LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING-ACTIVITY - MOTIVATIONAL, COGNITIVE,AND SOCIAL-INTERACTION

Recent research on school learning has dealt only with cognitive aspec ts of the student activity. However, in typical learning and performan ce situations, the student is expected to cope with complex social and emotional challenges. We developed a theoretical model that describes typical patterns of coping strategies that students use in school sit uations. The dominating tendency of some students in school situations is task orientation. Such students are oriented to interpret and fulf ill the demands of learning tasks. In contrast, other students are sen sitive to the threat of failure and show ego-oriented coping strategie s. A third group of students relies on social-dependence coping. Orien tation tendencies originate in classroom situations, but are then cont inuously reproduced and reinforced in similar teaching interactions. A multimethod approach was used to test this theoretical model. Longitu dinal case studies have demonstrated the cumulation and reinforcement processes of coping tendencies in teaching interactions. Classroom int eraction studies have provided evidence of the strong interaction betw een cognitive processes and socioemotional orientation. Finally, inter vention studies have shown that, to improve the use of cognitive strat egies, coping strategies also have to be changed.