Barbara Flunger

Utrecht University | UU · Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences

According to self-determination theory, the satisfaction of the basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness influences achievement emotions and situational interest. The present study investigated whether domain-specific explicit need strength moderated the impact of need satisfaction/dissatisfaction on the outcomes achievement emotions a...

The present study investigated whether an autonomy-supportive intervention influenced students’ need satisfaction, achievement emotions, and strategies of self-regulated learning differently depending on several student characteristics. The study was conducted with a sample of 345 9th-grade students in 17 physics classrooms who were randomly assign...

The present study illustrates the utility of applying multilevel mixture models in educational research, using data on the homework behavior of 1,812 Swiss eighth-grade students in French as a second language. A previous person-centered study identified 5 homework learning types characterized by different patterns of high or low homework time and e...

Expanding research on the relative impact of different autonomy-supportive strategies employed by teachers across domains, the present study investigated the variation in 4 lesson-specific autonomy-supportive strategies (providing choices, rationales, accepting frustration, and stimulating interests) and 6 aspects of students' motivation and engage...

Self-Determination Theory (SDT, e.g. Deci & Ryan, 1985) is a theoretical framework that is useful for explaining students’ behaviours, motivations, and academic outcomes in educational settings. We highlight the main premises of SDT and clarify how the context-specificity of student motivation can be explained using the Hierarchical Model of Intrin...

According to Self-Determination Theory, teachers can enhance their students’ motivation, engagement, and learning through need-supportive teaching, which involves providing autonomy support, structure, and involvement. However, within classes, there appears to be great variation in the degree to which teachers support students’ psychological needs....

Teachers’ behavior is a key factor that influences students’ motivation. Many theoretical models have tried to explain this influence, with one of the most thoroughly researched being self-determination theory (SDT). We used a Delphi method to create a classification of teacher behaviors consistent with SDT. This is useful because SDT-based interve...

Teachers’ behaviour is a key factor that influences students’ motivation. Many theoretical models have tried to explain this influence, with one of the most thoroughly researched being self-determination theory (SDT). We used a Delphi method to create a classification of teacher behaviours consistent with SDT. This is useful because SDT-based inter...

In den vergangenen Jahren wurden zahlreiche Motivationsinterventionen entwickelt und auf ihre Wirksamkeit in der Förderung der Schülerinnen- und Schülermotivation überprüft. Dabei ist eine offene Frage, ob eine Motivationsintervention in Abhängigkeit motivationaler Unterrichtspraktiken im Regelunterricht in jeder Klasse gleichermaßen wirksam ist. D...

Many students suffer from motivational problems when doing homework. To investigate whether an intervention that effectively promoted value beliefs in mathematics promoted students’ homework motivation and behavior, we analyzed data from a cluster randomized controlled study with two classroom-based relevance interventions (writing a text or evalua...

In den vergangenen Jahren wurden zahlreiche Motivationsinterventionen entwickelt und auf ihre Wirksamkeit in der Förderung der Schülerinnen- und Schülermotivation überprüft. Dabei ist eine offene Frage, ob eine Motivationsintervention in Abhängigkeit motivationaler Unterrichtspraktiken im Regelunterricht in jeder Klasse gleichermaßen wirksam ist. D...

Some groups work together more successfully than other groups. These differences could depend on the extent to which students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are supported during collaborative learning. The aim of the present study was to examine associations between need satisfaction and performance, and to exa...

Why do some students benefit from interventions and others do not? By investigating the antecedents and effects of students’ responsiveness to a classroom-based motivation intervention, the current study aims to shed light on the intervention processes that make educational interventions in real-life settings work. Using data from a cluster-randomi...

In this article, we present an approach for comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of interventions based on nonlinear structural equation mixture models (NSEMM). We provide definitions of average and conditional effects and show how they can be computed. We extend the traditional moderated regression approach to include latent continous and d...

Example-based learning (i.e., studying examples to learn a problem-solution procedure, often alternated with solving practice problems) leads to better learning outcomes than solving practice problems only, and video examples are increasingly being used in online and blended learning environments. Recent findings show that the presentation order of...

It is widely known that boys, on average, have lower reading competencies than girls. With respect to the development of reading competencies, research has yet to determine whether performance differences between genders increase, decrease, or remain stable over the course of secondary school. Some studies, mainly from the United Kingdom and the Un...

Abstract: The primary aim of the current study was to examine the unique contribution of psychological need frustration and need satisfaction in the prediction of adults’ mental well-being and ill-being in a heterogeneous sample of adults (N = 334; Mage = 43.33, SD = 32.26; 53% females). Prior to this, validity evidence was provided for the German...

Adolescents’ motivation is crucial for their transition from school to further education. Parents are known to have a substantial influence on their children’s motivational beliefs through their own beliefs and behaviors. In this study, we tested whether a parent-based utility-value intervention could promote parents’ and students’ motivational bel...

The present study investigated the effectiveness of two short relevance interventions (writing a text or evaluating quotations about the utility of mathematics) using a sample of 1,916 students in 82 math classrooms in a cluster randomized controlled experiment. Short-term and sustained effects (6 weeks and 5 months after the intervention) of the t...

Using a cluster randomized field trial, the present study tested whether 2 relevance interventions affected students’ value beliefs, self-concept, and effort in math differently depending on family background (socioeconomic status, family interest (FI), and parental utility value). Eighty-two classrooms were randomly assigned to either 1 of 2 inter...

Using data from 1,571 ninth-grade students (Mage = 14.62) from 82 academic track schools in Germany and their predominantly Caucasian middle-class parents, configurations of different family characteristics reported by parents were investigated. Latent profile analyses considering academic involvement, family interest, parents’ self-concept, child'...

In this article, we present an approach for comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of interventions based on nonlinear structural equation mixture models (NSEMM). We provide definitions of average and conditional effects and show how they can be computed. We extend the traditional moderated regression approach to include latent continous and d...

The issue of how to increase student motivation and achievement in science subjects is considered to be a major challenge in modern school systems. Lab-work learning environments in which students get direct (“hands-on”) experience with science content that is related to their everyday lives are posited to have positive effects on state/trait motiv...

Young adults strive for multiple achievement goals. Frameworks for achievement goal orientations, personal goals, and identity formation have emphasized the role of goal-specific exploration and commitment in the interpretation of goals. However, researchers have yet to combine these different perspectives in an empirical study. Therefore, in order...

Homework time (i.e., the total amount of time spent on homework) and homework effort (i.e., the extent to which students work seriously on their homework) are defined as two central aspects that characterize students' homework behavior. Recent research has identified homework learning types by considering differences in students in both homework ef...

One way to address the leaking pipeline toward STEM-related careers (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is to intervene on students’ STEM motivation in school. However, a neglected question in intervention research is how such interventions affect motivation in subjects not targeted by the intervention. This question was addre...

Drawing on expectancy-value theory, the present study examined the unique contributions of the four major value beliefs and self-concept on achievement, self-reported effort, and teacher-rated behavioral engagement in mathematics. In particular, we examined the multiplicative effects of self-concept and task values on educational outcomes using the...

Homework time and achievement are only modestly associated, whereas homework effort has consistently been shown to positively predict later achievement. We argue that time spent on homework can be an important predictor of achievement when combined with measures of homework effort. Latent profile analyses were applied to a longitudinal data set wit...

Interventions targeting students' perceived relevance of the learning content have been shown to effectively promote student motivation within science classes (e.g., Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009). Yet, further research is warranted to understand better how such interventions should be designed in order to be successfully implemented in the classro...

This study examined the effectiveness of labwork settings in science education with a pretest-posttest design. Sixty-eight ninth-grade classes (N = 1773) were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions and a control condition. The first condition was taught the topic of the chemistry of starch in School only, the second condition was taught...

According to the Pygmalion effect, teachers' expectancies affect students' academic progress. Many empirical studies have supported the predictions of the Pygmalion effect, but the effect sizes have tended to be small to moderate. Furthermore, almost all existing studies have examined teacher expectancy effects on students' achievement at the stude...

Expectancy-value theory (Eccles et al., 1983) is a prominent approach to explaining gender differences in math-related academic choices, with value beliefs acting as an important explanatory factor. Expectancy-value theory defines 4 value components: intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, and cost. The present study followed up on incons...

The lack of secondary school students’ motivation in mathematics lessons poses a great challenge. According to the Expectancy-Value Model (Eccles et al., Achievement and achievement motives: psychological and sociological approaches, New York, Freeman, S. 75–146, 1983), teacher and classmates influence students’ value beliefs. Using data of 1868 ni...

Consensus obtained in personality judgments based on thin slices of behavior was examined by manipulating the shared meaning of the traits being judged, the accountability for the judgments, and the amount of target information. 160 judges rated a total of 60 teachers on the Big Five personality dimensions. Consensus was approached from a judge and...

While previous research about the effects of school settings on learning, interest and motivation focused on the pure comparison of extra-mural and classroom groups, we added a third treatment group. In this third group, pupils were taught the same contents, the chemistry of starch: 4 lessons at an extra-mural chemistry lab and 4 lessons in the cla...

Being a teacher is known to be a particularly stressful occupation and as a consequence many teachers suffer from reduced well-being. Thus, it is important to know as soon as possible which individuals are likely to experience reduced well-being in their employment. Therefore, this study investigated whether it is possible to infer teachers’ future...

The resilience concept has often been criticized as simply reflecting the absence of neuroticism (i.e. vulnerability to stress and negative affectivity). Challenging this point of view, the aim of this study was to show that resilience could predict well-being in teachers above and beyond neuroticism. By contrast, we expected that resilience would...

The current study examines the mediating role of adolescents' values in the relationship between religion and adolescents' self-reported positive and negative out-group and in-group attitudes. 1790 adolescents (among them 1102 Christians and 372 Muslims, mean age = 15, 17 years) completed assessments of their religious denomination, individual valu...