Jeannine E. Turner

Expectancy-value relationships of shame reactions and shame resiliency

This study investigated expectancy-value predictors for experiencing shame from test feedback and the possible consequences of these shame reactions. Those who experienced shame included a broader range of students than previously thought, including some high achievers who had high self-perceptions of competence. Main expectancy-value predictors of shame were lower self-efficacy ratings and higher intrinsic as well as extrinsic goal orientations. Also, although having important future goals for which the course had instrumental value was not predictive of inducing shame, such goals appeared to exert influence on whether a person would be resilient from a shame reaction with increased motivation, motivated behavior, and higher academic exam scores. If students believe they have the capabilities and are committed to a clear future goal for which the course grade or course information is relevant, then a shame reaction may be a warning signal that current actions are not in line with future goal attainment. For these students, a personal evaluation of goal commitment may result in increased motivated behavior.

To be or not to be … a teacher? Exploring levels of commitment related to perceptions of teaching among students enrolled in a teacher education program

The present study explored the relationships of preservice teachers’ levels of commitment to teaching and their beliefs and perceptions of teaching as a career. Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in a teacher education program at a major university in the southeast. Sixty‐seven preservice teachers completed a survey in which they rated the importance of 20 factors for influencing their choice of career. Additionally, among the survey respondents, nine students were selected from three groups of preservice teachers for in‐depth interviews: (1) students who were currently considering teaching as a career choice, (2) students who were undecided about their future teaching career, and (3) students who were no longer considering teaching as a career. Overall, findings from this study revealed that preservice teachers’ understanding of their goal of becoming teachers and interpretations of their motivation for teaching were unique, yet the types of influences on their career choices were similar across participants’ stories.

Effects of a collaborative annotation method on students' learning and learning-related motivation and affect

Two studies tested the effectiveness of a web-based collaborative annotation system (Hy-Lighter) for learning comprehension, and learning-related affect and motivation. In an undergraduate course setting, students (N=27) in study 1, (1) highlighted and annotated selected articles, and (2) highlighted and annotated selected articles and reviewed peer highlights and annotations. In a graduate course setting, students (N=40) in study 2, (1) highlighted and annotated selected articles, and (2) highlighted and annotated selected articles and reviewed peer highlights and annotations. Control groups in both studies read a hard copy of the articles -without using HyLighter and engaging in its associated annotation practices. The main dependent variables included: (a) performance on quizzes, and (b) a number of affective and motivational variables related to reading assignments and academic success. Although not statistically significant, summative assessment scores were higher for students using HyLigther relative to the ones exposed to conventional instruction. HyLighter use also seemed to be associated with more positive affect in undergraduate students relative to their graduate counterparts. Somewhat equivocal findings between the two studies were attributed to the differential implementation of the software in and outside of the classroom. Recommendations for optimal use and desired outcomes were advanced.

Motivation When Optimism Declines: Data on Temporal Dynamics

To contribute to a description of motivation variables across time, the authors examined temporal changes in these variables as the time to pursue a test-taking goal approached. In three samples, expected performance, grade-level standards, and perceived adequacy of effort decreased as the test time approached, but other indices of motivation did not always decrease. Data indicated that (a) there is a strong relationship between expectancies and implicit goal setting, (b) students may sometimes change goal levels and definitions of success to maintain their desire for chosen goals despite declining expectations, (c) effects of event proximity on goal-achievement expectations may be based on overestimating the adequacy of future effort, and (d) the degree to which expectancy and value predict motivation appears to vary with exam proximity. Results revealed a temporal complexity in motivation variables and in the relationships among them.

Implementing High-Quality Educational Reform Efforts: An Interpersonal Circumplex Model Bridging Social and Personal Aspects of Teachers’ Motivation

Professional-development is often a catalyst for transforming research-based theories and findings into best-teaching-practices and increased student-achievement within whole-school reform efforts. In the following chapter, we present a theoretical model that integrates social aspects of personal motivation (i.e., Self-Determination Theory), personal aspects of motivation (i.e., Control-Value Theory), and circumplex models of interpersonal relationships to understand factors that affect teachers’ implementation of promising ideas presented in professional development. From a Self-Determination Theory perspective, individuals’ intrinsic motivation is facilitated through environmental supports of three elements: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. From a Control-Value Theory perspective individuals’ motivations and emotional correspondents are due to personal judgments regarding issues of personal control (e.g., agency/self-efficacy) and personal values (e.g., goals). We integrate these theories, and present a circumplex model to describe two primary dimensions of principals’ interactional behaviors that provide overt and covert messages about their support (or lack of support) for teachers’ autonomy and competence. We propose that principals’ supportive or unsupportive behaviors merge with teachers’ personal values and perceptions of control to shape teachers’ motivations for implementing high-quality professional development for whole-school reform.

Goal Orientation, Goal Difficulty, and Incentive Values of Academic Goals

We examined relationships among goal attributes (difficulty and affective value) and goal types (mastery, performance, intrinsic, and extrinsic). Goal attributes of positive affect value and relative salience of positive value were higher for intrinsic goals, mastery goals, and more difficult goals, qualified by an interaction between difficulty and type of goal. Intrinsic goals were more affectively positive than extrinsic goals and mastery goals were more positive than performance goals, but these differences vanished if goals were also perceived as difficult. Results were consistent with goal-orientation theories and suggest the usefulness of integrating incentive-attribute concepts with goal-orientation theories.

The role of pre-service teachers’ perceived instrumentality, goal commitment, and motivation in their self-regulation strategies for learning in teacher education courses

ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of pre-service teachers’ (n = 142) perceived endogenous/exogenous instrumentality, goal commitment, and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation on their use of self-regulation strategies (effort regulation, management of time and study environment) for their teacher-education courses. Data were drawn from a customised survey and were statistically analysed using hierarchical multiple regressions. Results demonstrated that pre-service teachers’ endogenous instrumentality was a significant contributor for explaining their use of self-regulation strategies. To facilitate pre-service teachers’ use of self-regulation strategies for learning, our findings suggest that, in addition to having intrinsic motivation for learning in their teacher-education courses, they need to have appropriate understandings of how their current course content connects to their future goals to be teachers in order to promote their use of strategies for self-regulation and learning.

Teaching Motivations, Characteristics and Professional Growth: Results from the Great Expectations (GE) Programme in the United States.

This present study sought to explore reasons given by K-12 teachers about their motivation to remain in teaching, their motivation for engaging in professional development, and characteristics of their teaching. Participants (N = 151) were public teachers of different grade levels from the USA enrolled in a one-week professional development training. Respondents’ ratings on reasons for continuing teaching revealed that four key-specific factors were the main influences for continuing to teach, namely intrinsic reasons, extrinsic reasons, job perception, and extended reasons. Further analysis indicated that their reasons for teaching were correlated with specific incentives for attending the professional development training, with teachers’ instructional beliefs, and with professional development programme outcomes. Study results are discussed in relationship with teaching motivation and implications for teachers’ professional growth.

Cross-Cultural Evaluation of Item Wording Effects on an Attitudinal Scale

Previous studies have shown that method effects associated with item wording produce artifactual factors and threaten scale validity. This study examines item wording effects on a scale of attitudes toward learning mathematics for Taiwanese and U.S. samples. Analyses from a series of CFA (confirmatory factor analysis) models support the presence of method effects for both samples. In addition, findings show that U.S. students tended to report higher means on not only the substantive factors but also the method factor, compared to Taiwanese students. The effect sizes on the mean differences are medium to large.

Extensive knowledge integration strategies in pre-service teachers: the role of perceived instrumentality, motivation, and self-regulation

Abstract This study investigated contributions of pre-service teachers’ endogenous and exogenous instrumentalities, their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and their use of self-regulation strategies to explain the extent to which they used strategies to purposefully integrate their knowledge across courses (extensive knowledge integration). With a total of 254 pre-service teachers’ survey-responses, results of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that their endogenous instrumentality of their current coursework (i.e. seeing their course work as instrumentally connected to their future careers), their use of metacognitive strategies and their use of deeper cognitive learning strategies (e.g. elaboration and critical thinking) contributed to explaining their use of extensive knowledge integration strategies for completing coursework. Our results suggest that to develop pre-service teachers’ teaching expertise, they may need to (a) have a strong understanding that the current course content and their future goals are instrumentally linked, (b) be able to initiate planning and self-monitoring for learning and (c) use strategies for deep learning that integrates their knowledge across courses.