The motivation of students facing failure who experienced an alternative to grade repetition
This study assesses the results of a grade-cycle extension course, as an alternative to repeating a grade, on the motivation to learn. The course was taken by students lacking the requisites to move on to the second cycle of secondary school. The students under study were compared with peers of the same age who graduated to the next grade, with respect to their expectations of success and the value they assigned to learning, both in a general sense and more specifically regarding French and mathematics. The results of the variance analysis indicate that this measure had a slightly favourable effect on sense of academic competence in general, as well as French learning in particular. The measure thus appears to be associated with less negative consequences than grade repetition, at least in terms of expectations of success.