Students’ achievement strategies during the transition from primary school to lower
secondary school: Associations with motivation, temperament, executive function, and
academic buoyancy

Main funder

Research Council of Finland

Funder's project number: 294970

Funds granted by main funder (€)

248 760,00

Funding program

Postdoctoral Researcher, AoF (Research Council of Finland)

Project timetable

Project start date: 01/09/2016

Project end date: 31/08/2019

Summary

Students’ achievement strategies, or patterns of achievement-related beliefs and behaviors, play a significant role in school. Adaptive strategies such as success expectations, persistence, and task-focused behavior support skill development and school adjustment, whereas maladaptive strategies such as failure expectations, task avoidance, and helplessness have negative consequences on academic achievement and adjustment. During significant school transitions, achievement strategies can promote a successful transition and support students’ adjustment by, for example, helping them to adapt to the changes in the learning environment and to establish supportive peer and teacher-student relationships.

The study focuses on students’ achievement strategies during the transition from primary school to lower secondary school. The aim of the study is to increase our understanding of the development of achievement strategies, their antecedents, and their role in students’ learning during the transition. An integrative framework for the development of achievement strategies will be constructed using several constructs from the motivation, temperament, and executive function research traditions. Unique to the study will be the examination of achievement strategies both as general patterns of beliefs and behaviors across learning situations, as well as situation-specific strategies in real-time achievement situations. The main aim of the study is, first, to examine the developmental dynamics of students’ motivation, success expectations, and achievement strategies and their role in academic achievement during the transition from primary school to lower secondary school. Second, the aim is to examine the contribution of temperament and executive function in students’ achievement strategies, over and above the effect of motivational factors. Third, the study aims to investigate the role of academic buoyancy in students’ achievement strategies and in their relationship with academic achievement.

The expected findings will provide novel and multifaceted knowledge on the development of students’ adaptive and maladaptive achievement strategies during an important and yet understudied school transition. This information can be used to promote successful school transitions in terms of students’ learning, motivation, and well-being at school.