This study concentrates on two assumptions of a social-cognitive model outlining the development of academic emotions (emotions directly linked to learning, classroom instruction, and achievement), namely on their antecedents and domain-specific organization. Our sample consisted of 200 students from Grades 7 to 10. Proposed relationships concerning the antecedents of academic emotions were tested in the context of Latin language instruction. Correlational analyses substantiated our assumptions concerning the relationships between academic emotions, students' cognitions, and aspects of the social environment. The mediating mechanisms proposed in the model were also confirmed using linear structural equation modelling. Subjective control- and value-related cognitions were found to mediate the relationship between aspects of the social environment and students' emotional experience. Our results further suggest that academic emotions are largely organized along domain-specific lines, with the degree of domain specificity varying according to the emotion in question. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Private paid tutoring is one of the most common approaches of remedial instruction to improve school performance of poorly performing pupils. The expansion of private tutoring was affirmed in a study with 904 pupils in Luxembourg. 23% of the participants reported that they receive tutoring at present, mainly in the subject matter of Mathematics. Theoretical considerations suggest the effectiveness of private tutoring in promoting school performance by an improvement in cognitive and motivational variables and a higher amount of time spent on task. However, appropriate evaluation studies are lacking. In an empirical study the effectiveness of tutoring is evaluated in a prepost-control-group-design. One group (N=122) received private tutoring over a period of nine months and was compared to a nontutoring control group (N=122). These results indicate that receiving tutoring leads to a larger improvement in school performance and motivational variables. Directions for further research and practical implications are discussed.

The present longitudinal study examined the reliability of self-reported academic grades across three phases in four subject domains for a sample of 916 high-school students. Self-reported grades were found to be highly positively correlated with actual grades in all academic subjects and across grades 9 to 11 underscoring the reliability of self-reported grades as an achievement indicator. Reliability of self-reported grades was found to differ across subject areas (e.g., mathematics self-reports more reliable than language studies), with a slight yet consistent tendency to over-report achievement levels also observed across grade levels and academic subjects. Overall, the absolute value of over- and underreporting was low and these patterns were not found to differ between mathematics and verbal subjects. In sum, study findings demonstrate the consistent predictive utility of students’ self-reported achievement across grade levels and subject areas with the observed tendency to over-report academic grades and slight differences between domains nonetheless warranting consideration in future education research.

In the present study different school subject domains are investigated in order to detect differences and similarities between these domains. Concerning the characteristics of domains a questionnaire including 14 categories was adopted. The sample consisted of 1228 students (55 % female) in grade levels 8 (51 %) and 11. To investigate the empirical structure of the 7 subject domains under investigation with respect to its characteristics we used correspondence analysis as a dimension-reducing method. Results show that authentic teaching strongly differs across domains and that there are clusters of school subjects showing a similar profile. Further, we found little gender differences with respect to students' characterization of specific domains.

With the aim to deepen our understanding of the between-domain relations of academic emotions, a series of three studies was conducted. We theorized that between-domain relations of trait (i.e., habitual) emotions reflected students' judgments of domain similarities, whereas between-domain relations of state (i.e., momentary) emotions did not. This supposition was based on the accessibility model of emotional self-report, according to which individuals' beliefs tend to strongly impact trait, but not state emotions. The aim of Study 1 (interviews; N = 40; 8th and 11th graders) was to gather salient characteristics of academic domains from students' perspective. In Study 2 (N = 1709; 8th and 11th graders) the 13 characteristics identified in Study 1 were assessed along with academic emotions in four different domains (mathematics, physics, German, and English) using a questionnaire-based trait assessment. With respect to the same domains, state emotions were assessed in Study 3 (N = 121; 8th and 11th graders) by employing an experience sampling approach. In line with our initial assumptions, between-domain relations of trait but not state academic emotions reflected between-domain relations of domain characteristics. Implications for research and practice are discussed.