Teacher self-perceptions of effectiveness: a study in a district of Kenya

Background and purpose: The paper reports a study of the perceptions of teachers in secondary schools in the Gucha district of Kenya of their own effectiveness, the structure of their self-perceptions, variations in self-perceived effectiveness and the relationship between self-perceptions of effectiveness and the examination performance of their students. Design and methods: Data were based on questionnaires completed by 109 English and mathematics teachers from a random sample of 30 schools in the Gucha district of Kenya. Pupil examination results were also collected from the schools. Results: Three dimensions of self-perceived effectiveness emerged from a factor analysis. These were: pedagogic process, personal and affective aspects of teaching and effectiveness with regard to pupil performance. Teachers tended to rate themselves relatively highly with regard to the first two, process-oriented, dimensions but less highly on the third, outcome-oriented, dimension. Self-ratings for pupil outcomes correlated with pupil examination performance at school level. Conclusions: The results show that these teachers can have a sense of themselves as competent classroom performers and educational professionals without necessarily having a strong sense of efficacy with regard to pupil outcomes.

Drivers' ratings of different components of their own driving skill: a greater illusion of superiority for skills that relate to accident involvement

Different components of driving skill relate to accident involvement in different ways. For instance, while hazard-perception skill has been found to predict accident involvement, vehicle-control skill has not. We found that drivers rated themselves superior to both their peers and the average driver on 18 components of driving skill (N = 181 respondents). These biases were greater for hazard-perception skills than for either vehicle-control skills or driving skill in general. Also, ratings of hazard-perception skill related to self-perceived safety after overall skill was controlled for. We suggest that although drivers appear to appreciate the role of hazard perception in safe driving, any safety benefit to be derived from this appreciation may be undermined by drivers' inflated opinions of their own hazard-perception skill. We also tested the relationship between illusory beliefs about driving skill and risk taking and looked at ways of manipulating drivers' illusory beliefs.

Depression, confidence, and decision: evidence against depressive realism

This research examined how retrospective self-assessments of performance are affected by major depression. To test the validity of the depressive realism versus the selective processing hypotheses, aggregate posttest performance estimates (PTPEs) were obtained from clinically depressed patients and an age-matched comparison group across 4 decision tasks (object recognition, general knowledge, social judgment, and line-length judgment). As expected on the basis of previous findings, both groups were underconfident in their PTPEs, consistently underestimating the percentage of questions they had answered correctly. Contrary to depressive realism, and in partial support of the selective processing account, this underconfidence effect was not reduced but modestly exacerbated in the depressed patients. Further, whereas the PTPEs of the comparison group exceeded that expected on the basis of chance alone those of the depressed individuals did not. The results provide no support for the depressive realism account and suggest that negative biases contribute to metacognitive information processing in major depression.

Motivation in second language acquisition in Chinese research students in the UK

The present study sets out to examine motivation to learn English by Chinese research students in an informal setting. Data were collected, using semi-structured interviews, from four research students at two points in time during their first year in the UK. The main findings are: they believed that learning English was important; their main goal orientations were instrumental and extrinsic; they set learning goals and persisted to attain them; they valued their current learning environment in general and saw it as supportive of their goals; they held both positive and negative attitudes towards the British, which had differential effects on their motivation; their self-perceived support seemed to have a positive impact on their motivation and the development of self-confidence; they tended to attribute their success to stable causes such as the environment and failure to unstable but controllable causes such as effort. It is concluded that qualitative data of this kind may complement insights from quantitative research. Implications for target country institutions in the provision of support are discussed.

Why children differ in motivation to learn: insights from 13,000 twins from 6 countries

Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explored the etiology of individual differences in enjoyment and self-perceived ability for several school subjects in nearly 13,000 twins aged 9 to 16 from 6 countries. The results showed a striking consistency across ages, school subjects, and cultures. Contrary to common belief, enjoyment of learning and children’s perceptions of their competence were no less heritable than cognitive ability. Genetic factors explained approximately 40% of the variance and all of the observed twins’ similarity in academic motivation. Shared environmental factors, such as home or classroom, did not contribute to the twin’s similarity in academic motivation. Environmental influences stemmed entirely from individual specific experiences.

Whatever it takes: rivalry and unethical behavior

This research investigates the link between rivalry and unethical behavior. We propose that people will engage in greater unethical behavior when competing against their rivals than when competing against non-rival competitors. Across a series of experiments and an archival study, we find that rivalry is associated with increased use of deception, unsportsmanlike behavior, willingness to employ unethical negotiation tactics, and misreporting of performance. We also explore the psychological underpinnings of rivalry, which help to illuminate how it differs from general competition, and why it increases unethical behavior. Rivalry as compared to non-rival competition was associated with increased status concerns, contingency of self-worth, and performance goals; mediation analyses revealed that performance goals played the biggest role in explaining why rivalry promoted greater unethicality. Lastly, we find that merely thinking about a rival can be enough to promote greater unethical behavior, even in domains unrelated to the rivalry. These findings highlight the importance of rivalry as a widespread, powerful, yet largely unstudied phenomenon with significant organizational implications. Further, the results help to inform when and why unethical behavior occurs within organizations, and demonstrate that the effects of competition are dependent upon relationships and prior interactions.

Post-occupancy studies of an office environment: Energy performance and occupants’ satisfaction

It is generally accepted that the physical workplace environment affects employees’ satisfaction and, consequently, their perceived productivity and well-being. This study investigated whether employee “satisfaction” variables can predict perceived productivity, well-being and enjoyment at work, and if so, to what extent. The study also explored whether limiting employees’ control over their environment could save energy without compromising employees’ satisfaction and perceived productivity. Preoccupancy and post-occupancy evaluation studies were conducted, in terms of both energy consumption and employee perceptions, to make comparisons between a company’s old and current headquarters buildings, both located in the same area of London. The results showed that employees were more satisfied with their work environment at their new HQ, in general, than with that of their previous office. Also, employees’ self-reported productivity, well-being and enjoyment at work improved after the move. It was revealed that the combination of employees’ level of satisfaction with “interior use of space” and “physical conditions” was the best predictor of their perceived productivity, while satisfaction with “indoor facilities” was not a good predictor. In terms of energy performance, although the new HQ’s energy consumption per m2 was significantly less than that of the previous building, there was still a gap between the refurbishment design target and the actual performance of the building. The findings suggest that this gap could be due to a number of factors, including an ineffective use of interior space, and occupants’ behaviour.

Perceived competence moderates the relation between performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals

In the present research, we conducted 4 studies designed to examine the hypothesis that perceived competence moderates the relation between performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Each study yielded supportive data, indicating that the correlation between the 2 goals is lower when perceived competence is high. This pattern was observed at the between- and within-subject level of analysis, with correlational and experimental methods and using both standard and novel achievement goal assessments, multiple operationalizations of perceived competence, and several different types of focal tasks. The findings from this research contribute to the achievement goal literature on theoretical, applied, and methodological fronts and highlight the importance of and need for additional empirical work in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract)

How self-determined choice facilitates performance: a key role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Recent studies have documented that self-determined choice does indeed enhance performance. However, the precise neural mechanisms underlying this effect are not well understood. We examined the neural correlates of the facilitative effects of self-determined choice using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants played a game-like task involving a stopwatch with either a stopwatch they selected (self-determined-choice condition) or one they were assigned without choice (forced-choice condition). Our results showed that self-determined choice enhanced performance on the stopwatch task, despite the fact that the choices were clearly irrelevant to task difficulty. Neuroimaging results showed that failure feedback, compared with success feedback, elicited a drop in the vmPFC activation in the forced-choice condition, but not in the self-determined-choice condition, indicating that negative reward value associated with the failure feedback vanished in the self-determined-choice condition. Moreover, the vmPFC resilience to failure in the self-determined-choice condition was significantly correlated with the increased performance. Striatal responses to failure and success feedback were not modulated by the choice condition, indicating the dissociation between the vmPFC and striatal activation pattern. These findings suggest that the vmPFC plays a unique and critical role in the facilitative effects of self-determined choice on performance.