Motivational Beliefs Research Articles

Dropout intentions in secondary education: Student temperament and achievement motivation as antecedents.

As early school leaving and dropping out from education pose a challenge for later life adjustment, it is important to identify antecedent factors for the risk of school dropout to tailor individual support for adolescents. Consequently, this study examines the role of adolescents' motivational beliefs and behaviors (i.e., success expectations, planning, and task-avoidance) as well as their temperament (i.e., extraversion/surgency, negative affectivity, effortful control, and affiliativeness) in their dropout intentions in the first year of upper secondary education. Participants were Finnish adolescents' (n = 536; 57% girls, mean age 12.39 at outset, standard deviation = 0.35) and their motivational beliefs and behaviors were measured in Grades 6 and 9. Their temperament was also measured in Grade 9. As for dropout intentions, they were measured in upper secondary education. The effects of gender, academic achievement, task value, and educational track were controlled for in the analyses. The results of latent growth modeling showed that, of motivational beliefs and behaviors, high success expectations and low task avoidance independently predicted lower dropout intentions. Success expectations in Grade 6 also mediated the effects of extraversion/surgency, negative affectivity and effortful control on subsequent school dropout intentions, whereas an increase in task avoidance in lower secondary school was a mediator between extraversion/surgency and dropout intentions. Our study provides novel understanding about how temperament is linked with motivational beliefs and behaviors and what roles they together play in subsequent school dropout intentions. Supporting students with different temperaments and achievement motivations would be important to prevent adverse consequences for both the individual and society.

Factors that influence the connection between engineering self-efficacy and growth within academic, social and spiritual life habits

First year engineering students begin their degree with pre-conceived notions of how the year will go, with respect to their academics, in addition to their social and spiritual lives. This thereby gives way to a loss of self-efficacy, associated with both engineering itself and their own self-concept led by that initial disconnection. Thus, it is important to understand what factors influence the connections between engineering self-efficacy and their academic, social, and spiritual life-habits. Life habits can be defined as any set of factors encouraging the growth of an individual, affecting an individual’s life, ranging from learning strategies to self-perception of oneself and everything in between. Previous research has explored the stressors specific to students in first year engineering and how this affects students’ wellbeing overall [1] - although not specific to the motivational belief that is self-efficacy and the effect it has on their entire life. Using an inductive thematic analysis [2] on responses written by students who completed a series of self-reflections after participating in Mental Wellness and Engineering Attributes seminars offered in their first year Engineering courses, this research explores the factors that influence the connection between self-efficacy and an individual’s personal growth as described through life habits. The five themes that were found were social/spiritual wellness in terms of a support system, a fixed academic mindset with an “all or nothing” behavior, the inability to cope with transitioning and adapting out of their previous institutions, harmful expectations, and the importance of finding a balance in their everyday lives. Given these findings, the connection between self-efficacy and life habits is prevalent both negatively and positively for first year engineering students. The results suggest that individuals in their first year of engineering are caught off guard by the difficulty of the program, leading to a loss of self-efficacy and the development of new negative learning strategies - until they discover how to succeed in engineering.

Investigation of Kurdish students' L2 motivational self-system and their motivational beliefs in high school.

This study aims to examine and compare female and male Kurdish EFL students' level and type of motivation based on L2 motivational self-system components and to identify their dominant type of motivation. The participants of this study were 118 students (46 female, and 72 male) were randomly selected as the participants of this study from different cities of Erbil governorate in Kurdistan region of Iraq. A Learners questionnaire used following the application of semi-structured interview sessions with learners who participated in the study. The data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed through SPSS software, and the interview results were interpreted and analyzed through content analysis. The findings of this study revealed that both male and female Kurdish EFL students generally have high levels of motivation and the attitudes of both groups of learners were found to be generally positive towards English language and its learning. The most frequent motivational strategies, ways of motivating and arranging for them a suitable culture and recommended by the teachers in this study are helpful, especially for teacher educators in teacher training programs, so that they can get aware of the most used strategies by Kurdish EFL teachers in high school to be the leadership for this purpose, and try to improve and correct them, and try to teach them the most effective strategies and ways of raising motivation in the students.

Supplemental Material for Tracing the Signal From Teachers to Students: How Teachers’ Motivational Beliefs Longitudinally Relate to Student Interest Through Student-Reported Teaching Practices

Supplemental Material for Tracing the Signal From Teachers to Students: How Teachers’ Motivational Beliefs Longitudinally Relate to Student Interest Through Student-Reported Teaching Practices

Structural relations among implicit theories, achievement goals, and performance in writing

Implicit theories have important implications for students' achievement goals and academic achievement. The Writer(s)-within-community model by Graham (2018) postulates that motivational beliefs stored in the long-term memory, such as implicit theories and achievement goals, influence how one approaches a writing task. Notwithstanding, few empirical studies examined the relations among implicit theories, achievement goals, and writing performance. In this study, we sought to examine the structural relations among implicit theories, achievement goals, and writing performance of Portuguese students in grades 5 to 8 (Mage = 11.80, SD = 1.5). In addition, we aimed to test whether the relations among implicit theories, achievement goals, and writing performance varied across two text genres, and for girls and boys. Our results showed that more incremental theories in writing were associated with a greater pursuit of mastery goals as well as with higher text quality. Moreover, a greater endorsement of mastery goals was associated with higher text quality, whereas a greater adoption of performance-approach goals was linked to lower text quality. These relations remained stable for girls and boys and across narrative and opinion texts. Overall, these findings confirm the pivotal role of motivation-related variables in predicting students' writing performance.

The Impact of Teacher Quality on Student Motivation, Achievement, and Persistence in Science and Mathematics

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields occupy a significant role in human prosperity and advancement. This study explores the factors affecting student STEM outcomes. Traditionally, the associations of students’ own motivational or cognitive inputs to their STEM career outcomes have been investigated before. Similarly, association of teacher quality to student achievement outcomes have been made before. This paper presents a novel approach by introducing teacher quality as the contextual factor within the social cognitive career theoretical (SCCT) model using a comprehensive and robust model for teacher quality including teachers’ motivation, qualifications, and self-reported practices. This study examines the extent to which high school students’ mathematics and science teachers’ beliefs, professional background, and instructional practices relate to students’ motivation, achievement, and future career plans in STEM using a nationally representative, large dataset: High School Longitudinal Study 2009. The results indicate that science and mathematics teachers’ professional background, motivational beliefs, and self-reported instructional practices have significant impact on students’ motivation, persistence, and achievement outcomes in science and mathematics. No direct impact of teacher factors on STEM career plans are found; however, students motivational and achievement outcomes (impacted by teacher factors) do have significant impact on students’ career plans in STEM.

Improving Students’ Learning Motivation and Attitude in Physical Education by Using Algorithm Thinking Innovation Teaching Method

Physical education (PE) learning activity types can influence students’ motivational beliefs, physical activity participation, and persistence/effort in class. Due to motivational and attitudinal aims in the curriculum and the lack of study on student experiences with physical activity, the technological features of today’s society have favored the presence of information and communication technology (ICT) and the advent of new training methods in educational institutions. This article addresses the flipped learning-based thinking innovation teaching method (FL-TITM) as an innovative methodology for teaching and learning physical education to improve students’ motivation and attitude. This research aims to briefly present the flipped learning method and determine and critically analyze the crucial pedagogical models. This allows us to identify the approaches and electronic tools on the Web. Physical education 2.0 and ICT as an online learning environment may better aid and establish physical education content and motivate learners in flipped learning. The data were collected using semistructured interviews. A total of 100 learners from an educational center in China participated and were compared with nonflipped learning students. These participants have been chosen intentionally. The outcomes show that the flipped learning method linearly and positively impacts academic performance and correlational support and motivation. The test results show that our FL-TIIM has a high self-efficacy ratio of 96.7%, a positive attitude level of 98.6%, a student motivation ratio of 95.3%, an interaction ratio of 98.5%, and a performance ratio of 90.3%.

The Relationship Between Reflectivity and Self-Regulated Learning in MA Medical Education Students of Shiraz University in 2018 and 2019.

Reflectivity is one of the fundamental methods of education. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between reflectivity and self-regulated learning in MA medical education students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2018 and 2019. In this descriptive study, 34 full time and virtual MA students of medical education participated, using census method. Data were collected through the Pintrich and DeGroot self-regulated learning and the Kember et al.'s reflectivity questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis, through SPSS. The results showed that self-regulatory learning strategies in subjects with good reflectivity were significantly higher than those with poor reflectivity; also, the scores of cognitive strategies and motivational beliefs were significantly higher in the participants with good reflectivity. There was no significant relationship between reflectivity and subscales of self-regulated learning strategies and also between reflectivity and self-regulated learning strategies in the full time and virtual courses. It was found that there was a positive and meaningful relationship between reflectivity and self-regulated learning. Therefore, it is recommended that the managers and professors in medical universities should provide training programs in this field in order for the students to benefit from the advantages of reflectivity and self-regulated learning.

Black and Latinx Adolescents’ STEM Motivational Beliefs: a Systematic Review of the Literature on Parent STEM Support

Black and Latinx Adolescents’ STEM Motivational Beliefs: a Systematic Review of the Literature on Parent STEM Support

The self-regulation for learning online (SRL-O) questionnaire

The Self-Regulation for Learning Online (SRL-O) questionnaire was developed to encompass the breadth of motivational beliefs and learning strategies that are often used in online and/or blended learning contexts. No current measure meets all these needs. This study used two non-duplicate samples to provide evidence of the psychometric properties of SRL-O using exploratory factor analyses (sample 1, n = 313), and confirmatory factor analyses, convergent and content validity and reliability (sample 2, n = 321). The SRL-O has a 10-factor structure, made up of (1) online self-efficacy, (2) online intrinsic motivation, (3) online extrinsic motivation, (4) online negative achievement emotion, (5) planning and time management, (6) metacognition, (7) study environment, (8) online effort regulation, (9) online social support, and (10) online task strategies. The SRL-O was also found to have two superordinate factors (motivational beliefs and learning strategies). The SRL-O was demonstrated to be a psychometrically sound measure of online SRL for learners studying in online and blended learning contexts. There is no other online self-regulated learning questionnaire that currently covers such a wide range of motivational beliefs and learning strategies.

Gendered difference in motivational profiles, achievement, and STEM aspiration of elementary school students.

To better understand the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) aspiration, the article examines the critical role of domain-specific motivation (i.e., expectancy and task values). Using longitudinal data from 5th and 6th grade (∼11–12-year-old) students (n = 360, 55% girls), person-oriented analyses was applied to understand the gendered motivational profiles and their longitudinal influence on achievement and STEM aspiration. Specifically, we aimed to (1) derive motivational belief profiles regarding science, mathematics, and language (Finnish), (2) analyze the stability and change in the profiles between the 5th and 6th grade, (3) assess the relationship between motivational profiles and achievement and STEM aspiration, and (4) test for gender differences. We derived four motivational profiles for both years: high motivation in all subjects (∼21%), high mathematics motivation (∼46%), low mathematics motivation (∼11%), and low motivation in all subjects (∼8%). Latent transition analysis revealed that most students remained in the same profile throughout the 2 years. We found evidence of gendered differences in the motivational profiles and the chance of transitioning between profiles. More girls are characterized by low math motivation, while boys are more likely to transition to higher math motivation in 6th grade. The motivational difference is reflected in their achievement, although not strongly coupled with their STEM aspiration. The findings suggest that at this developmental stage, Finnish students have not developed a strong association between (gendered) STEM aspiration and their domain-specific motivation, although their motivation may have influenced their achievement. Interpretation and practical implications are discussed.

Longitudinal analysis of women and men’s motivational beliefs in a two-semester introductory physics course sequence for students on the bioscience track

Longitudinal analysis of women and men’s motivational beliefs in a two-semester introductory physics course sequence for students on the bioscience track

Impact of Motivation and Strategy Use on Performance in a Blended Learning Course

Understanding students’ self-regulatory learning (SRL) processes is important, especially in Blended Learning (BL). This study examined the predictability of students’ final scores based on indicators from students’ reported measures reflecting SRL. We administrated the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MLSLQ) three times to measure students’ motivation belief and use of learning strategies (N=189) and collected 515 viable surveys. We found that students’ motivation and strategy use dropped until midterm and it increased again as the course progressed towards the end. We identified the constructs that had a high correlation with final scores. In terms of prediction, stepwise regression mostly used motivational components as predictors. The findings confirmed the importance of understanding students’ motivation and SRL process and disclosed the advantages of using students’ reported measures of SRL, which is meaningful to Learning Analytics. The findings also support the potential for an early final score prediction, which would be very helpful in identifying at-risk students, addressing one of the LA aims.

An Investigation of Motives As Beliefs and Learning Strategies: The Case for Online Islamic Education

The outbreak of Covid 19 requires students to learn online including for Islamic education courses. This paper aims to investigate students’ motivation to learn Islamic education online. The research was conducted in January 2022 in three branches of one higher learning institution in Malaysia. The research used a quantitative approach to explore motivational beliefs and learning strategies for Islamic education amongst students. A sample of 139 students was purposively selected to answer a survey that was adapted from Pintrich & Ge Groot. The instrument contained three main sections which were a demographic profile, motivational beliefs and learning strategies. The motivational beliefs included self-efficacy, intrinsic values and test anxiety while learning strategies included cognitive strategy and self-regulation. The result indicated that the level of motivational beliefs was moderately high and most of the students used cognitive strategies in their learning. Intrinsic value was a key feature that shapes students’ motivation in learning Islamic education online. This study suggests that lecturers can help to improve students’ motivational beliefs and learning strategies by giving students challenging assignments. Lecturers also have to consistently motivate students to relate their learning process with the responsibility of a servant and Caliph of God to stimulate and strengthen students’ intrinsic values.

The Effectiveness of Positive Intervention on Motivational Beliefs of Students with Academic Failure

The Effectiveness of Positive Intervention on Motivational Beliefs of Students with Academic Failure

College Students’ motivational beliefs and use of goal-oriented control strategies: Integrating two theories of motivated behavior

In college, students often encounter situations in which they struggle to meet their academic goals in difficult courses. We integrate the Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development and Situated Expectancy-Value Theory to investigate how motivational beliefs and experiences in a difficult course predict the use of goal engagement oriented and goal adjustment oriented control strategies that can help students stay engaged in challenging courses. We used survey data collected in two academic quarters at a public university in the U.S. (N = 231). Students who perceived their midterm exam as more difficult than expected and students with higher course-specific subjective task values reported using more goal engagement oriented and goal adjustment oriented control strategies. Students with higher course-specific ability beliefs were less likely to use goal adjustment strategies. Results further showed that students planned to use control strategies depending on their experienced setbacks or success in exams. Findings provide important insights into how motivational orientations and course experiences relate to adaptive and goal-oriented behavior in college courses.

Pre-service EFL teachers’ motivational beliefs about instructional use of technology: development and validation of a scale

This article presents the development and validation of the Pre-Service EFL Teachers’ Motivational Beliefs about Instructional Use of Technology scale (PTMB-EFL) using a randomly split sample. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a 23-item six-factor structure of the PTMB-EFL generated from exploratory factor analysis. Significant correlations between the PTMB-EFL factors and teachers’ perceived actual classroom technology use practices supported the concurrent validity of the PTMB-EFL. A second-order confirmatory factor analysis further provided empirical evidence to consider motivational beliefs about instructional use of technology as a unitary construct with six correlated but distinct motivational belief factors. In addition, unlike previous technology acceptance studies, this study revealed that among the six types of motivational beliefs, growth mindset was the strongest predictor of perceived actual classroom technology use practices. The PTMB-EFL can be used as an evaluation tool to appraise pre-service EFL or ESL teacher technology-based English teaching experience during their practicum, and as a research tool to investigate more associations between instructional use of technology and other contextual and teacher factors.

Investigating Motivational Beliefs and Self-Regulated Learning for Halal-Related Courses

Investigating Motivational Beliefs and Self-Regulated Learning for Halal-Related Courses

Interplay of motivational beliefs and self-regulation with achievement across economic risk

We examined the additive associations of two motivational beliefs (growth mindset and academic self-efficacy) and self-regulation with mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) scores, as well as the interplay of students' beliefs and self-regulation skills, controlling for previous test scores. We tested whether these pathways differed across three mutually exclusive levels of economic risk: (1) low-risk students; (2) students receiving free and reduced price meals (FRPM); and (3) students identified as homeless and highly-mobile (HHM). Our results showed that motivational beliefs and self-regulation skills interact to promote academic achievement. Greater levels of growth mindset were related to higher academic achievement only for HHM students with higher levels of self-regulation.

Explicit strategy-based instruction in L2 writing contexts: A perspective of self-regulated learning and formative assessment

Recent studies have pinpointed the critical and optimal role of self-regulated learning (SRL) in strategy instruction in second/foreign language (L2) research. To provide empirical grounding for developing self-regulated, strategic learners, this study developed an integrated model of SRL strategy instruction which was integrated with formative assessment and a process-genre approach and then examined its effects on L2 writing quality and motivational beliefs. This was a quasi-experimental research design, in which the experimental group received a 16-week SRL strategy instruction while the comparison group received a regular writing course over the same time period. Pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest of writing performance were conducted to examine students’ changes in writing quality in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, language, and mechanics. A self-report questionnaire was administered to both groups in the pretest and the posttest to investigate the development of motivational beliefs (i.e., task value, intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, control of learning beliefs, and self-efficacy of learning and performance). Results of mixed factorial ANOVAs revealed the experimental group outperformed the comparison group in the overall writing scores and the subscores (e.g., content, organization, vocabulary, and language) in the posttest and the delayed posttest. In addition, the intervention helped students develop a higher level of task value, extrinsic goal orientation, control of learning beliefs, and self-efficacy of learning and performance. Data collected from reflective journals showed that EFL students reported increased levels of self-regulated, strategic behavior as a results of engaging in classroom formative assessment activities. • Formative assessment promotes effects of self-regulation instruction. • Self-regulation strategy intervention improved L2 writing quality. • The intervention improved students’ task value and extrinsic goal orientation. • The intervention helped students develop active control of their learning beliefs. • The intervention helped students become more self-efficacious in learning to write.