Development of learning to learn competence across secondary education and its association with attainment in Finnish/Swedish high-stake exit exam

The Finnish Learning to learn framework comprises cognitive competencies and motivational beliefs, which both have shown to be associated with academic success in different educational settings. However, studies of the stability and development of these constructs across six year long secondary education are scarce. In addition, this study investigates the predictive power of learning to learn constructs on achievement in the high-stakes Finnish matriculation examination. Following a sample of Finnish students (N = 2712, 55 % girls, aged 13-19) from lower secondary to general upper secondary education, this study found that Finnish the learning to learn construct and the relations between its components hold rather stable over the years. However, while cognitive competence improves and shows strong rank order stability during adolescence, learning-enhancing motivational beliefs show a downward trajectory and detrimental-to-learning beliefs somewhat opposite one, found in other studies. Gender differences were found in both students' motivational beliefs and in in their achievement in the matriculation examination. The role of motivational beliefs, especially effort belief, becomes stronger when adolescents grow older and advance on their educational path.