RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Errors can provide informative feedback and exhibit a high potential for learning gains. Affective-motivational and action-related reactions to errors are two forms of error adaptivity that have been shown to enhance learning outcomes from errors. However, little is known regarding the development and contextual conditions of students' error reactions. A theoretically plausible facilitator to this end is the perceived error climate in the classroom. AIM: We investigated how students' dealing with errors develops over time and which role the classroom context in general, and the perceived error climate in particular, has for this development. SAMPLE: A total of 1641 students participated in 69 mathematics classrooms in academic secondary schools. METHODS: Perceived error climate alongside students' self-reported individual reactions to errors were assessed in a 2-year longitudinal study with five measurement points over the fifth and sixth grade. RESULTS: Growth-curve modelling indicated an, on average, negative development of students' individual reactions to errors. This development varied substantially between classrooms and systematically depended on perceived error climate. A more positive error climate was associated with a less negative development of error adaptivity. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our findings imply a strong need and considerable room for the teachers' support in developing and maintaining adaptive reactions to errors. They also allow for the conclusion that teachers can succeed here by means of realizing a positive error climate in class.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Dealing with errors in the classroom is a crucial aspect of instructional quality and has multiple consequences for students' own dealing with errors, their learning and their achievement. The available literature on error climate indicates a paucity of research on the effects of perceived error climate on social aspects such as student-teacher relationships. AIMS: The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the relationship between error climate and alienation from teachers. SAMPLES: We conducted a study with two measurement points in primary school (Grade 5 in 2017 and Grade 6 in 2018) and two samples (N = 406 students in 29 classes in Switzerland and N = 345 students in 39 classes in Luxembourg). METHODS: For scrutinizing the effect of error climate at T1 on alienation from teachers at T2, we used hierarchical linear modelling (students nested within classrooms). RESULTS: For both samples, the results indicated that a positive error climate at T1 predicted less alienation from teachers at T2. We also found an effect of the shared error climate on alienation from teachers. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide empirical evidence of the importance of improving how errors are handled in the classroom to prevent students' alienation from their teachers.
RESUMEN
Previous studies have shown that the use of motivational regulation strategies has the potential to sustain invested effort and persistence in the learning process. Combining different methods (questionnaires and standardized diaries), the present study aimed to determine the role of motivational regulation in an exam preparation period. Motivational regulation is differentiated in a quantitative (extent of strategy use) and a qualitative (planning, implementing, monitoring, and correcting strategy use) aspect. One hundred and fifteen university students reported the quantity and quality of their motivational regulation strategy use in a pretest and kept a standardized learning diary focused on motivational difficulties and invested effort over a 14-day period just before an exam in their studies. Exam performance was assessed afterward. Results revealed positive effects of both aspects of motivational regulation on invested effort in exam preparation and exam performance. Moreover, a high quality of motivational regulation was associated with reduced negative effects of motivational difficulties on invested effort during studying-implying that motivational regulation can buffer against specific motivational problems occurring in the learning process.