The Role of School Subject-Specific Competence Beliefs and Value Beliefs for the Formation of Expectancy of Success and Subjective Task Value Regarding Novel Academic Tasks

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Julia Gorges
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning ; Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2013 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 236881342

Research has shown that self-beliefs (i.e., the competence to master a task) and task-beliefs (i.e., the motivational valence of a task) are important predictors of task choice in education (e.g., course choice). Both self-beliefs and task-beliefs are domain specific, that is, structured according to subject matters (e.g., secondary school subjects). Beyond secondary school it is difficult to draw on existing task-beliefs and self-beliefs because subject matters in higher and continuing education may not easily be classified in terms of well-known (secondary school) subjects. Moreover, the role out-of-school experience (e.g., occupational experience), which should be increasingly available in adulthood, for the formation of self-beliefs and task-beliefs is still unclear. The present research project aims at an empirical investigation of the formation and development of self-beliefs and task-beliefs with respect to new, unknown subject matters in adulthood (e.g., first-year students facing a new subject matter when entering higher education). It is hypothesized that existing subject specific self-beliefs and task beliefs will be generalized (i.e. transferred) to a new subject matter insofar as the new subject matter is deemed similar to previous subject matters, e.g. at secondary school. This generalization should result in anticipated self-beliefs and task beliefs which may later on turn out to be more or less adequate based on individual experience with the new subject matter. Self-beliefs and task beliefs should then be revised (i.e., adjusted) based on a comparison of anticipated and experience-based self-beliefs and task beliefs. Also, when dealing with the new subject matter people should learn more about its structure which should lead to more differentiated self-beliefs and task beliefs (i.e., with respect to subdomains of the subject matter).The proposed developmental processes of self-beliefs and task-beliefs will be investigated using a longitudinal study design. Participants will be first-year students at universities of applied science. These students (1) will face a new subject matter during their initial phase at universities of applied sciences with which they will gain individual learning experience in the course of the research project and (2) many of them have out-of-school experience which corresponds to their subject of study, mostly from a previous occupation or internship. Participants will be asked to complete an online questionnaire with self-report measures at the time of enrollment, shortly before and about three months after the lectures start. Results will extend empirical findings with respect to the development of self-beliefs and task-beliefs beyond secondary education. Also, considering self-beliefs and task-beliefs as determinants of task choice, the present research project may contribute to research on why adults participate in education or not.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants