Understanding and Influencing Academic Motivation

Part I: Motivating students

The unmotivated youngster:

• Has little interest or curiosity in acquiring formal academic information

• Resists initiating learning activities• Fails to see meaningful reasons to try to learn• Is not engaged while performing schoolwork• Puts out little or no effort• Does not persist, particularly when frustrated

The motivated youngster:

• Displays curiosity and a desire to learn

• Willingly approaches learning tasks

• Is engaged while learning

• Exerts effort

• Sustains effort until the learning task is completed

Motivated youngsters tend to have:

• Perceptions that school tasks are interesting, important, and relevant

• Positive expectations for success and a positive academic self-image

• A feeling of control or sense of efficacy

There are two main types of goals or beliefs as to the purpose of trying at school:

• Mastery goals which involve: - a desire to learn

- feel competent - make relative progress

- Key means to success is effort• Performance goals which involve:

- a desire to gain favorable judgments- outperform others - Key means to success is successfully competing

with others

Mastery goals tend to be associated with:

• Relatively greater effort and persistence

• Higher self-esteem

• Less anxiety about school performance

Youngsters who have chronically failed at school tend to be:

• Hopeless• Helpless• Disengaged and withdrawn• Unable to persist when frustrated• Embarrassed to ask for help• Avoidant and procrastinating, at times to preserve

self-esteem• Preoccupied with thoughts that they are

permanently flawed

A youngster’s expectations in regard to school success are often based on inaccurate premises

• Perceptions or interpretations critical• In particular, whether cause perceived as internal or

external, and/or stable or unstable• When perceived as internal and stable, more likely to feel

hopeless and self-critical• When perceived, at least in part, as external and unstable

more likely to feel hopeful and willing to expend effort

Clinicians need to:

• Check accuracy of “facts” about school failure• Elicit basis of interpretation• In particular, question beliefs about intelligence• See if positive information is being ignored • See if negative information is being

overemphasized• See if global, permanent deficits are assumed• Provide honest, corrective information

Interventions to affect academic motivation need to emphasize:

• Importance of effort• That effort can compensate for limitations in ability• Personal progress is key• Not relative standing or attainment of particular grades• Obtaining emotional and instrumental support when

needed• A problem-solving, experimental approach

Self-efficacy is a key ingredient in academic motivation

• Relates to the belief, “I can do it”

• Opposite is learned helplessness; belief “Nothing I do will make a difference”

• Requires opportunities to be self-reliant so youngster can feel “sense of agency”

Essence of self-determination is ability to choose

• Choices likely to motivate usually relate to considerations of self-interest

• Increases likelihood goals will be seen as relevant and important

• Facilitates feelings of control by highlighting youngster’s role in outcome

A lack of choice is associated with:

• Resentment

• Resistance

• Seeing school tasks as irrelevant and unimportant

• Failure to take responsibility for outcomes

Regulation of attention critical to sustaining motivation; more likely

when:

• Have an organized study space

• Potential distractions are reduced or eliminated

• Routines are established and enacted “automatically” at set times and places

Self-monitoring linked to clear goals and standards provides:

• Well-defined criteria

• Guidelines to make adjustments in effort or actions

• A reference to evaluate performance

The importance of an aspired academic self-image or “possible self”

• Creates a target of guidelines and standards to “aim” for

• Provides a script to use to monitor and adjust behavior

• Can be attained either through “imaging” successful, familiar models or heroes

B. Overview of the Enhancing Academic Motivation Intervention

The intervention is intended to increase a youngster’s:

• Willingness to approach learning tasks

• Level of engagement while learning

• Level of effort

• Persistence

Planning considerations

• Sixteen-module intervention can either be a set of discrete, stand-alone learning experiences or an integrated series

• Number of meetings required to cover the material in a module varies based on the characteristics of participants and situational factors

Meeting each youngster individually prior to intervention helpful in order to:

• Explain nature and purpose of experience• Provide opportunity to develop a

relationship and allay anxiety • Assess quality of youngster’s current and

past academic motivation• Obtain baseline measure of academic

motivation using Academic Motivation Screen (AMS)

The components of each session include:

• Objectives• A knowledge base containing relevant background

information for leaders• A listing of needed materials• A detailed session plan providing a guided (not

scripted) approach to presenting information• Homework assignments to facilitate transfer of

training and allow for corrective feedback• A leader review checklist to track what has and has

not been covered

The effectiveness of the intervention can be assessed:

• Informally, using Academic Motivation Tracking Form, including “effort thermometer”; initial scores can be compared with scores obtained in final sessions

• More formally, comparing scores on these measures to comparison group of similar individuals who have not as yet received intervention (i.e. on waiting list)

C. Experiential exercise: To gain experience in conducting the intervention several simulated sessions

will be enacted

For each simulated session:

• Session objectives will be reviewed• A session overview will be presented• Volunteers will be chosen to lead the intervention and act

as group members• Each volunteer leader will enact a segment of the module.

He or she will then be replaced with another volunteer who will either restart the session, or continue it until the end of the module

• Volunteers will be given feedback using the “feedback sandwich” (i.e. pointing out first what was done well then what might have been done differently).