Quest for the best non-cognitive predictor of academic achievement

Abstract

This is a review of five studies that reported new empirical data relevant for the predictability gradient hypothesis. This hypothesis is focused on within-person psychological variables typically collected in background questionnaires that examine the role of non-cognitive influences on students’ academic achievement. Broad measures of maladjustment and motivation/goal orientation have the lowest correlations with achievement. Measures of confidence, on the other hand, have the highest predictive validity. The other self-beliefs measures are in the middle, although they can also be ordered from lower (self-concept) through medium (academic anxiety) to high (self-efficacy) levels of predictability.

Keywords:

• predicatability gradient
• non-cognitive traits
• confidence

Notes

1. Yi Jiang et al. (2014) treat self-beliefs as motivational constructs. Our own work (see Lee & Stankov, 2013) shows that measures of motivation and self-beliefs define different factors.