In spite of official intentions to reduce inequalities at University, students’ socio-economic status (SES) is still a major determinant of academic success. The literature on the dual function of University suggests that University serves not only an educational function (i.e., to improve students’ learning), but also a selection function (i.e., to compare people, and orient them towards different positions in society). Because current assessment practices focus on the selection more than on the educational function, their characteristics fit better with norms and values shared by dominant high-status groups and may favour high-SES students over low-SES students in terms of performances. A focus on the educational function (i.e., mastery goals), instead, may support low-SES students’ achievement, but empirical evidence is currently lacking. The present research set out to provide such evidence and tested, in two field studies and a randomised field experiment, the hypothesis that focusing on University’s educational function rather than on its selection function may reduce the SES achievement gap. Results showed that a focus on learning, mastery-oriented goals in the assessment process reduced the SES achievement gap at University. For the first time, empirical data support the idea that low-SES students can perform as well as high-SES students if they are led to understand assessment as part of the learning process, a way to reach mastery goals, rather than as a way to compare students to each other and select the best of them, resulting in performance goals. This research thus provides a theoretical framework to understand the differential effects of assessment on the achievement of high and low-SES students, and paves the way toward the implementation of novel, theory-driven interventions to reduce the SES-based achievement gap at University.

This study examined group processes in a synchronous context and their effects on performance, assuming that these processes would be strongly dependent on the salience of social identity. It was predicted that the mere categorization of students into an online group and comparison with other groups, 2 basic conditions related to social identity, would enhance group identification, interaction patterns, and group performance in a relatively complex academic task. As predicted, the categorization manipulation enhanced group identification and increased task-and morale-building communication. It was not related to performance. These findings invite a more thorough examination of the impact of social identity on the building of a sense of online community at the early stage of a learning process.

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Abundant research has shown that the endorsement of performance-avoidance goals in academic contexts is associated with negative outcomes, including poor academic achievement. The present study tests students' social class as a moderator of the relationship between performance-avoidance goals and achievement. Two hundred thirty students (106 lower-class students and 124 upper-class students, Mage = 18.57, SD = 1.28) were asked to report the highest academic degree obtained by their mother and father and complete a performance-avoidance goal scale. Participants' initial academic level was measured. In addition, depending on the condition, they were led to believe they had great (vs. poor) chances to succeed at the university. They then solved Advanced Progressive Matrices measuring their achievement. As expected, performance-avoidance goals negatively predicted achievement only for lower-class students, and this moderation mainly appeared for high academic achievers. The manipulation of the success vs. failure expectancies did not moderate the effect. These results confirm that the adoption of performanceavoidance goals would be especially deleterious for lower-class students who succeed, supporting an interpretation in terms of the upward mobility process lower-class students achieve when succeeding in higher education.

Recent research has shown that lower social class students are more likely to endorse performance-avoidance goals (i.e., the fear of performing poorly) than higher-class students, particularly in situations of success (Jury, Smeding, Court & Darnon, 2015). The purpose of the present research is, first, to test the upward mobility process as a moderator of the link between social class and performance-avoidance goal endorsement. The second aim is to document the further impact of this process on academic performance. Two hundred and fifteen high school students (Mage = 17.40, SD = 0.69) participated in the experiment. Half of them were randomly assigned to a "mobility salience" condition where they completed a mobility perception scale; while the other half completed a neutral scale. Then, they answered performance-avoidance goal items and solved mathematics, physics and life and earth sciences exercises. Results indicated that the salience of the mobility process increased the effect of social class on both performance-avoidance goal endorsement and mathematic performance. In addition, performance-avoidance goals appeared to be a mediator of the interaction effect between social class and the salience of the mobility process on mathematics performance. No such findings were obtained for physics and life and earth sciences. Taken together, these results support the idea that the prospect of experiencing mobility may be one of the mechanisms behind the difficulties encountered by lower-class students in an academic context.