Ce travail de thèse ambitionne d’identifier les processus psycho-sociaux impliqués dans le processus de mobilité ascendante. Plus précisément, nous testons dans quelle mesure le processus de mobilité que vivent les étudiants de basse classe sociale peut les amener à adopter des buts de performance-évitement (i.e., peur d’échouer), susceptible d’impacter par la suite négativement leurs performances. Dans la première étude, le lien entre les buts de performance-évitement et la performance a été testé chez les étudiants de basse et de haute classe sociale. Les résultats ont montré que l’adoption des buts de performance-évitement prédisait négativement les performances des étudiants de basse classe sociale (pas celle des étudiants de haute classe sociale) et en particulier s’ils ont de bons résultats académiques (i.e., qu’ils sont susceptibles de vivre une expérience de mobilité). Le but de la deuxième étude était de tester le rôle du processus de mobilité en tant que médiateur du lien entre la classe sociale et l’adoption de buts performance-évitement. Les résultats ont montré que c’est parce que les étudiants de basse classe sociale se sentent en mobilité ascendante, qu’ils adoptent plus de buts de performance-évitement que leurs homologues de haute classe sociale. Enfin, dans les 3 dernières études (études 3a, 3b et 3c), le processus de mobilité a été manipulé afin d’étudier son impact sur l’adoption de buts de performance-évitement et les performances des lycéens. Les résultats de l’étude 3a ont montré que chez les élèves de basse classe sociale, la saillance du processus de mobilité a augmenté l’adoption de buts de performance-évitement et a diminué les performances en mathématiques. Par ailleurs, les buts de performance-évitement semblent être un médiateur de l’effet d’interaction entre la classe sociale et la saillance du processus de mobilité sur les performances en mathématiques, bien que cet effet ne soit pas répliqué dans les études 3b et 3c. Les résultats de la méta-analyse, réalisée sur ces 3 dernières études, tendent à confirmer ces résultats. Dans l’ensemble, ces résultats s’accordent pour dire que la crainte du processus de mobilité serait l’un des mécanismes à l’origine des difficultés rencontrées par les élèves/étudiants de basse classe sociale en contexte académique et susceptibles d’expliquer, ensuite, leurs moindres performances. / This thesis aims to identify psychological processes involved in the upward mobility process. More specifically, we tested in what extent mobility process experienced by lower-class students can lead them to adopt performance-avoidance goals (i.e., fear of failure), which may subsequently negatively impact their performances. In the first study, the link between performance-avoidance goals and performances was tested among lower and higher-class students. The results showed that the adoption of performance-avoidance goals negatively predicted performance of lower-class students (not that of higher-class students) and particuarly if they had good academic results (i.e., more likely to live a mobility experience). The purpose of the second study was to test the role of mobility process as a mediator of the link between social class and the adoption of performance-avoidance goals among lower and higher-class students. The results of this study showed that it is because lower-class students experience upward mobility that they adopt more performance-avoidance goals than their higher-class counterparts. Finally, in the 3 latest studies (studies 3a, 3b and 3c), we tested the impact of mobility process on the adoption of performance-avoidance goals and of high school students’ performances. The results of study 3a showed that within lower-class high school students, the salience of the mobility process increased the adoption of performance-avoidance goals and reduced performances in Mathematics. Moreover, performance-avoidance goals seem to be a mediator of the interaction between social class and salience of the mobility process on mathematics performances, although this effect is not replicated in studies 3b and 3c. The results of the meta-analysis carried out on these last three studies, tend to confirm this assumption. Overall, these results highlight that fear of mobility process would be a mechanism behind the difficulties faced by high school students/students of low social class in academic context to explain, then, their least performances.

The purpose of this study was: (a) to examine the predictive utility of the achievement goal and Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) frameworks for characterizing Chinese students’ motivation and achievement, and (b) to investigate how Confucian-heritage culture (CHC) may combine with achievement goals or SAL to generate different learning processes and outcomes and to promote optimal motivation. A questionnaire was conducted during a two-week period with over 700 first-year students who took both of the two courses—college English classes for non-English majors and advanced mathematics classes for science students—at a university in northern China. The questionnaire consisted of students’ self-reported demographic information and the instrument that was designed to measure: (a) goal orientations, (b) attitudes towards the specified CHC values, (c) SAL constructs, and (d) two variables widely used in research in this field—metacognitive strategy and school well-being. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted to examine the consistency of the extracted factor solutions with the four goal constructs postulated by the 2 x 2 conceptualization, the two SAL contructs posited by the SAL framework, and the five cultural value contructs derived from the literature review. Standard analysis procedures were used to calculate the reliability of the scales and to determine which items should be retained for further analyses. Then regression analyses were employed to examine the relationship of the goal orientation framework and SAL framework to cultural values, school well-being, metacognitive strategies, and grades. Results indicated that the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework was an appropriate model for characterizing the types of achievement goals these Chinese students pursued and for predicting a number of achievement-relevant processes and outcomes, as was the revised two-factor SAL framework for characterizing the different ways students approached their learning and for predicting these learning processes and outcomes. The results supported Chinese students’ multiple goal pursuit in an additive goal pattern, an interactive goal pattern, or a specialized goal pattern to promote their optimal motivation and achievement. The results also provided evidence that CHC values combined with achievement goals or SAL either in an additive or interactive pattern to facilitate Chinese students’ learning processes and outcomes. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-07-31 12:20:50.812