David A. Bergin

Motivational Influences on Transfer

Both transfer and motivation are important constructs accompanied by extensive bodies of literature. However, there is a lack of integration of the 2 constructs. This article analyzes the potential indirect influence of motivational factors on transfer by reviewing studies that examine the influence of motivation on cognitive processes related to transfer. In addition, it reviews studies that examine the direct influence of motivation on transfer. The analysis is focused on 4 motivational constructs: achievement goals, interest, self-efficacy, and intentional transfer. Finally, this article suggests recommendations for future research.

The Effect of Schooling on Students’ Out-of-School Experience:

With the premise that schooling should make a difference in students’ everyday experience, the authors synthesize research on the influence of school learning on students’ out-of-school experience by addressing the contributions and shortcomings of four research areas: (a) transfer, (b) out-of-school learning environments, (c) school-prompted interest, and (d) transformative education. They conclude the following: (a) Little research investigates the influence of school learning on out-of-school experience; (b) the existing research suggests that school learning has less of an influence on out-of-school experience than one would hope for and expect; and (c) under the right conditions, school learning can enrich students’ out-of-school experience.

Measuring Engagement in Fourth to Twelfth Grade Classrooms: The Classroom Engagement Inventory.

Research on factors that may promote engagement is hampered by the absence of a measure of classroom-level engagement. Literature has suggested that engagement may have 3 dimensions--affective, behavioral, and cognitive. No existing engagement scales measure all 3 dimensions at the classroom level. The Classroom Engagement Inventory (CEI) was developed to fill this gap. In Study 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on data from 3,481 students from the 4th to 12th grade. The results suggested a 4-factor model of the CEI. Using these results, in Study 2 several items were revised and data were collected 1 year later from 4th to 12th grade students in the same school district as Study 1. Analyses were conducted on data from 3,560 students after data cleaning. A series of potential models was tested. The final results suggest a 5-factor 24-item CEI: (1) Affective Engagement, (2) Behavioral Engagement-Compliance, (3) Behavioral Engagement-Effortful Class Participation, (4) Cognitive Engagement, and (5) Disengagement. Results advance understanding of the construct of classroom engagement. The CEI fills a significant gap in measurement of engagement. The CEI is classroom level, measures multiple dimensions of engagement, uses self-report, is relatively short, and can be readily administered in classrooms from the 4th to 12th grade.

Motivational influences on school‐prompted interest

Some argue that the goal of education is to influence out‐of‐school learning activity, yet little research exists on how teachers can help students develop an interest in a topic and continue to pursue that interest outside of school. The current study tested classroom context variables from self‐determination theory (teachers’ autonomy support) and from achievement goal theory (teachers’ mastery goals) that may predict students’ school‐prompted interest above and beyond students’ mastery goals and self‐efficacy. Survey data were collected from 178 high school students in 15 mathematics classes. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that students’ perceptions of a teacher who focuses on mastery goals account for little variance above and beyond students’ own motivation, whereas perceived teachers’ autonomy support emerged as a significant predictor. While the results are correlational and do not support causal claims, they suggest that teachers who support student autonomy might foster school‐prompted interest.

Children's Use of Metacognition in Solving Everyday Problems: An Initial Study from an Asian Context.

The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between metacognition and students’ everyday problem solving. Specifically, we were interested to find out whether regulation of cognition and knowledge of cognition are related to everyday problem solving and whether students who perform better in the decision-making problem will better differentiate the various components of metacognition. Two hundred and fifty-four fifth grade students completed a survey. We found evidence to suggest the existence of two major components of metacognition. Our results also suggest that at a higher level of decision-making, knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition were differentiated in their use by participants.

Academic Competition among Students of Color: An Interview Study.

Forty-one relatively high-achieving students of color were interviewed about the competition for grades that they felt in their high schools. Students of color are particularly interesting with regard to competition because they have sometimes been portrayed as rejecting academic achievement. The students reported competing for grades. They generally thought competition was beneficial. Students commented that they focused on grade point average to help them improve their grades and monitored the grades that other students were receiving. They made almost no comments about competition leading to learning or mastering skills. Their responses are interpreted in light of motivation research that suggests that academic competition and social comparison can lead to maladaptive motivational orientations.

Social Influences on Interest

Where does enduring individual interest come from? One answer is, through social experience that derives from a need for belongingness. Because of this need, students seek social links that influence the development of individual interest. This may occur through experiences with parents, friends, passionate affinity groups, competition, public performance, and culture. School is a social experience that can influence interest development. School-prompted interest and transformative experience should be goals of schooling, yet research suggests that they occur at a lower-than-optimal rate. Research on interest could expand its methods to include techniques such as social network analysis, cell phone data collection, and day reconstruction. Research should attend to the fact that the manifestation of interest is more dynamic and complex than sometimes represented, and real-time experience and remembered experience can be quite different.

A lottery improves performance on a low-stakes test for males but not females

Abstract The purpose of this study was to address the effectiveness of autonomy support and a lottery-based reward in enhancing test performance and test-taking motivation on a low-stakes test. Two hundred and forty-six university students were randomly assigned to three groups – lottery, autonomy support and control – and took a mathematics test. Students in the autonomy support and lottery group reported putting forth more test-taking effort than students in the control group. Males who were offered a chance at winning the financial reward scored almost 10 points higher on the exam compared to females. Results showed no significant difference in test scores for female students among groups, suggesting that neither intervention had an impact on females.

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Can the prospect of public performance motivate student learning? One school found that it did.

Long-Term Prospects and College Students’ Academic Performance:

Self-referent performance beliefs can influence people’s decision making related to long-term goals. Current measures of such beliefs, however, do not explicitly focus on the long-term aspects of goal achievement. We introduce a new concept, Long-Term Prospects (LTP), which is defined as the self-perception that one can maintain the continuous effort needed to achieve long-term goals. We developed a measure of LTP and demonstrated across three studies (n > 1,900) that college students’ LTP predicted their academic performance, as defined by self-reported grade point average (GPA) and official GPA. Moreover, LTP predicted GPA better than commonly used measures of grit, conscientiousness, and academic self-concept. Multiple regression and Bayesian results showed that LTP accounted for unique variance in the prediction of college GPA above and beyond intelligence, prior achievement, and demographics. Tests for moderation effects suggested that students who had low high school achievement or a low need for achievement especially benefited from having strong beliefs about their ability to maintain effort over the long term. These studies suggest that self-referent beliefs about one’s ability to maintain the effort needed to achieve long-term goals are important for academic success and that the LTP measure captures individual differences in these beliefs. The implication is that cultivating students’ belief that they can maintain long-term effort, especially in low-achieving students, may yield positive outcomes in their academic performance.