving students. Method: A total of 1,398 Spanish high school students participated. Mixed-effects models were used to analyze data. Results: The results showed some evidence of: (a) Partial mediational effect of self-concept on the association between cognitive ability and academic achievement. (b) Higher levels of learning goals in the overachieving group than in the underachieving group, but no differences in achievement and reinforcement goals between groups. (c) Positive effect of learning strategies on attainment, both in the underachieving and the nonunderachieving students. (d) Little effect of context variables on academic achievement, both in the underachieving and non-underachieving students. Conclusions: Underachieving students seem to employ all the learning strategies considered to a lesser extent than normally and overachieving students. They also have a lower level of learning goals. On the contrary, overachieving students score more highly than under and normally achieving students in almost all of the above factors.

Informació de finançament

The present work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Award number: EDU2012-32156) and the Vice Chancellor for Research of the University of Alicante (Award number: GRE11-15). This work has also been developed thanks to an academic stay of the corresponding author at the University of Bristol (Reference of the grant: EEBB-I-15_09943).

Finançadors

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