French undergraduates and academic errors: do implicit theories of intelligence and achievement goals impact students’ error beliefs and reactions?

• Mariyem Ahmida ^[1] ; Laure Léger ^[1] ; Fabien Fenouillet ^[1]
  1. [1] Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

     Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

     París, Francia

     
• Localización: European Journal of Psychology of Education, ISSN-e 1878-5174, ISSN 0256-2928, Vol. 40, Nº 4, 2025
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1007/s10212-025-01015-8
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Errors are an integral part of the learning process. How students perceive and respond to errors can either promote or hinder the development of their competencies and academic performances. This study examines implicit theories of intelligence and achievement goals as predictors of French undergraduate students’ error beliefs and reactions. A total of 451 psychology undergraduates (M = 18.82 years, SD = 2.67; 88% female) participated in the study that also validated error-related scales in French. The findings reveal that mastery-approach goals positively predict adaptive error beliefs and affective-motivational reactions. Both mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals predict adaptive action-related reactions, while avoidance goals (for mastery and performance) negatively influence affective-motivational reactions. Only mastery-avoidance goals negatively predicted error beliefs. Error beliefs mediated the relationship between achievement goals (mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-approach) and the two reactions to errors. The effect of incremental implicit theories of intelligence on error beliefs was marginal and they had no significant impact on reactions. Entity implicit theories of intelligence did not predict error beliefs or reactions nor did achievement goals mediate the relationship between implicit theories of intelligence and error beliefs. These findings underscore the critical role of achievement goals and error beliefs in designing interventions that support students in learning from their mistakes.

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