Social value of causal explanations in educational settings: pupils' self-presentation and teachers' representations

Social value of causal explanations in educational settings: Pupils' self-presentation and teachers' representations. Two studies using the self-presentation paradigm and the identification paradigm were conducted on 3rd grade pupils and their teachers. In both studies, pupils (N = 1162) answered an internality questionnaire about scholastic outcomes according to three self-presentation instructions: Spontaneous, pro-normative and counter-normative. In the second study, teachers (N = 32) answered the same questionnaire by imagining the answers given by an «ideal pupil» versus a «non-ideal pupil» (identification paradigm). Results showed, for both pupils and teachers, that internal explanations were globally valued. But effort-based explanations were more valued than the other types of internal (ability) or external (task and luck) explanations.