Abstract
This article suggests that, as the Malawian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology continues to advocate for educational access, equity and quality, aspects of educational psychology may be particularly important to consider in context. It presents and discusses research conducted in June and July 2004. The key research concepts (theories of intelligence, goal orientation, attribution to setback, and confidence) are briefly introduced, and then, the study's objectives, methods and findings are each discussed in turn. The research objectives included: (i) examination of the relation between particular Malawian students' theories of intelligence and their goals and attributions in response to academic setback; (ii) examination of gender differences in students' theories of intelligence, goals, setback attributions, and confidence levels; and (iii) exploration of the variables mentioned as possible predictors of students' 2004 examination scores (controlling for student demographics and prior academic performance). In order to reach these aims, a survey was administered to 284 Malawian students attending Malawi Education Support Activity (MESA) schools. Test scores were collected from ‘progress books,’ and quantitative data were supplemented by semi-structured interviews with key informants. Students' theories of intelligence were found to be associated with their goals and setback attributions, but not with their confidence levels. Females were significantly more likely than males to hold entity theories of intelligence, to have dominant performance goals, and to attribute academic setback to lack of intelligence. Male students reported moderately higher confidence than females. Regression analysis revealed ‘learning goal’ to significantly predict test scores. The findings suggest that student theories, goals, and attributions warrant further research and school community attention. In addition, the findings encourage questions concerning the cross-cultural applicability of certain educational psychology theories. In conclusion, this article recognises the need to understand cross-cultural differences in educational psychology, yet raises questions by identifying potential similarities between previous findings from the United States, United Kingdom, and Hong Kong and the study at hand.