Table 1.

Confirmatory factor analysis

Factors	Scale and items	Factor loading
Beliefs about “competitive” learning methods (α = .86) (M = 2.35, SD = 1.12)	Competition amongst pupils motivates them to work	.80
	Encouraging pupils to be better than others stimulates learning	.80
	Competition amongst pupils is a good way for them to work and learn	.86
Beliefs about “cooperative” learning methods (α = .70) (M = 6.03, SD = .80)	Mutual aid amongst pupils is a good means to work and learn	.75
	Cooperation amongst pupils motivates them to work better	.58
	Pupils learn a lot of important things from each other when they share their ideas and the means they have at their disposal	.63
Attitudes towards “competitive” learning methods (α = .82) (M = 1.88,SD = 1.06)	I wish that my pupils would work for better grades than the others	.64
	I wish that my pupils would seek to do better work than the others	.91
	I wish that my pupils would seek to be the best of the classroom	.81
Attitudes towards “cooperative” learning methods (α = .78) (M = 6.42, SD = .71)	I wish that my pupils would share their ideas and the means they dispose	.85
	I wish that my pupils would cooperate	.69
	I wish that my pupils would help each other during their learning process	.71

Standardised factor loadings for items measuring beliefs and attitudes regarding cooperative and competitive methods (Study 1)

All loadings were significant, p < .001