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International students arriving in New Zealand must acculturate to studying in a new academic environment. This article evaluates graduate and postgraduate level international students' perceptions of their home and host environments and the benefits of offering an academic preparation course to support international students' sense of academic self-efficacy. The data were collected using quantitative surveys, including a pre-post design with a control group. The findings highlight notable differences in many students' host and home country academic environments, and how international students' sense of academic self-efficacy tends to reduce at the commencement of their academic journey in New Zealand. However, participation in an academic preparation course may be able to minimize this decline. Hence, the academic adjustment of international students should be increasingly perceived as a joint responsibility of both students and education providers, highlighting the need for institutional adjustments in a form of relevant academic support services.

Despite the significant economic and social transformation, students from rural China continue to remain at significant risk of early school leaving. Little research has addressed the jointly protective roles of family and school resources as well as children's sense of capability that may increase the likelihood of remaining in school. Data are drawn from the first two waves of a national probability sample of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) collected in 2010 and 2012, including households with youth aged 10–15 in 2010 living in rural areas (n = 1503). The results of logistic regression models predicting the likelihood of remaining in school during transition phases of secondary schooling highlight the importance of academic self-efficacy and social capital generated through youth peer networks. Given the severe negative consequences of not finishing secondary school for young people, especially during the later stage of economic transition unfolding in China, findings from this study contribute to an enhanced understanding of the "pull" factors that avert early school leaving. The study offers insight into the design of future low-cost targeted intervention strategies in rural China which could be applied to other middle-income countries.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar a autoeficácia de alunos da Educação de Jovens e Adultos do segundo ciclo do Ensino Fundamental e do Ensino Médio. Participaram 50 alunos de ambos os sexos, que cursavam o Telecurso 2000, de uma cidade do Estado de São Paulo. O instrumento utilizado para coleta de dados foi uma escala especificamente construída para esse fim e que avalia a percepção do estudante quanto ao próprio desempenho acadêmico e o quanto se sente capaz de realizar tarefas escolares. O teste de Mann-Whitney U revelou não existirem diferenças significativas entre a autoeficácia declarada dos estudantes, dos dois níveis de ensino para o estudo, para o desempenho e para a autoeficácia geral. Com relação ao sexo, independente do nível de ensino cursado, o teste revelou que as diferenças também não foram significativas para nenhuma das medidas de autoeficácia.

We examined the effects of teachers' classroom assessment practices and students' perceptions of assessment tasks on students' academic self-efficacy beliefs as 1 dimension of student academic motivation. Participants (N = 1,457) were students sourced from 99 classrooms of public
secondary schools in Oman. Results of multilevel analysis showed that student academic self-efficacy beliefs were significantly and positively influenced by students' perceptions of the assessment tasks. Specifically, congruence with planned learning, authenticity, transparency, and diversity
all had significant positive influences on self-efficacy beliefs, as did frequent communication by the teacher about the assessment with students and teachers' frequent use of nonachievement grading factors. Implications are discussed for classroom practices and research related to classroom
assessment.

Abstract
This study investigated the moderating role of intrinsic motivation for military studies on the relationship between academic self-efficacy and change in perceived military competence. We present two concurrent hypotheses based on theoretical interaction effects of intrinsic motivation. Data from 245 cadets from three military academies revealed a positive relationship between self-efficacy and an increase in perceived military competence only for cadets with lower levels of intrinsic motivation. This suggests that, with lower intrinsic motivation, beliefs about one's capabilities to organize and take courses of action to attain certain goals may make a crucial difference in cadets' compliance to exert effort to increase their military competence. In contrast, self-efficacy seems less important for increased perception of military competence in cadets with higher intrinsic motivation. These cadets probably increase their military competence mainly as a result of the pleasure they gain when engaging in educational activities. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

(1) Background: New migratory flows taking place in Europe and the USA are categorised by a huge arrival of unaccompanied foreign minors (UFM), requiring appropriate attention to schooling in order to guarantee their integration. In facing this situation, the various political and educational administrations of the European Union (EU) have promoted an action plan for schools. Despite this, it has been shown that schooling does not totally guarantee social integration, encouraging the development of a new social model to generate new ways of understanding the learning process. (2) Methods: The aim of the present study is to adapt and validate Bandura&rsquo ; s academic self-efficacy scale (2006) within a sample of UFM. This scale is composed of 18 items distributed according to three underlying constructs. (3) Results: The validation analysis consisted of an exploratory factorial analysis using principal component analysis with varimax rotation, followed by confirmatory factorial analysis using structural equations (root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.052 ; normalised fit index (NFI) = 0.90 ; incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.91 ; confirmatory fit index (CFI) = 0.91). Reliability and internal consistency of the instrument was also tested with values being higher than 0.7 for all dimensions. (4) Conclusions: The final instrument was reduced to 12 items which were grouped into three dimensions (effort, self-confidence and understanding). Finally, the conducted multi-group analysis showed a stronger relationship between understanding, self-confidence and effort within UFM who had resided in Spain for a longer time. This could be linked to the more prolonged schooling process received.

(1) Background: New migratory flows taking place in Europe and the USA are categorised by a huge arrival of unaccompanied foreign minors (UFM), requiring appropriate attention to schooling in order to guarantee their integration. In facing this situation, the various political and educational administrations of the European Union (EU) have promoted an action plan for schools. Despite this, it has been shown that schooling does not totally guarantee social integration, encouraging the development of a new social model to generate new ways of understanding the learning process. (2) Methods: The aim of the present study is to adapt and validate Bandura's academic self-efficacy scale (2006) within a sample of UFM. This scale is composed of 18 items distributed according to three underlying constructs. (3) Results: The validation analysis consisted of an exploratory factorial analysis using principal component analysis with varimax rotation, followed by confirmatory factorial analysis using structural equations (root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.052; normalised fit index (NFI) = 0.90; incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.91; confirmatory fit index (CFI) = 0.91). Reliability and internal consistency of the instrument was also tested with values being higher than 0.7 for all dimensions. (4) Conclusions: The final instrument was reduced to 12 items which were grouped into three dimensions (effort, self-confidence and understanding). Finally, the conducted multi-group analysis showed a stronger relationship between understanding, self-confidence and effort within UFM who had resided in Spain for a longer time. This could be linked to the more prolonged schooling process received. ; National research project: "Modelos de aprendizaje para la intervencion educativa con MENAS. Herramientas eficaces para la integracion escolar y social" [Learning models for educational intervention with MENAS. Effective tools for school and social integra EDU2017-88641-R ; "Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades. Gobierno de Espana" [Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Spanish Government] ; "Unidad de Excelencia de la Universidad de Granada (UGR): Desigualdad, Derechos Humanos y Sostenibilidad (DEHUSO)" [Unit of Excellence of the University of Granada (UGR): Inequality, Human Rights and Sustainability]

The present study sought to examine the relationship between Chinese high school students' academic self-efficacy and their academic-related boredom. Another objective was to explore the moderating effects of mono-amine-oxidase type A ( MAOA) gene polymorphism on this relationship. In a sample of 514 Chinese high school students, we measured their academic self-efficacy and academic-related boredom from Grades 10 to 12. In addition, we collected their DNA. Data were analyzed by using a linear mixture model. The results indicated that students' academic self-efficacy negatively predicted their academic-related boredom. The relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic-related boredom was more reliable for students with the 3-repeat allele than for the students with the 4-repeat allele. The findings suggested that the functional polymorphism of MAOA gene moderated the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic-related boredom.