Bored to Be Wild: How Boredom Is Related to Pre-Service Teachers’ Intention to Persist in Their Studies

Boredom is an emotion that often arises in an educational context. Past research suggests that boredom depends on specific cognitive appraisals, such as how people can control the task and how much they value it. Research further suggests that boredom is related to negative academic outcomes such as lower grades and a higher risk of dropping out. Here, we tested a mediation model on 324 pre-service teachers during the first lockdown of 2020 in Switzerland to assess (1) how control and value predicted boredom, and (2) how boredom was related to the intention to persist at university. We hypothesized that (1) the more participants felt lacking in control and low in value, the higher their boredom and (2) the more intense their boredom, the lower their intention to persist. We further hypothesized that both control and value would be positively related to the intention to persist, and this link may be mediated by boredom. Our results provide partial support for our mediation model as we found a significant indirect link between control and intention to persist through boredom. More specifically, the more participants lost control over their studies, the more they felt bored, which in turn was negatively related to their intention to persist.

Methodological intervention with soccer coaches to improve athlete-perceived coaching competency, satisfaction with the coach, enjoyment and intention to persist

Objectives The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of a coaching intervention on soccer athletes’ perceptions of the coaches’ competencies, enjoyment, satisfaction, and intention to persist in the sport. Equipment and methods: The sample consisted of 117 young male soccer players and eight of their coaches who were divided into two groups: group receiving the coaching effectiveness intervention (EG) ( n = 4; Mage = 32.50 years, SD = 14.24) with an average of 3.00 years of training experience ( SD = 2.44); and control group (CG) ( n = 4; Mage = 28.50 years, SD = 13.67) with an average of 6.25 years of training experience ( SD = 2.87), and their 117 young male soccer players from 45 teams, aged between 10 and 16 years ( Mage = 13.78, SD = 1.38). Focused on coach-effectiveness, coaches from EG received a 12-hour training program. Self-report questionnaires were administered to the athletes both at the beginning and the end of the intervention. A repeated-measures ANOVA was carried out for each dependent variable. Results The results showed significant changes in coaches’ game strategy competency, technique competency, and character-building competency as perceived by the players from the EG compared with the players from the CG. Also, both the CG and the EG athletes decreased their satisfaction with the coach. Thus, these types of interventions are effective for improving and maintaining over time variables related to athletes’ perception of their coaches’ competency, their own enjoyment, and intention to persist practicing sports.

Factors Influencing Future Music Participation: A Review of Literature Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been employed as a theoretical framework that predicts and explains an individual’s intention to engage in a certain behavior. The TPB postulates that an individual’s behavior is influenced by behavioral intentions, and behavioral intentions are caused by three distinct factors: attitude toward behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control. To holistically understand factors influencing students’ intentions for continued music participation, this article examines music education studies focused on various factors related to student intention to persist in music based on the TPB. This review of literature will support researchers in determining the direction of future investigation of students’ intentions for continued engagement in music. Furthermore, understanding and documenting these factors in student intention could aid music educators in creating teaching strategies focused on increasing student continuation in musical activities.

I Need Somebody to Lean on

In the literature, social support is depicted as an important determinant of whether someone completes their doctoral process. However, few studies actually test the impact of social support in sound quantitative designs. The present study provides an incremental understanding of the social support effect by (a) assessing the joint influence of three sources of social support (supervisor, academic peers, and relatives) on the emotions of doctoral students, their perceived progress and intention to persist; and (b) testing the interactions between these three sources of support and the doctoral stage of advancement. To this end, we carried out a longitudinal three-wave study with 446 doctoral students from two Belgian universities. The hierarchical regressions showed that (1) only supervisor support significantly predicted the outcomes of doctoral students and (2) the influence of social support on intention to persist was moderated by the stage of advancement in the doctoral journey. We discuss these results and their implications for further work on social support in light of existing literature on doctoral persistence.

Food Network’s food-career frenzy? An examination of students’ motivations to attend culinary school

This research presents the findings of a year long study, undertaken between 2016 and 2017, seeking to understand the degree to which students are influenced to attend culinary school by food medias, social media, and the Food Network. The notion that food medias draw the majority of new cooks to the industry is often present in popular media discourses, although no data exists seeking to understand this relationship. This study reveals that food medias play a secondary or tertiary role in influencing students to register at culinary school, while also showing previously unknown patterns related to culinary students’ intention to persist with culinary careers. Nearly 40 percent of this sample do not intend to remain cooking professionally for greater than five years, and about 30 percent are “keeping other doors open” upon entry into culinary school. Although food celebrity certainly plays a role in awareness about culinary careers, intrinsic career aspirations are the most frequently reported motivation.

Providing Freshmen with a Good “Starting-Block”

Grounded in social-psychological literature, this experimental study assessed the effects of two so-called “wise” interventions implemented in a student study program. The interventions took place during the very first week at university, a presumed pivotal phase of transition. A group of 375 freshmen in psychology were randomly assigned to three conditions: control, social belonging, and self-affirmation. Following the intervention, students in the social-belonging condition expressed less social apprehension, a higher social integration, and a stronger intention to persist one month later than the other participants. They also relied more on peers as a source of support when confronted with a study task. Students in the self-affirmation condition felt more self-affirmed at the end of the intervention but didn’t benefit from other lasting effects. The results suggest that some well-timed and well-targeted “wise” interventions could provide lasting positive consequences for student adjustment. The respective merits of social-belonging and self-affirmation interventions are also discussed.