Facets Of Motivation Research Articles

Researching classroom activities to raise secondary school pupils’ motivational effort in mathematics

This paper looks at the research background dealing with classroom activities to raise secondary school pupils’ motivational effort in mathematics. We conclude that research in this area needs to take careful account of the different facets of motivation.

The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure.

Procrastination is a prevalent and pernicious form of self-regulatory failure that is not entirely understood. Hence, the relevant conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work is reviewed, drawing upon correlational, experimental, and qualitative findings. A meta-analysis of procrastination's possible causes and effects, based on 691 correlations, reveals that neuroticism, rebelliousness, and sensation seeking show only a weak connection. Strong and consistent predictors of procrastination were task aversiveness, task delay, self-efficacy, and impulsiveness, as well as conscientiousness and its facets of self-control, distractibility, organization, and achievement motivation. These effects prove consistent with temporal motivation theory, an integrative hybrid of expectancy theory and hyperbolic discounting. Continued research into procrastination should not be delayed, especially because its prevalence appears to be growing.

Domain-Generality and Domain-Specificity in Personal Epistemology Research: Philosophical and Empirical Reflections in the Development of a Theoretical Framework

This review synthesizes and critically examines 19 empirical studies that have addressed the domain-specificity/domain-generality issue in personal epistemology. We present an overview of traditional and more contemporary epistemological stances from philosophical perspectives to offer another basis from which to examine this issue. Explicit examples of academic domains are described and epistemological comparisons are made based on our synthesized definition. Given the epistemological similarities and differences across domains that we identified from empirical and philosophical considerations, we propose that beliefs are both domain general and domain specific. Accordingly, we present a theoretical framework of personal epistemology that incorporates both positions and hypothesize how the belief systems might interact in terms of the development of personal epistemology and relations to various facets of cognition, motivation, and achievement. The article ends with a discussion of educational implications.

The Relationship Between Teachers' Perceptions of Student Motivation and Engagement and Teachers' Enjoyment of and Confidence in Teaching

This paper examines teachers' perceptions of their students' motivation and engagement and their enjoyment of and confidence in teaching. Drawing on Martin's Student Motivation and Engagement Scale, 10 facets of motivation and engagement were explored amongst a sample of 1,019 teachers. These facets comprised three adaptive cognitive dimensions of motivation (self‐efficacy, valuing of school, mastery orientation), three adaptive behavioural dimensions (planning, study management, persistence), two impeding dimensions (anxiety, failure avoidance), and two maladaptive dimensions (uncertain control, self‐handicapping). Male teachers tended to report significantly higher student motivation and engagement than female teachers (though effect sizes were small) and primary school teachers reported significantly higher student motivation and engagement than high school teachers (effect sizes were moderate). Adaptive dimensions were more strongly associated with enjoyment and confidence in teaching than impeding and maladaptive dimensions. Of the adaptive dimensions, students' mastery orientation was the strongest correlate of teachers' enjoyment of teaching and students' persistence and students' planning were the strongest correlates of teachers' confidence in teaching. These associations were more marked for male teachers and relatively independent of years spent teaching. Implications for teacher education and professional development are discussed.

School motivation of boys and girls: Differences of degree, differences of kind, or both?

The present study sought to explore invariance in factor structure, cluster profiles, and perceptual mapping in student motivation as a function of gender. Among a sample of 2,927 Australian high school students, motivation differences were explored using the Student Motivation Scale (Martin, 2001, 2002a, 2002b). The data clearly show that there are differences in the degree to which boys and girls are motivated, although generally effect sizes are small. Girls are statistically significantly higher in learning focus, planning, study management, and persistence while boys are significantly higher in self-sabotage or self-handicapping. Interestingly, girls are also significantly higher in anxiety. However, across boys and girls there is invariance in factor structure, cluster profiles, and perceptual mapping suggesting that there are no fundamental motivational differences of kind. That is, in relation to key facets of motivation, there is a highly similar factor structure across boys and girls, boys and girls can be grouped into parallel motivation clusters, and boys and girls seem to perceptually locate key motivational dimensions in similar ways. It is concluded that although girls have higher levels of motivation than boys on a number of dimensions, the two groups' fundamental motivation orientations do not appear to be markedly qualitatively different. This holds implications not only for data analysis but also for programmatic intervention aimed at enhancing or sustaining boys' and girls' motivation.

Measuring perceptual and motivational facets of computer control: the development and validation of the computing control scale

The Computing Control Scale (CCS), a new factor analytically derived psychometric instrument is developed. The CCS consists of computing autonomy and computing need for control (NControl) subscales. Computing autonomy represents a composite of confidence in controlling computers and self-reliance when using computers. Computing NControl is considered to represent a domain-specific analog of Burger's (1992) global desire for control construct. The factor structure of the instrument is shown to be replicable. Also, the two subscales are shown to be reliable and to exhibit construct validity in terms of their differential relationships with other concepts such as computer comfort – anxiety, computer addiction and non-domain-specific desire for control. In addition, the data collected shows that few people attribute computing-related outcomes to luck or chance and indicates that the vast majority of people believe that in principle such outcomes are within their control. It is therefore concluded that attempts to measure computing-specific locus of control using a factor analytically derived instrument may not be viable.

The Relationship Between Parents' Enjoyment of Parenting and Children's School Motivation

This paper examines parents' perceptions of their child's school-related motivation and their enjoyment of parenting. Drawing on Martins (2003a) Student Motivation Wheel, 10 facets of motivation were explored among a sample of 481 parents. These facets comprised six motivation boosters (self-belief, value of schooling, learning/mastery focus, planning, study management, persistence), two motivation mufflers (anxiety, failure avoidance), and two motivation guzzlers (uncertain control, self-sabotage/self-handicapping). Parents rated girls significantly higher than boys in value of schooling, learning focus, planning, and study management. Of the boosters, children's persistence was the strongest predictor of respondents' enjoyment of parenting. Of the mufflers, failure avoidance was the strongest (negative) predictor of parenting satisfaction. In terms of guzzlers, uncertain control was the strongest (negative) predictor of respondents' enjoyment of parenting. Compared with mothers' enjoyment of parenting, fathers' satisfaction in their role was more strongly related to their children's school-related motivation.

A Second Look at Quest Motivation: Is Quest Unidimensional or Multidimensional?

In 1976 Batson introduced the construct of Quest motivation as a supplement to Allport's intrinsic/extrinsic dimensions to characterize mature; religious functioning. However, there has been some debate in the empirical literature regarding the validity of the Quest construct. The present study suggests that Quest may be a multidimensional construct and that continued construct validation of Quest should isolate and operationalize the various facets of Quest motivation. Toward this end, two dimensions of Quest, Tentativeness and Change, were isolated, operationalized, and used to predict spiritual well-being in addition to Allport's I/E constructs. The results indicated that tentativeness was predictive of existential well-being and intrinsic religiosity. By contrast, high change scores were predictive of increased extrinsic religious motives and lower spiritual well-being. Overall, these results suggest that Quest may indeed be a multidimensional construct, and that the individual facets of Quest may have very different relationships with religious variables.

A Multivariate Descriptive Model of Motivation for Orthodontic Treatment.

Motivation for receiving orthodontic treatment is systematically investigated and a multivariate model of this process advanced. An interview schedule is developed out of a mapping sentence and administered to a sample of respondents all of whom had been previously classified as having high need for orthodontic treatment (n = 109). Smallest Space Analyses (SSA) of this data revealed two facets of motivation; treatment reason and information source. The elements of each of these facets (treatment reason =psychological, physical health; source = self, family, dentist) are discussed. Partial Order Scalogram Analysis by base Coordinates (POSAC) is used to demonstrate the roles played by each facet element in structuring motivations. This reflected internal versus external forms of motivation. In this family sources and psychological reasons (internal) form the first dimension of differentiation between respondents, the second (external) being made up of physical reasons. The dentist and self sources were found to play relatively minor roles.

Chapter 1: The Structure of Learning Motivation and Its Development in the School-age Child

Why should the teacher study the structure of motivation? What is the practical significance of this? The teacher's familiarity with the singular features of the schoolchild's motivational sphere and its evolutional tendencies will give him a more accurate reading on the causes of change in the attitude toward learning. One example will suffice. It is often said that a child's interest in learning flags as he comes to the end of elementary school. The fact is, though, it is not the overall interest in learning that slackens, but only one of its variants. It is the most natural thing in the world for the child's general enthusiasm for going to school, for being a pupil, and for collecting grades to be satisfied after a year or two of instruction. During this time, an interest in the content of the work of learning and in the process of learning should be molded to replace that overall interest. In the occasional instance where the desired interest does arise, it appears only in particular lessons and is not transformed into a more or less stable personality formation [or characteristic]; in no way, therefore, can such an interest be responsible for determining a pupil's conduct in new situations or at times when he is working alone. By this example, we wish to stress the undesirability of confusing these two distinct facets of motivation: the general interest in school and the cognitive learning motive that bespeaks an orientation toward the content of [particular] learning activity.