Lia M. Daniels

A Review of Attributional Retraining Treatments: Fostering Engagement and Persistence in Vulnerable College Students

Pursuing a university degree intermixes intellectual ability, content knowledge, emotional stamina, unflagging motivation, and goal striving with diverse learning environments. The academic aspirations of students, however, often belie the realities of unanticipated obstacles along the way that thwart eventual success. Motivation and performance can be undermined through unfamiliar and unpredictable learning experiences involving heightened competition, increased pressure to excel, more frequent failure, novel assignments, ineffective instruction, stringent grading practices, critical career choices, and new social networks. These situations can lead to a paradox of failure in which bright, enthusiastic, and capable students underperform in university, or quit outright. In response, various educational interventions have been developed by postsecondary institutions to rectify escalating attrition rates. Attributional retraining (AR) is a motivation-enhancing treatment designed to offset the dysfunctional explanatory thinking that can arise from unsatisfactory learning experiences. This chapter describes the theoretical framework and empirical evidence underpinning AR as an effective motivation treatment for assisting failure-prone students in higher education settings.

Attributional (Explanatory) Thinking about Failure in New Achievement Settings.

Attributional (explanatory) thinking involves the appraisal of factors that contribute to performance and is instrumental to motivation and goal striving. Little is understood, however, concerning attributional thinking when multiple causes are involved in the transition to new achievement settings. Our study examined such complex attributional thinking in the transition from high school to university, a shift from familiar to novel learning environments, in the context of Weiner’s attribution theory (1972, 1985, 1995, 2006). At the start of the academic year, students rated the extent to which each of six common attributions contributed to poor performance to ascertain their relative importance to each other. A fixed order of attributions was reported as contributing to poor performance that was identical across five independent cohorts of first-year students (effort, test difficulty, strategy, professor quality, ability, luck, respectively). Cluster analysis revealed that students differed in combining these attributions into clusters suggesting diminished or enhanced control over poor performance. These differences in attribution clusters were associated with cognitive and affective outcomes at the start of Term 1, and with course grades and GPA at the end of Term 2. Student differences in complex attributional thinking are discussed in terms of transitions to new achievement settings.RésuméLa pensée (explication) attributionnelle, impliquant l’appréhension des facteurs contribuant à la performance, participe de la motivation et de la poursuite des buts. Néanmoins, la pensée attributionnelle a été peu explorée lorsque de nombreuses causes sont impliquées par la transition vers un nouveau contexte d’accomplissement. Notre étude examine, dans le cadre de la théorie attributionnelle de Weiner (1972, 1985, 1995, 2006), une telle pensée attributionnelle complexe lors de la transition du lycée à l’université, c’est-à-dire lors du passage d’un environnement d’apprentissage familier à un nouvel environnement d’apprentissage. Au début de l’année universitaire, les étudiants ont évalué la mesure dans laquelle six attributions consensuelles contribuaient à la faible performance, ce qui a permis de mesurer leur importance relative. Un pattern spécifique d’attributions, identiques à travers cinq cohortes d’étudiants de première année, a été identifiée comme contribuant à la faible performance (respectivement effort, difficulté des épreuves, stratégie, qualité des enseignants, capacité et chance). Une analyse en clusters a indiqué que les étudiants différaient dans la combinaison de ces attributions, ce qui suggère un plus ou moins grand contrôle sur la faible performance. Ces différences clusters attributionnels étaient liés aux cognitions et affects au Temps 1 (Octobre), et avec les résultats universitaires et le GPA au Temps 2 (Mars). Ces différences dans la pensée attributionnelle complexe sont discutées en rapport avec les changements de contextes d’accomplissement.

The Effect of Attributional Retraining on Mastery and Performance Motivation Among First-Year College Students

Motivation can be undermined among first-year college students as they face a multitude of unanticipated challenges during the transition from high school to college (Compas, Wagner, Slavin, & Vannatta, 1986; Perry, Hall, & Ruthig, 2005). As a consequence, approximately 27% of first-year students do not return for the second year of college (Feldman, 2005). First-year college students (N = 336) participated in a study to examine the efficacy of an Attributional Retraining (AR) treatment designed to increase motivation and enhance academic achievement. Employing a pre–post study design spanning an academic year, we examined the impact of AR on student motivation as operationalized in terms of mastery and performance goals. Findings indicated that AR increased mastery motivation but did not affect performance motivation. Findings also demonstrated that mastery motivation mediated the relationship between AR and grade point average, suggesting that mastery motivation is a key mechanism of AR. Findings are discussed in terms of conceptual contributions to both the AR and achievement motivation literatures, and practical implications are outlined.

A Cross-Cultural Validation of the Learning-Related Boredom Scale (LRBS) With Canadian and Chinese College Students

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Learning-Related Boredom Scale (LRBS) from the Academic Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ; Pekrun, Goetz, & Perry, 2005; Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002) in a sample of 405 university students from Canada and China. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factor structure and measurement invariance of the LRBS across cultural settings, after which the relationships between the LRBS, boredom frequency in class, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy for self-regulated learning (SESRL) were examined. Results showed evidence of reliability and measurement invariance of the LRBS, and the relationships between the LRBS, boredom frequency, and SESRL were similar across settings. The study thus provided evidence that learning-related boredom is a valid construct across culturally diverse school settings and supported the use of the LRBS in both Canadian and Chinese student populations.

From pre-service to practicing teacher: considering the stability of personal and classroom mastery and performance goals

Research shows that personal and classroom goals are important for pre-service and practicing teachers’ personal and professional outcomes; however, no research has examined changes to these types of motivation across the transition from student to teacher. This study followed pre-service teachers (n = 47) into practise and assessed changes in self-reported personal and classroom goals using surveys and focus groups. Correlations, repeated measures analysis of covariance and reliable change indices were used to assess stability/change in the quantitative data. Qualitative data were analysed for themes and largely supported the quantitative results. The results showed that teachers were at least as personally oriented towards mastery-approach in their practice as they were during their pre-service education but less personally performance focused. In terms of classroom goals, performance practices increased whereas mastery practices decreased, particularly for secondary school teachers. Although practicing teachers are personally mastery-oriented in their teaching, their intentions to establish classroom mastery goals appear difficult to enact in practice.

Emotional and Social Engagement in a Massive Open Online Course: An Examination of Dino 101

Abstract Broadly defined as the connection between the learner and his or her learning, student engagement is a motivational construct involving behavioral, cognitive, emotional and social components. Although all four components of engagement have been linked to greater effort, persistence, enjoyment, interest, and achievement, emotional and social engagement may be particularly influential in the massive open online course (MOOC) environment, because literally tens of thousands of people participate, resulting in countless opportunities for both pleasant and unpleasant emotions and social connections. In this chapter, we use quantitative and qualitative data to describe MOOC learners’ emotional and social engagement, pointing out places of convergence and divergence with theory.

Affective Profiles in a Massive Open Online Course and Their Relationship with Engagement

The importance of affect in learning has been firmly established in face-to-face learning environments and now researchers are examining the roles of affect in online learning environments, including massive open online courses (MOOCs). The purpose of this research was to identify profiles of common achievement emotions (i.e., relief, anxiety, boredom, and guilt) over the duration of one MOOC and examine the differences in academic engagement. Results from the Latent Profile Analysis revealed unique affective profiles, and these profiles differed significantly in cognitive, behavioural and social engagement in the MOOC. Our findings therefore highlight the importance of understanding affective profiles in MOOCs and address potential difficulties to engage these learners with a vast diversity in backgrounds.

Relationships between Pre-Service Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment, Approaches to Instruction, and Assessment: An Achievement Goal Theory Perspective.

Abstract The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationships between pre-service teachers’ conceptions of assessment and their intended approaches to classroom instruction and assessment. We operationalised approaches to instruction and assessment according to Achievement Goal Theory, postulating that pre-service teachers approach instruction and assessment from either a mastery or performance perspective. The results from a correlational study of 344 Canadian pre-service teachers showed that intended instruction and assessment practices were separated according to mastery and performance approaches. However, there was also alignment between the concepts such that pre-service teachers who had a mastery approach to instruction were more inclined towards a mastery approach to assessment. Approaches to assessment were also related to pre-service teachers’ conceptions: beliefs that assessment holds students and schools accountable were positively related to a performance approach to assessment. In contrast, a belief that assessment improves teaching was positively related to a mastery approach to assessment and negatively to a performance approach. We discuss relationships between conceptions of assessment, approaches to classroom instruction and assessment as conceptualised from an Achievement Goal Theory perspective.

Combinations of Personal Responsibility: Differences on Pre-service and Practicing Teachers’ Efficacy, Engagement, Classroom Goal Structures and Wellbeing

Pre-service and practicing teachers feel responsible for a range of educational activities. Four domains of personal responsibility emerging in the literature are: student achievement, student motivation, relationships with students, and responsibility for ones own teaching. To date, most research has used variable-centered approaches to examining responsibilities even though the domains appear related. In two separate samples we used cluster analysis to explore how pre-service (n = 130) and practicing (n = 105) teachers combined personal responsibilities and their impact on three professional cognitions and their wellbeing. Both groups had low and high responsibility clusters but the third cluster differed: Pre-service teachers combined responsibilities for relationships and their own teaching in a cluster we refer to as teacher-based responsibility; whereas, practicing teachers combined achievement and motivation in a cluster we refer to as student-outcome focused responsibility. These combinations affected outcomes for pre-service but not practicing teachers. Pre-service teachers in the low responsibility cluster reported less engagement, less mastery approaches to instruction, and more performance goal structures than the other two clusters.

A Cross-National Validation of the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory With Chinese and Korean High School Students

The current study provided evidence for the factor structure of the Academic Expectation Stress Inventory (AESI) in a sample of 213 Mainland Chinese and 184 South Korean high school students. We examined cross-national invariance of the AESI using multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis across two Asian cultural samples. Results suggested a unidimension rather than two-factor structure (self and teachers/parents) in both settings. Results also showed evidence of reliability, convergent validity (significant correlations with depression, emotional exhaustion, and cynicism), and divergent validity (nonsignificant correlations with amotivation and efficacy reduction). ANCOVA results indicated that perceived overall academic expectation stress was significantly higher among Mainland Chinese students than for their South Korean counterparts. Furthermore, there were no differences between males and females for the Korean adolescents while females reported higher expectation scores than males in the Chinese adolescent sample.