Abstract
115 Italian and French teachers of high school and junior high school participated in a study aimed at investigating the impact of causal attribution on judgments of responsibility in case of academic failure of their pupils. Results support the attribution theory as conceptualized by Weiner (1986, 1995) and confirm the predictive utility of the theoretical model in Italian and French schools: Effort causal attribution of failure give rise to punitive strategies and ascription of responsibility to the pupils. The data therefore document cross-cultural differences concerning the responsibility ascription and behavioral consequences in terms of student’s assessment. Results are also discussed in terms of the role of social norms in school context.
Résumé
115 enseignants italiens et français ont participé a un étude ayant pour objectif d’examiner l’impact des attributions causales de l’échec sur leurs jugements de responsabilité et leurs prédictions de réussite à propos d’élèves qu’ils connaissent. Les résultats tendent à supporter le modèle du jugement de responsabilité avancé par Weiner (1986, 1995): aussi bien en Italie qu’en France, l’attribution de l’échec au manque d’effort entraîne une prédiction moins positive qu’une attribution au manque de capacités, et une attribution de la responsabilité de l’échec à l’élèves. Les résultats sont interprétés en terme de rôle des normes sociales dans le contexte scolaire.
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This research was supported financially in part by MURST “University funds, 2001 (Ex. 60%), under the title “Attribuzione di causalità e giudizi di responsabilità nel contesto scolastico”.
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Matteucci, M.C., Gosling, P. Italian and French teachers faced with pupil’s Academic Failure: The “Norm of Effort”. Eur J Psychol Educ 19, 147–166 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173229
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173229