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To what do school leavers from secondary schools and Grade 12 students attribute their academic achievement? This book reports the findings of a doctoral research into female school leavers´ and Grade 12 students´ attributions for their academic achievement in secondary school at two research sites in Papua New Guinea. The study found that academic achievement in the study context is impeded and /or facilitated by internal and external factors. Internal impediments comprise three major factors: (1) psychological and/or emotional distresses they encountered whilst in school; (2) the nature of motivational goal orientations students pursued in academic settings and; (3) employment of ineffective learning strategies. External impediments comprise school factors and non- school factors. The factors facilitating academic achievement of Grade 12 students comprise: (1) the nature of their motivational goal orientations; (2) utilisation of self-regulatory learning strategies; and (3) the power of resilience.The external factors facilitating academic achievement comprise of school and non-school factors.

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About the Author: Dinah Dovona-Ope (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology, Guidance and Counselling at the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea.She recently graduated from the University of Southern Queensland where she undertook doctoral research for which she earned an award for excellence in her doctoral research.

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