Experimentation-related causal attributions of German secondary school students
Students’ causal attributions play an important role in recent studies due to their effects on academic self-concept and performances. Most common causal attributions are students’ ability, effort, task difficulty, and chance. The present study aims at identifying students’ preferred causal attribut...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Cogent Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.1974215 |
| _version_ | 1797706825928278016 |
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| author | Karsten Damerau Ramona Atzert Anna Peter Angelika Preisfeld |
| author_facet | Karsten Damerau Ramona Atzert Anna Peter Angelika Preisfeld |
| author_sort | Karsten Damerau |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Students’ causal attributions play an important role in recent studies due to their effects on academic self-concept and performances. Most common causal attributions are students’ ability, effort, task difficulty, and chance. The present study aims at identifying students’ preferred causal attributions of failure and success while experimenting. Therefore, the experimentation-related causal attribution questionnaire was developed and used on a sample of 90 upper secondary school students. Its factorial validity, internal consistencies, as well as the autonomy of its eight subscales—success- and failure-related causal attributions based on students’ ability, effort, task difficulty, and chance in experimentation—were confirmed. Further analyses revealed a gender difference in experimentation-related causal attributions. Girls show less favourable attribution styles than boys in case of both, success and failure. With regard to experimentation-related successes, boys show a higher attribution to ability than girls. Girls are more likely to use luck and a low degree of task difficulty as an explanation for their academic successes in experimental settings than boys. Female students also draw on attributions such as lack of ability and task difficulty to account for their failures. Practical consequences for science education are derived from the findings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T05:58:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-faed50e4561a431981abe4e2fd9b653c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2331-186X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T05:58:09Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cogent Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-faed50e4561a431981abe4e2fd9b653c2023-09-03T04:26:24ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Education2331-186X2021-01-018110.1080/2331186X.2021.19742151974215Experimentation-related causal attributions of German secondary school studentsKarsten Damerau0Ramona Atzert1Anna Peter2Angelika Preisfeld3Bergische Universität WuppertalBergische Universität WuppertalBergische Universität WuppertalBergische Universität WuppertalStudents’ causal attributions play an important role in recent studies due to their effects on academic self-concept and performances. Most common causal attributions are students’ ability, effort, task difficulty, and chance. The present study aims at identifying students’ preferred causal attributions of failure and success while experimenting. Therefore, the experimentation-related causal attribution questionnaire was developed and used on a sample of 90 upper secondary school students. Its factorial validity, internal consistencies, as well as the autonomy of its eight subscales—success- and failure-related causal attributions based on students’ ability, effort, task difficulty, and chance in experimentation—were confirmed. Further analyses revealed a gender difference in experimentation-related causal attributions. Girls show less favourable attribution styles than boys in case of both, success and failure. With regard to experimentation-related successes, boys show a higher attribution to ability than girls. Girls are more likely to use luck and a low degree of task difficulty as an explanation for their academic successes in experimental settings than boys. Female students also draw on attributions such as lack of ability and task difficulty to account for their failures. Practical consequences for science education are derived from the findings.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.1974215causal attributionsquestionnaireexperimentationsecondary school studentsgender differences |
| spellingShingle | Karsten Damerau Ramona Atzert Anna Peter Angelika Preisfeld Experimentation-related causal attributions of German secondary school students Cogent Education causal attributions questionnaire experimentation secondary school students gender differences |
| title | Experimentation-related causal attributions of German secondary school students |
| title_full | Experimentation-related causal attributions of German secondary school students |
| title_fullStr | Experimentation-related causal attributions of German secondary school students |
| title_full_unstemmed | Experimentation-related causal attributions of German secondary school students |
| title_short | Experimentation-related causal attributions of German secondary school students |
| title_sort | experimentation related causal attributions of german secondary school students |
| topic | causal attributions questionnaire experimentation secondary school students gender differences |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.1974215 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT karstendamerau experimentationrelatedcausalattributionsofgermansecondaryschoolstudents AT ramonaatzert experimentationrelatedcausalattributionsofgermansecondaryschoolstudents AT annapeter experimentationrelatedcausalattributionsofgermansecondaryschoolstudents AT angelikapreisfeld experimentationrelatedcausalattributionsofgermansecondaryschoolstudents |