Control-value Theory Research Articles

Emotions and motivation in mathematics education: Where we are today and where we need to go

Emotions and motivation are important for learning and achievement in mathematics. In this paper, we present an overview of research on students’ emotions and motivation in mathematics. First, we briefly review how early research has developed into the current state-of-the-art and outline the following key characteristics of emotions and motivation: objects, valence, temporal stability (vs. variability), and situational specificity (vs. generality). Second, we summarize major theories in the field (the control-value theory of achievement emotions, expectancy-value theory of achievement-related motivation, self-determination theory of human motivation, and social-cognitive theory of self-efficacy). Third, we present an overview of instructional characteristics that have been shown to foster emotions and motivation. Fourth, we provide an overview of the contributions to the special issue on “Emotions and Motivation in Mathematics Education and Educational Psychology.” Finally, we suggest directions for future research in the field with respect to advancing theory, improving measurement, and considering diversity and inclusion.

Applying control-value theory for examining multiple emotions in L2 classrooms: Validating the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire – Second Language Learning

This study used Pekrun’s control-value theory (CVT) as a framework to validate the Achievement Emotion Questionnaire – Second Language Learning (AEQ-L2L) for assessing eight student emotions in second language (L2) learning. We tested and validated the instrument in two samples using three waves of data, with a total number of 1,021 Chinese university students. Item and scale statistics indicate the AEQ-L2L is reliable. Moreover, single- and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis supported the hierarchical four-factor component structure of L2 emotions in and across the two student groups. Furthermore, multi-model comparison indicated that language emotions are best represented by considering both the distinctiveness of the eight examined emotions and their component structure. Finally, latent correlation analysis demonstrated the external validity of the AEQ-L2L in terms of linkages with appraisals, motivation and language achievement. Findings are discussed by highlighting the unique value of the AEQ-L2L for investigating a broad range of emotions in language education.

How does interactive virtual reality enhance learning outcomes via emotional experiences? A structural equation modeling approach.

Interest in interactive virtual reality (IVR) is increasing due to its potential for embodied learning and group-led teaching. However, few studies have investigated the internal mechanism by which IVR technology features and learning experiences affect learning outcomes in terms of psychological and emotional value. Based on media technology models and the control value theory of achievement emotions (CVTAE), this study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the correlations among the internal elements of IVR technology features, learning experiences, and learning outcomes. It also emphasizes the role played by emotional experience in this context. The sample referenced by this study consisted of 480 college students (193 males) who were simultaneously engaged in guided inquiry and learning in an IVR-based COVID-19 pandemic science museum in groups of 10. The findings suggest that presence and perceived enjoyment have a key mediating effect on the relationship between virtual reality (VR) features and perceived learning outcomes in an IVR-based learning simulation. In addition, the results indicate that presence is more strongly correlated with perceived learning effects, while enjoyment is more strongly correlated with learning satisfaction. These findings provide intellectual support and theoretical backing for VR-based instructional design and environmental development. Moreover, this study has practical value with regard to the future large-scale application of IVR to experiential teaching, group-led teaching, and the promotion of the digital transformation and intelligence upgrading in education.

The role of Academic Boredom in Affecting Chinese Secondary School Students EFL Proficiency: A Mediation analysis of Organizational Strategies

Drawing upon the control-value theory (CVT), various subject domains have explored the relationship and mediating mechanism between academic boredom and academic achievement. However, few studies have explored the potential mediating effect of cognitive strategies in the association between academic boredom and achievement, especially intheEnglish as a foreign language (EFL) learning context. A sample of 524 Chinese secondary EFL learners from one middle school using convenience sampling participated in the study. Results of structural equation modelling (SEM) analyses and mediation analysis indicated that organizational strategies partially mediated the link between foreign language boredom (FLB) and foreign language proficiency(FLP). This research further revealed the mediating mechanism between FLB and FLP. Implications, shortcomings, and directions for future research are discussed

Exploring control-value motivational profiles of mathematics anxiety, self-concept, and interest in adolescents.

In this study, we identified multidimensional profiles in students' math anxiety, math self-concept, and math interest using data from a large generalizable sample of 16,547 9th grade students in the United States who participated in the National Study of Learning Mindsets. We also analyzed the extent that students' profile memberships are associated with related measures such as prior mathematics achievement, academic stress, and challenge-seeking behavior. Five multidimensional profiles were identified: two profiles which demonstrated relatively high levels of interest and self-concept, along with low math anxiety, in line with the tenets of the control-value theory of academic emotions (C-VTAE); two profiles which demonstrated relatively low levels of interest and self-concept, and high levels of math anxiety (again in accordance with C-VTAE); and one profile, comprising more than 37% of the total sample, which demonstrated medium levels of interest, high levels of self-concept, and medium levels of anxiety. All five profiles varied significantly from one another in their association with the distal variables of challenge seeking behavior, prior mathematics achievement, and academic stress. This study contributes to the literature on math anxiety, self-concept, and interest by identifying and validating student profiles that mainly align with the control-value theory of academic emotions in a large, generalizable sample.

Program quality, control, value, and emotions in summer STEM programs: an examination of control-value theory in an informal learning context

Program quality, control, value, and emotions in summer STEM programs: an examination of control-value theory in an informal learning context

The predictive effects of foreign language enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom on general and domain-specific English achievement in online English classrooms.

This non-experimental study employed three questionnaires adopted from and validated by prior studies. To carry out the study, an electronic survey created through Wenjuanxing, a computer program for conducting an online survey in China, was employed and convenience sampling technique was used. Guided by the control-value theory of educational psychology, as well as the broaden-and-build theory and the well-being theory of Positive Psychology, this questionnaire study investigated 880 non-English major freshmen' foreign language enjoyment (FLE), foreign language class anxiety (FLCA), and foreign language boredom (FLB) in online English courses, as well as their correlations. Also measured were their joint predictive effects on the general and domain-specific learning outcomes of online English classrooms (reading-to-writing group and speaking group). With statistical analysis carried out by SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 23.0, the results showed that: (1) learners had relatively high levels of FLE and FLCA, but a medium level of FLB; (2) a small negative correlation was found between students' FLE and FLCA, a medium to high negative correlation between FLE and FLB, and a small to medium positive correlation between FLCA and FLB; FLE has a significant positive correlation with learners' actual performance and self-perceived performance, while FLCA and FLB have a significant negative correlation with both; and (3) After entering the same regression model, all three emotions have a significant predictive effect on learners' self-perceived performance while only FLE and FLCA had a significant predictive effect on their actual performance in the online context. Domain-specifically, the reading-and-writing group demonstrated similar trends while there were no significant correlations between emotions and actual performance in the speaking group. The findings can provide pedagogical implications for online foreign language teaching and theoretical contribution to foreign language emotion research.

L2 Grit and Foreign Language Enjoyment: Arguments in Light of Control-Value Theory and Its Methodological Compatibility

L2 Grit and Foreign Language Enjoyment: Arguments in Light of Control-Value Theory and Its Methodological Compatibility

A theoretical review on the role of positive emotional classroom rapport in preventing EFL students' shame: A control-value theory perspective.

Second/foreign language teaching has been considered as a dialogic and interactive job in which teachers' and students' emotions and behaviors are closely connected to each other. When there is a harmonious and positive relationship between the teacher and students in the classroom, many favorable academic outcomes may emerge. A bulk of research has endorsed the power of positive emotional classroom rapport in EFL contexts. However, its role in preventing negative students' emotions like shame, as an achievement emotion, in terms of perceived control and value tasks has rarely (if any) caught scholarly attention. This study aimed to provide insights into the role of emotions in L2 education and the way students' shame can be prevented or curbed in light of a positive emotional classroom rapport. This article systematically reviewed the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of EFL teachers' positive emotional classroom rapport and students' shame in light of the control-value theory. In this research, it was asserted that by building a positive emotional classroom rapport EFL teachers can block and even eliminate students' shame. The study offers practical implications to EFL teachers, trainers, principals, and researchers by increasing their knowledge and abilities in managing psycho-emotional mechanisms and factors and enriching interpersonal aspects of EFL education.

Validation of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire for Experimental Science Education (AEQ-S).

The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ), based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, has been used in many fields of knowledge and has been translated into many languages. The main objective of this study was to adapt and validate it for the experimental sciences. A sample of 491 participants aged between 11 and 17 years (M = 13.73, SD = 1.19) from secondary schools in different localities in the provinces of Huelva and Lanzarote, Spain was used. The results obtained from the various statistical analyses showed that the questionnaire was valid and reliable. The main contribution of the work presented is to broaden the field of application of a test on emotions, AEQ-S, to experimental sciences. The AEQ-ES will allow us to learn the emotional profiles of students, thus providing information to teachers, and will be very useful for future research aimed at the study of emotions in experimental sciences.

Tracing mathematics engagement in the first year of high school: relationships between prior experience, observed support, and task-level emotion and motivation

We examined the relationships between different aspects of mathematics engagement for 285 students in their first year of high school in the United States. Path Analyses were used to trace the relationships between students’ self-reported prior motivation and appraisals of control and value of mathematics, perceptions of teacher support and peer support. These variables and observed teacher and peer support as coded from video by researchers, were examined as potentially impacting students’ self-reported in-the moment affect and task-level control and value appraisals Our results showed three key contributions. First, significant paths corresponded to relationships predicted by Control Value Theory (CVT) across a particularly robust set of variables and over the course of their first semester in high school. Second, results added further nuance by considering the objects that students’ in-the-moment emotions were directed toward, showing distinctions between positive and negative emotions directed at the mathematics task, students’ teachers and peers, and selves. Third, results more closely considered the impact of both observed and perceived aspect of support from peers and teachers in the classroom, in both its academic and social forms. Implications are discussed for theory and practice.

Impact of social comparison on perceived online academic futility: A perspective from parents.

In response to the wide-ranging concern of online academic futility, the current study aimed to explore the independent variables and mediating variable from a novel perspective of parents during COVID-19. Based on the social comparison theory and the control-value theory of achievement emotions, social comparison and tutoring anxiety were incorporated into an integrated model as predictors and mediator, respectively. A total of 300 parents completed an online survey. The results of the structural equation modeling indicated that upward social comparison and downward social comparison were both positively related to tutoring anxiety, which in turn positively predicted perceived online academic futility. Notably, tutoring anxiety played a significant mediating role in the association between different social comparison and perceived online academic futility. These results highlight the consistent predictive effect of upward social comparison and downward social comparison on perceived online academic futility, shedding light on the roles of tutoring anxiety in explaining the relationship from parental perspectives.

Measuring emotions in mathematics: the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire—Mathematics (AEQ-M)

Understanding the structure, antecedents, and outcomes of students’ emotions has become a topic of major interest in research on mathematics education. Much of this work is based on the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire—Mathematics (AEQ-M), a self-report instrument assessing students’ mathematics-related emotions. The AEQ-M measures seven emotions (enjoyment, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, boredom) across class, learning, and test contexts (internal structure). Based on control-value theory, it is assumed that these emotions are evoked by control and value appraisals, and that they influence students’ motivation, learning strategies, and performance (external relations). Despite the popularity and frequent use of the AEQ-M, the research leading to its development has never been published, creating uncertainty about the validity of the proposed internal structure and external relations. We close this gap in Study 1 (N = 781 students, Grades 5–10, mean age 14.1 years, 53.5% female) by demonstrating that emotions are organized across contexts and linked to their proposed antecedents and outcomes. Study 2 (N = 699 students, Grade 7 and 9, mean age 14.0 years, 56.9% female) addresses another deficit in research on the AEQ-M, the lack of evidence regarding the assumption that emotions represent sets of interrelated affective, cognitive, motivational, and physiological/expressive components. We close this gap by evaluating extended AEQ-M scales, systematically assessing these components for five core mathematics emotions (enjoyment, anger, anxiety, hopelessness, boredom). Our work provides solid grounds for future research using the AEQ-M to assess emotions and their components in the domain of mathematics.

Understanding information-seeking achievement emotions - exploring a cognitive appraisal theory framework

Given the limited body of literature on information-seeking emotions in library and information science research in general and relative to appraisal theories in an educational context, the findings of this paper will make a valuable conceptual and theoretical contribution to the field. The paper explores a proposed appraisal theory framework for understanding the information-seeking emotions of higher education students in learning and achieving information-seeking skills. Studying this process is crucial for academic success and future research-informed practice. The relevance of applying the framework, Scherer's (2005) semantic space of emotions and Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, is presented, elucidated and discussed. Concepts, elements, structure and dynamics of the theories are presented. The framework offers an understanding and explanation of the nature of information-seeking emotions and their interplay with cognitive appraisals in the complex constructivist learning process of achieving information-seeking skills. Viewed together, the framework has the potential to be an appropriate analytical tool to investigate information-seeking emotions in the process of learning and achieving information-seeking skills.

John Henryism, psychological labor, and control-value theory: Race, ethnicity, and situational coping for student success

This study explored the integration of John Henryism—defined as effortful, active coping in response to environmental stress—into control-value theory. Specifically, we were interested in how this process differed among identity groups. We used measures of John Henryism (JHAC-12), control-value theory, and momentary engagement (Record of Experience) on a school-based task. Results demonstrated the following: identifying as a first-generation college student predicted John Henryism; value significantly predicted cognitive engagement and positive emotion; and perceived control lowered negative emotions. Identifying as a first-generation college student corresponded to higher levels of John Henryism and control. Identifying as female led to a decrease in positive emotions, but an increase in value. Similarly, identifying as a Black student was associated with a decrease in control, but also a decrease in negative emotions. Indirect effects showed that identifying as a first-generation college student led to an increase in John Henryism followed by (1) an increase in value, (2) an increase in perceived control, or (3) an increase in value with attendant positive emotions. Findings indicate that John Henryism integrates into control-value theory and contributes to momentary engagement on a school-based task.

Adolescents' enjoyment and effort in class: Influenced by self-directed learning intervals

Based on the control-value theory, the present study examined the development and change of enjoyment and effort among adolescents during a school year. The study analyzed 754 adolescent students (MAge = 13.56; SD = 1.2; 49.7% female) who twice participated in a 1-week intervention of self-directed learning (SDL). The results of the bivariate latent neighbor change model showed that—contrary to previous study results—a positive development of enjoyment and effort was generally recorded over the school year and that particularly the two 1-week self-directed learning interventions were beneficial for this increase. Furthermore, the results show that enjoyment and effort were reciprocally linked over time, but only when self-directed learning was experienced first. In other words, by enlarging instruction via self-directed learning intervals, it is possible to counteract the tendency of enjoyment and effort to exhibit a downward spiral. This tendency is especially pronounced during students' entry into secondary school and the onset of adolescence.

Who’s bored in school?

In the literature, general cognitive ability has been discussed as one critical factor that shapes students’ boredom. In this study, we investigated the relationship between academic boredom and general cognitive ability in primary school students while also considering intrinsic value. We analyzed data from N = 2849 third graders from 188 German classrooms. We used structural equation models with latent variables to test for whether general cognitive ability and interest showed linear as well as nonlinear relationships with students’ boredom. The results showed that the association between general cognitive ability and boredom was almost negligible after controlling for students’ achievement as well as gender, age, and family background. However, both the linear and quadratic terms for students’ intrinsic value were statistically significant, indicating that students with low and students with high interest reported more boredom in class than students with average interest. The findings are discussed in light of expectations based on control-value theory and the domain specificity and situational specificity of control and value appraisals.

Learner-internal and learner-external factors for boredom amongst Chinese university EFL students

Abstract Despite the ubiquity of boredom and its aversive effects in educational contexts, it has received scant attention from second/foreign language (L2) researchers until very recently. This article reports on one of the first empirical attempts to explore boredom in L2 learning and its sources in Chinese tertiary-level EFL contexts through eliciting responses of 1,502 university students to open-ended questions and conducting 16 individual semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data analysis revealed that participants perceived wide-ranging learner-internal and learner-external factors as sources of their foreign language learning boredom: (1) task characteristics, (2) teaching and learning activities, (3) student factors, (4) course content, (5) classroom factors, (6) teacher factors, and (7) feeling unoccupied in the class. Moreover, open-ended responses showed greater prominence of the first three categories of factors than others, lending support to the central role of control-value appraisals in inducing boredom, and suggesting situation-sensitive nature of boredom. Additionally, the study revealed that multiple factors, both learner-internal and learner-external, can interact and jointly shape control-value appraisals, which suggests the congruence between the person-in-context perspective on SLA and the control-value theory, and the potential to integrate the two approaches to extend L2 emotion research.

The triarchy of L2 learners' emotion, cognition, and language performance: Anxiety, self-efficacy, and speaking skill in lights of the emerging theories in SLA.

Given the bond between emotion and cognition underlying the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, positive and negative emotions have critical roles in cognitive skills. The aim of this review was to probe into the triarchic relationship between L2 learners’ cognition, emotion, and language performance, reflected in the bond between self-efficacy, foreign language anxiety, and speaking skill, in light of the main emerging theories in the field of SLA underpinning this relationship. Moreover, the theoretical foundations, such as learners’ cognitive performances, Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, control-value theory, and positive psychology theory, were explicated in order to justify the relationship between self-efficacy and oral communication skill. Furthermore, the underlying theories such as attentional control theory, complex dynamic system theory, affective filter theory, and cultural schema theory, which relate foreign language anxiety to speaking skill were scrutinized in this review. The review also expounded on the implications and future directions for EFL teachers, material designers, teacher educators, educational policy-makers, and advisors. The ideas can improve their awareness of learner self-efficacy, foreign language anxiety, and oral communication skill in educational contexts.

The Influence of Error Learning Orientation on Intrinsic Motivation for Visual Programming in STEM Education

Secondary school students often lack the necessary motivation to program visually. The present study aims to analyse the effects of error learning orientation on students’ intrinsic motivation for visual programming. According to the control-value theory of Pekrun (2006), we posit that the influence of error learning orientation on intrinsic motivation is mediated by self-efficacy for visual programming as well as by error-related achievement emotions. A sample of 269 Swiss secondary school students (grades 7 to 9), who were beginners in visual programming, filled out a questionnaire as part of a course on visual programming. A structural equation model was established to illustrate the expected relationships between students’ attitudes and their impacts. As expected, the results point to the need of paying more attention to errors in STEM education and indicate that students’ error learning orientation had a low but significant effect on their intrinsic motivation for visual programming. The findings confirmed the effects of error learning orientation on intrinsic motivation for visual programming, which are mediated by self-efficacy but not by error related achievement emotions in the context of coding activities.