Motivation, Needs Support, and Language Arts Classroom Practices: Creation and Validation of a Measure of Young Adolescents’ Perceptions

Abstract

Early adolescence is a critical time for examining academic motivation, specifically motivation to read. To support self-determined motivation to read, students’ needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness must be met within the classroom context. Because classroom instructional practices are a key component of adolescents’ daily experiences in the classroom, research that investigates the influence of these practices on students’ intrinsic motivation to read is needed. In addition, the perceptions of students regarding the degree to which classroom instructional practices meet students’ needs as well as the influence of classroom instructional practices on students’ motivation to read should be considered. The field is lacking an established measure of early adolescents’ perceptions of classroom instructional practices and the degree to which they support students’ needs (i.e., competence, autonomy) and intrinsic motivation to read. This study, guided by self-determination theory, sought to address this gap in the literature by developing and validating a measure called the Language Arts Reading Practices Survey (LARPS). This measure assessed student perceptions of the degree to which classroom instructional practices in the language arts classroom support students’ needs for competence, autonomy, and students’ self-determined motivation to read. The results of this study provide preliminary support for the validity of the LARPS.