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Background Collaboration is an ABET accreditation required component of the engineering curriculum. Research has shown that collaborative learning positively influences student achievement. The relationship between motivation, collaborative learning strategies, and achievement is not well studied in an engineering education context. Purpose(Hypothesis) A set of hypotheses were tested that predicted positive relationships between students' self‐reported informal collaboration, self‐efficacy for learning course material, knowledge building behaviors, and course grade. A second set of hypotheses were tested that predicted gender similarities in reported self‐efficacy, and gender differences in reported collaborative learning activities. Design/Method One hundred fifty engineering students were surveyed for study 1 and 513 students were surveyed for study 2. Bivariate correlations were completed to examine relationship between study variables; multiple regression analysis was completed to examine predictive ability of variables on course grade; MANOVA was completed to examine multivariate relationship between variables. Results In study 1, students' reported use of collaborative learning strategies and reported self‐efficacy for learning course material were significantly predictive of their course grade. In study 2, female students reported greater use of collaboration as a learning strategy than their male classmates; among male and female students combined, those who received “B's” in their engineering course reported more collaboration than their peers who received “A's” or “C's” and lower. Conclusion Overall, students' self reported collaborative learning strategies were associated with increased self‐efficacy for learning course material and course grade, particularly for students who received “B's” in the course. Female students reported greater use of collaborative learning strategies than their male peers.

In this article we first describe a broad multilevel framework representing the determinants of human behavior and consider its advantages. Expanding on the upper part of this framework, we then propose the Multilevel Personality in Context (MPIC) model, showing how it integrates and extends past theorizing on the hierarchical organization of personality. The model builds upon McAdams's three-tier (traits, goals, and selves) conception of personality, adding a foundational level (psychological needs) beneath individual differences and incorporating social relations and cultural factors as higher level influences upon behavior and individual differences. New data (N = 3,665 in 21 cultures) are briefly presented showing that culture, self, motive, and trait variables each have independent effects upon subjective well-being (SWB) and showing that psychological need satisfaction (at the foundational level) mediates these effects as predicted. Consistent with McAdams and Pals's (2006) "fifth principle" of personality, culture had top-down effects upon self-level variables and moderated several of the relations to SWB. We conclude by suggesting some general heuristics for designing studies using the MPIC approach.

The purpose of this work is to provide an overview of complex systems research for educational psychologists. We outline a philosophically and theoretically sourced definition of complex systems research organized around complex, dynamic, and emergent ontological characteristics that is useful and appropriate for educational psychology. A complex systems approach is positioned as a means to align underexplored elements of existing theory with appropriate interaction dominant theoretical models, research methods, and equation-based analytic techniques. We conclude with a brief discussion of several foundational topics for complex systems research in educational psychology.