Abstracts - Earli

about their own grade retention decisions made at the end of the school year preceding theinterview. We chose 11 Genevan primary school teachers in 1994 and 16 in 2006, 15 Belgianprimary school teachers, and 18 Malagasy teachers. Our analysis shows a general uniformity ofteachers’ conceptions. Despite the specificities of malnutrition, families’ poverty, overcrowdedclassrooms in Madagascar, we observe common tendencies concerning: Maturation, socioculturalenvironment, psychological state and readiness. Further, the relative weight of grades in thedecision-making and the tendency to the external allocation of school failure are confirmed inthese three countries but with shade of meaning. Finally, from a methodological viewpoint, ouranalysis accounts for possible bias of these interviews, in particular concerning the Malagasy data.A 2028 August 2007 15:00 - 17:00Room: 0.79 JánossySymposiumAcademic success: contributions of various theoretical and empiricalapproachesChair: Mariane Frenay, University Catholic of Louvain, BelgiumOrganiser: Mariane Frenay, University Catholic of Louvain, BelgiumOrganiser: Sandrine Neuville, University Catholic of Louvain, BelgiumDiscussant: Chris A. Wolters, University of Houston, USAFor decades, students’ academic achievement in postsecondary education, also referred to asstudents’ achievement behaviours, has preoccupied psychological and educational researchers.Historically, student’ social characteristics (i.e., ethnic background, gender, socioeconomic status)and academic background (i.e., previous ability, test-scores, grade-repeating history) have been theonly variables that were used to predict academic achievement (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).Nearly 30 years ago, researchers became aware of the necessity to consider other dimensions aswell in order to have a fuller understanding of the process leading students to success versusfailure in their studies (Farsides & Woodfield, 2003, Gloria & Ho, 2003; Lee & Burkam, 2003).The aim of this symposium is to discuss different theoretical models focusing on academic successin order to enhance the understanding of their specific contribution. Paper one investigates theextent to which different factors (attitudes, beliefs, expectations, skills…) influence students’choice - which is important for academic engagement - to make career decisions while in school.Paper twois interested in the study orientations of student teachers. The two research questions are:1) What kinds of study orientations will be discovered among the students attending a course ineducational psychology? 2) What variables predict the learning outcomes? Paper three focuses onthe link between students’ Future Time Perspective (FTP) and self-regulatory strategy use, whichis positively related to academic success (Bell & Kozlowski, 2002; Zimmerman, 2000). Morespecifically, effects of students’ dispositional tendencies to make connections between the presentand the future (dispositional aspect of FTP) and effects of the actual instrumentality of an activity(situational aspect of FTP) are investigated. The purpose of paper four is to confront theexplanatory power of two literatures concerning students’ academic performance: on the one hand,Tinto’s academic and social integration model and on the other hand, expectancy-value paradigm.– 59 –