Helen Patrick

The Classroom Social Environment and Changes in Adolescents’ Motivation and Engagement During Middle School:

The authors investigated how students’ (N = 233) perceptions of the social environment of their eighth-grade classroom related to changes in motivation and engagement when they moved from seventh to eighth grade. In general, prior motivation and engagement were strong predictors of subsequent motivation and engagement, whereas gender, race, and prior achievement were not related to changes in motivation or engagement. A higher-order classroom social environment factor accounted for significant changes in all motivation and engagement outcomes. Four distinct dimensions of the social environment were differentially important in explaining changes in various indices of motivation and engagement. In general, however, students’ perceptions of teacher support, and the teacher as promoting interaction and mutual respect were related to positive changes in their motivation and engagement. Students’ perceptions of the teacher as promoting performance goals were related to negative changes in student motivation and engagement. Implications for recent educational reform initiatives were also discussed.

The Classroom Environment and Students' Reports of Avoidance Strategies in Mathematics: A Multimethod Study.

The relation between the learning environment (e.g., students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structure and teachers’ instructional discourse) and students’ reported use of avoidance strategies (selfhandicapping, avoidance of help seeking) and preference to avoid novelty in mathematics was examined. Quantitative analyses indicated that students’ reports of avoidance behaviors varied significantly among classrooms. A perceived emphasis on mastery goals in the classroom was positively related to lower reports of avoidance. Qualitative analyses revealed that teachers in high-mastery/low-avoidance and low-mastery/high-avoidance classrooms used distinctively different patterns of instructional and motivational discourse. High incidence of motivational support was uniquely characteristic of high-mastery/ low-avoidance classrooms, suggesting that mastery goals may include an affective component. Implications of the results for both theory and practice are discussed.

A Qualitative Exploration of Adolescents’ Commitment to Athletics and the Arts:

This study sought to enhance, through qualitative methods, an understanding of the factors that influence adolescents’commitments to extracurricular activities over time. We obtained semistructured interview data from 41 adolescents who had been highly involved in athletics or the arts since middle childhood. We examined their interpretations of the factors that supported or hindered their continued involvement in these activities over the years. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed that psychological factors, perceptions of the context, and emerging identity all played a role in decisions to remain involved or quit. Perceived competence and peer relationships emerged as important psychological factors, whereas perceptions of challenge and costs and benefits were important contextual influences. We discuss implications of the findings for the implementation of extracurricular programs that support adolescent development.

Differential Profiles of Students Identified by Their Teacher as Having Avoidant, Appropriate, or Dependent Help-Seeking Tendencies in the Classroom.

In Study 1, teachers identified 6th-grade students (N = 844) as having 1 of 3 help-seeking behavioral tendencies in the classroom: avoidant, appropriate, or dependent. More students were identified as having appropriate (65%) than avoidant (22%) or dependent (13%) help-seeking tendencies. Student self-reports of help avoidance were in line with teacher reports. In Study 2, students displaying different help-seeking tendencies in math class differed from each other in self-reported motivational, affective, relational, and achievement-related ways. In general, avoidant help seekers had a more maladaptive profile compared with appropriate help seekers. In general, dependent help seekers had an adaptive profile regarding social relationships (similar to appropriate help seekers) but a maladaptive profile regarding anxiety, academic efficacy, and achievement (similar to avoidant help seekers).

How Does Motivation Develop and Why Does It Change? Reframing Motivation Research

In this article, we argue for a change in how researchers study motivation to learn. We believe that research can provide better explanations of the origins and outcomes of behavior, and thus be more useful, if we focus on how motivation develops and why it changes. We suggest reframing motivation research in education by extending the current focus on beliefs to studying the transactions among persons engaged in specific classroom activities over time. We present one approach from developmental psychology—Rogoffs three planes—that attempts to account for this transaction. We then present examples of current motivation research to illustrate how this approach has been applied. We believe that using this framework can produce new results that are meaningful for both researchers and practitioners who want to understand and foster motivation in education.

Patterns of Young Children's Motivation for Science and Teacher-Child Relationships

In this article, the authors examined whether there were different motivational profiles within a sample of kindergarteners (N = 110) learning science. The authors identified 3 profiles involving childrens perceived competence in, liking, and ease of learning science by using cluster analysis. High motivational beliefs characterized the largest profile. Low competence but high liking characterized a smaller group, and another group reported low liking with moderate competence. These profiles did not differ by gender, race, early academic achievement, or classroom. However, children with the low-competence and high-liking profile reported less teacher support for learning than did children with high motivational beliefs. Exploratory analysis also indicated that the nature and frequency of observed teacher-child interactions differed by motivational profile.

Achievement Goal Theory, Conceptualization of Ability/Intelligence, and Classroom Climate

In this chapter, we examine relations between achievement goal theory and student engagement. Achievement goal theorists generally examine two types of goals (mastery and performance goals), each of which has been conceptualized as having both approach and avoid components. After reviewing the history and development of achievement goal theory and describing the current four-factor model, we examine correlates of achievement goal orientations; these include students’ beliefs about intelligence, academic achievement, and engagement (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral). We then review research on classroom goal structures; we specifically examine how classroom contexts, as conceptualized through goal orientation theory, are related to student engagement. We also review instructional practices that are related to both mastery and performance goal structures and how those practices are related to academic achievement.

The Role of Educational Psychology in Teacher Education: Three Challenges for Educational Psychologists

We argue that this is a crucial time for educational psychology as a field to refocus its attention on the evidence base for its contribution to teacher education. In revisiting the recommendations of the APA Division 15 committee charged with examining the role of educational psychology in teacher education (Anderson et al., 1995), we note positive changes in educational psychology courses for preservice teachers. We then identify and discuss three immediate challenges for educational psychologists: (a) communicating the relevance of educational psychology research to the wider education community, (b) developing collaborative relationships with colleagues in teacher education programs that support a common discourse and shared vision of effective teacher preparation, and (c) documenting the ways that educational psychology courses make a difference to the practice of graduating teachers and to the educational experiences of their K–12 students. We conclude with suggestions for addressing these challenges.

What Kindergarten Students Learn in Inquiry-Based Science Classrooms

The purpose of this study was to examine how participation in an inquiry-based science program impacts kindergarten students’ science learning and motivation. The study was implemented as part of a larger, federally funded research project, the Scientific Literacy Project or SLP (Mantzicopoulos, Patrick, & Samarapungavan, 2005). The study provides descriptive data on the science learning and motivation of public kindergarten students who participated in a year-long implementation of a series of inquiry-based science units as part of SLP. The students who learned science through guided-inquiry (the INQ group) completed six inquiry-based science units over the course of the school year. Data were also collected from a group of kindergarten students (the COMP group) who received regular science instruction on a similar set of topics to the INQ group but did not use the inquiry-based SLP approach to science. Data from this latter group helped us better understand the extent to which the patterns of conceptual development observed in the children who learned science through inquiry could be attributed to the features of the research-based SLP curriculum rather than other factors like maturation or the mere exposure to any science instruction. There were 186 students who participated in the study (118 INQ and 68 COMP students). A variety of measures, including researcher-developed measures of learning and motivation as well as standardized measures of achievement, were administered to both groups. Statistical analyses of pre and posttest performance showed that INQ students made significant gains across all measures of science learning from the beginning to the end of the school year. They developed an enhanced functional understanding of scientific inquiry.

“We Learn How to Predict and be a Scientist”: Early Science Experiences and Kindergarten Children's Social Meanings About Science

We examine kindergarten childrens emerging social meanings about science as a function of their participation in integrated science inquiry and literacy activities associated with the Scientific Literacy Project (SLP). We describe changes in 123 SLP kindergarten childrens narrative accounts of learning science in school during three different time periods: (a) in September, before the onset of SLP activities; (b) in December, after children had participated in 17 lessons associated with 4 SLP units; and (c) in March, after children had participated in an additional 13 lessons associated with the SLP Marine Life unit. At the end of the year, we: (a) compare SLP childrens narratives about science to those of a group of children (n = 70) who only experienced the regular kindergarten program; and (b) examine differences between SLP and comparison childrens reports on a measure of learning activities in kindergarten that include science as well as privileged content areas such as reading, writing, and learning about numbers and shapes. Results support the conclusion that sustained and meaningful participation in conceptually coherent science programs is crucial for children to develop meanings about science as a distinct academic domain that comprises its own disciplinary content, language, and processes.