Pascal Bressoux

Errors are central to learning, yet little is known about how students’ sensitivity to errors relates to their motivation and perceived academic competence over time. The present study examined the directionality of links among error sensitivity, self-perceived academic ability, and achievement goals in a nationwide cohort of 10,163 French vocational education students (59% female) assessed over three waves spanning two academic years. Traditional cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs) and random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) were estimated separately for each of the 4 goals (mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance). CLPMs suggested reciprocal relations between error sensitivity and achievement goals. However, RI-CLPMs showed that error sensitivity, self-perceived academic ability, and all four achievement goals were strongly and positively associated only at the between-person level. At the within-person level, higher prior error sensitivity and self-perceived ability predicted modest subsequent increases in mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-approach goals, whereas these goals did not predict subsequent changes in error sensitivity or perceived ability. Performance-avoidance was predicted by neither error sensitivity nor perceived ability but predicted a small subsequent decrease in error sensitivity. Overall, error sensitivity emerged less as an outcome of achievement goals than as a potential precursor of subsequent goal striving. The distinct performance-avoidance pattern suggests that lower error sensitivity may not always indicate adaptive adjustment, but may reflect disengagement from threatening error-related information. Error sensitivity and perceived ability may serve as early indicators of students’ emerging goal orientations, with special attention paid to reduced error sensitivity, which may reflect both healthy coping or disengagement.

Preventing gender disparities in mathematics is a worldwide preoccupation^1,2. In infancy and early childhood, boys and girls exhibit similar core knowledge of number and space^3,4,5,6,7,8. Gender disparities in maths are, therefore, thought to primarily reflect an internalization of the sociocultural stereotype that ‘girls are bad at maths’. However, where, when and how widely this stereotype becomes entrenched remains uncertain. Here, we report the results of a 4-year longitudinal assessment of language and mathematical performance of all French first and second graders (2,653,082 children). Boys and girls exhibited very similar maths scores upon school entry, but a gender gap in favour of boys became highly significant after 4 months of schooling and reached an effect size of about 0.20 after 1 year. These findings were repeated each year and varied only slightly across family, class or school type and socio-economic level. Although schooling correlated with age, exploiting the near-orthogonal variations indicated that the gender gap increased with schooling rather than with age. These findings point to the first year of school as the time and place where a maths gender gap emerges in favour of boys, thus helping focus the search for solutions and interventions.