Assessment policies and academic performance within a single course: the role of motivation and self-regulation

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptives, Cronbach’s alphas (on the diagonal, for both assessment policies combined) and Pearson correlations for the study variables (psychology respondents [n = 150] above diagonal, education and child studies respondents [n = 51] below diagonal).

	Variable	MPSY	SDPSY	MECS	SDECS	n Items	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	Aimed grade goal	6.83	1.29	6.71	1.00	1	–	0.58*	0.49*	0.41*	0.25*	0.11	0.13	−0.20^†	0.39*	0.38*
2	Minimum grade goal	5.24	1.06	5.74	0.50	1	0.63*	–	0.59*	0.54*	0.40*	–0.06	0.06	–0.15	0.35*	0.36*
3	Performance self-efficacy	5.40	1.25	5.87	0.95	1	0.65*	0.65*	–	0.77*	0.29*	0.11	0.13	–0.37*	0.41*	0.44*
4	Academic self-efficacy	3.95	0.98	4.18	0.96	8	0.57*	0.57*	0.77*	0.90	0.46*	0.05	0.08	–0.43*	0.22*	0.27*
5	Task value	4.39	1.06	4.81	1.03	6	0.45*	0.53*	0.38*	0.52*	0.85	0.08	0.17^†	–0.02	0.16^†	0.18^†
6	Time management	4.43	0.99	4.97	0.90	8	0.10	0.13	0.15	0.17	0.23	0.78	0.70*	0.14	0.16^†	0.15
7	Effort regulation	4.72	0.98	4.96	0.83	5	0.05	0.15	0.10	–0.01	0.18	0.60*	0.73	0.11	0.23*	0.23*
8	Test anxiety	4.09	1.33	4.56	1.24	5	–0.42*	–0.46*	–0.48*	–0.46*	–0.35^†	–0.08	–0.04	0.83	–0.09	–0.10
9	Course grade – initial	5.75	1.30	5.66	1.40	–	0.38*	0.36*	0.40*	0.34^†	0.42*	0.26	0.40*	–0.27	–	0.95*
10	Course grade – final	5.82	1.24	6.17	1.18	–	0.23	0.24	0.18	0.15	0.38*	0.34^†	0.35^†	–0.25	0.77*	–

M = mean; SD: standard deviation; _PSY: psychology; _ECS: education and child studies.

*p < 0.01.

^†p < 0.05.

Table 2. Results of the five-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses, with initial grades as dependent variable, and the assessment policy, motivational and self-regulatory variables, as well as the interactions of motivational and self-regulatory factors with assessment policy as independent variables (N = 201).

Predictors	BModel 1 (SE)	BModel 2 (SE)	BModel 3 (SE)	BModel 4 (SE)	BModel 5 (SE)	95% CI Model 5	rx-initial grades.all
Constant	5.75* (0.11)	1.87* (0.56)	2.23* (0.62)	1.41 (0.79)	1.59 (0.83)	[−0.05, 3.23]
Assessment policy	−0.09 (0.22)	−0.31 (0.20)	−1.49 (2.05)	−1.29 (2.04)	−2.26 (2.75)	[−7.68, 3.17]	−0.06
Aimed grade goal		0.23* (0.09)	0.22^† (0.09)	0.20^† (0.09)	0.20^† (0.09)	[0.02, 0.39]	0.16
Minimum grade goal		0.05 (0.12)	0.09 (0.13)	0.12 (0.13)	0.12 (0.13)	[−0.14, 0.38]	0.07
Performance self-efficacy		0.48* (0.12)	0.51* (0.13)	0.46* (0.13)	0.47* (0.13)	[0.21, 0.73]	0.25
Academic self-efficacy		−0.35^† (0.15)	−0.43^† (0.17)	−0.41^† (0.17)	−0.41^† (0.18)	[−0.76, −0.07]	−0.17
Task value		0.18 (0.09)	0.11 (0.11)	0.07 (0.11)	0.08 (0.11)	[−0.14, 0.29]	0.05
AP * GG aim			−0.07 (0.26)	−0.02 (0.25)	0.00 (0.25)	[−0.50, 0.50]	0.00
AP * GG minimum			−0.10 (0.51)	−0.21 (0.51)	−0.27 (0.51)	[−1.28, 0.74]	−0.04
AP * P-SE			−0.07 (0.35)	−0.10 (0.34)	−0.18 (0.35)	[−0.86, 0.50]	−0.04
AP * A-SE			0.29 (0.34)	0.34 (0.34)	0.44 (0.35)	[−0.24, 1.13]	0.09
AP * TV			0.31 (0.23)	0.30 (0.23)	0.24 (0.24)	[−0.23, 0.70]	0.07
Time management				−0.04 (0.12)	−0.01 (0.14)	[−0.29, 0.27]	0.00
Effort regulation				0.31^† (0.12)	0.22 (0.14)	[−0.06, 0.49]	0.12
Test anxiety				−0.03 (0.07)	−0.02 (0.08)	[−0.18, 0.14]	−0.02
AP * TM					−0.10 (0.27)	[−0.63, 0.44]	−0.03
AP * ER					0.43 (0.29)	[−0.14, 1.00]	0.11
AP * TA					−0.02 (0.18)	[−0.37, 0.33]	−0.01
R^2	0.00	0.24	0.26	0.29	0.30
F	0.17	10.02*	5.87*	5.49*	4.67*
R^2change	–	0.24	0.02	0.04	0.01
Fchange	–	11.99*	0.91	3.30^†	0.90
Adjusted R^2	0.00	0.21	0.21	0.24	0.24

CI: confidence interval; r_{x-initial grades.all}: partial correlation between the variable and initial grade, corrected for all other variables in model 5; AP: Assessment policy; GG aim: aimed grade goal; GG minimum: minimum grade goal; P-SE: Performance self-efficacy; A-SE: Academic self-efficacy; TV: Task value; TM: Time management; ER: Effort regulation; TA: Test anxiety.

*p < 0.01.

†p < 0.05.