TY - JOUR A1 - Westphal, Andrea A1 - Vock, Miriam A1 - Kretschmann, Julia T1 - Unravelling the relationship between teacher-assigned grades, student personality, and standardized test scores JF - Frontiers in psychology / Frontiers Research Foundation N2 - The Big Five personality traits play a major role in student achievement. As such, there is consistent evidence that students that are more conscientious receive better teacher-assigned grades in secondary school. However, research often does not support the claim that students that are more conscientious similarly achieve higher scores in domain-specific standardized achievement tests. Based on the Invest-and-Accrue Model, we argue that conscientiousness explains to some extent why certain students receive better grades despite similar academic accomplishments (i.e., achieving similar scores in domain-specific standardized achievement tests). Therefore, the present study examines to what extent the relationship between student personality and teacher-assigned grades consists of direct as opposed to indirect associations (via subject-specific standardized test scores). We used a representative sample of 14,710 ninth-grade students to estimate these direct and indirect pathways in mathematics and German. Structural equation models showed that test scores explained between 8 and 11% of the variance in teacher-assigned grades in mathematics and German. The Big Five personality traits in students additionally explained between 8 and 10% of the variance in grades. Finally, the personality-grade relationship consisted of direct (0.02 | β| ≤ 0.27) and indirect associations via test scores (0.01 | β| ≤ 0.07). Conscientiousness explained discrepancies between teacher-assigned grades and students’ scores in domain-specific standardized tests to a greater extent than any of the other Big Five personality traits. Our findings suggest that students that are more conscientious may invest more effort to accomplish classroom goals, but fall short of mastery. KW - Big Five KW - student personality KW - teacher-assigned grades KW - grading practice KW - conscientiousness KW - mathematics KW - German KW - secondary school Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627440 SN - 1664-1078 IS - 12 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lazarides, Rebecca A1 - Lauerann, Fani T1 - Gendered Paths Into STEM-Related and Language-Related Careers BT - Girls’ and Boys’ Motivational Beliefs and Career Plans in Math and Language Arts JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - Women are often underrepresented in math-intensive fields like the physical sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. By comparison, boys relative to girls are less likely to strive for jobs in social and human-services domains. Relatively few studies have considered that intra-individual comparisons across domains may contribute to gendered occupational choices. This study examines whether girls’ and boys’ motivational beliefs in mathematics and language arts are predictive of their career plans in these fields. The study focusses on same domain and cross-domain effects and investigates bidirectional relations between motivational beliefs and career plans. Data for this study stem from 1,117 ninth and tenth graders (53.2% girls) from secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Findings show systematic gender differences in samedomain effects in mathematics: girls’ comparatively lower mathematics self-concept and intrinsic value predicted a lower likelihood of striving for a math-related career. Crossdomain effects were not related to gender-specific career plans, with only one exception. Girls’ lower levels of intrinsic value in mathematics corresponded to a higher likelihood of striving for a career in language-related fields, which subsequently predicted lower levels of intrinsic value in mathematics. This finding points to a need to address both genderspecific motivational beliefs and gender-specific career plans in school when aiming to enhance more gender equality in girls’ and boys’ occupational choices. KW - gendered motivational beliefs KW - career plans KW - mathematics KW - language arts KW - dimensional comparison Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01243 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 10 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER -