Students ' Explanatory Style, Goal Orientation and Achievement in Mathematics: A Longitudinal Study ®

During childhood students develop habitual, characteristic, optimistic or pessimistic causal explanations for the everyday events in their lives. Furthermore, they acquire attributional patterns for their educational successes and failures which influence their attitudes, motivations and goals. In this study, relationships between primary and lower secondary school students ' optimistic or pessimistic explanatory style, task involvement and ego orientation goals and achievement in mathematics are examined over a period of almost three years. While achievement in mathematics is most strongly related to prior achievement, there are significant relationships between students ' explanatory style and achievement in mathematics and between students ' explanatory style and task involvement goals. Students ' gender and grade level are also important factors. The implications of these findings for education are discussed and suggestions made for future studies. (Contains 43 references.) (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be mad