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Motivational Chartge in Transition Contexts:
Students' Theories of Success in Story Writing and Mathematics
Judith Anne MacCallum
B.Sc. (Hons) Dip.Ed. B.Ed.St. M.Ed.
This disse1iation is the report of an investigation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Murdoch University.
1997
I declare that this dissertation is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any university.
Abstract
This research project examined the nature of motivational change and its relation to the
contexts in which change occurs. A goal approach to motivation provided the
conceptual framework for examining a number of different facets of motivation. In
this approach it is the meaning students ascribe to their experiences that is crucial for
their motivation and motivational change. The motivation constructs used included
students' personal motivational goals, students' perceptions of their teacher's goals,
students' beliefs about the causes of academic success, students' self-perceptions of
competence and enjoyment, and achievement or school grades. In addition, students'
perceptions of the importance of different aspects of knowledge (substantive and
conventional), which are not usually considered to be motivational in nature, were also
examined.
In studying change or development, researchers traditionally have taken an 'individual'
perspective, virtually ignoring the contexts in which learning occurs, or have focused
on short term change in laboratory-type settings. This research explores motivational
change from a wider perspective, over both a significant 'natural' transition, the
transition from primary school to secondary school, and a substantial period of time.
Motivational change was explored in different ways depending on the constructs used
to examine it and the level of the context considered. Four main views of change were
examined: intraindividual change over time and over school contexts, intraindividual
change (variation) across regular subject area and challenge contexts, interindividual
differences in intraindividual change in the transition context (patterns of change), and
intraindividual-in-context change.
Using a longitudinal design, data were collected from two cohorts of students over a
period of 12 months. The main cohort made the transition from primary to secondary
school, while the second cohort was studied over the last two years of primary school.
ii
Each student was surveyed about two academic classroom contexts, mathematics and
story writing (English) on three separate occasions, once before and twice after the
transition. In addition, a subgroup of high ability students were asked about the
'challenge programme' for talented students they attended. Finally, a small group of
students exhibiting particular motivational patterns were interviewed before and after
the transition to secondary school.
The findings support the notion that different aspects of student motivation change in
various ways over the transition to secondary school, within different subject area
contexts and during the school year. As motivational change varied for different
students, only considering group change can mask interindividual differences in
change. Even within groups of students with similar patterns of motivational change
the context and the student interrelate in different ways. At the individual level, not
only do students with different goals have different concerns in learning settings, but
they appear to create, and respond to, their own contexts of change. It appears from the
findings that an ego orientation may play a role in the development of task goals and
that the value placed on different aspects of knowledge may be important in the decline
of task-involved goals.
The unique contribution of this research is the investigation of a range of motivation
constructs using different views of motivational change with the same group of
individuals over time-related contexts and within different contexts, allowing a broader
conceptualisation of motivational change to be formed. This holistic view shows
motivational change to be multifaceted and complex. It is concluded that educators
need to acknowledge the diversity and breadth of students' motivational goals and the
multiple contexts in which motivational change occurs for individual students. Rather
than considering transitions as having a negative impact on student motivation, school
administrators and teachers need to take advantage of the opportunities for facilitating
students' task involvement over within-school and new school transitions.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to my supervisors, Dr Peter Renshaw, Dr Simone Volet and
Associate Professor Ralph Straton. To Peter for his assistance in the early
stages of conceptualisation and data collection and his continued support as a
mentor and friend. To Simone and Ralph for 'taking me on half way through'
and especially for their patience, guidance and support in the lengthy writing
phase.
Special thanks are due to the principals, teachers and students of the six
primary schools and one secondary school involved in the main study, the
three schools involved in the pilot and reliability studies, and especially to the
ten students who willingly gave their time for interviews over a period of
several years. Thanks are also due to the Commonwealth of Australia and
Murdoch University for financial assistance in the form of Postgraduate
Awards.
Lastly, thanks to my family for their love and encouragement. To Catherine,
Tim and Martin who variously stimulated my thinking about motivational
change, frustrated my endeavours and encouraged me to complete 'the book'.
A special thanks to Catherine who made the transition to secondary school at
the time of the study and acted as a guinea pig and sounding board for many
of my questions. To my parents and to Howard who took the children on
holidays on numerous occasions so Mum could get on with it, and never
waivered in their confidence in my ability to successfully complete the project.
iii
Figure 2.2
The Antecedents of Meaning and of Personal Investment
47
In keeping with the wider framework, Maehr (1984; Maehr & Braskamp, 1986)
proposes four categories of goals (in the educational context) or personal incentives (in
the workplace context): task (accomplishment), ego (power), social solidarity (affiliation)
and extrinsic rewards (recognition). In placing the incentives on a possible intrinsic to
extrinsic continuum he shows connections to the work of the intrinsic motivation
theorists and the research on extrinsic rewards (e.g. Deci & Ryan, 1985; Lepper, Greene
& Nisbett, 1973). He also acknowledges the source of some of his thinking about
53
Perceptions of Classroom Climate
Ames and Archer (1988) operationalise mastery and performance goals in terms of actual
classroom dimensions (see Table 2.2). Most of the dimensions cover aspects of the task,
evaluation and recognition components of the classroom, but aspects of autonomy do not
appear to be explicitly covered.
Close examination of the dimensions and individual items reveals that Ames'
conceptualisation covers a wider range of dimensions than does that of Nicholls and
Maehr. Some refer to student's own priorities, such as definition of success, what is
valued, reasons for satisfaction, and reasons for effort, which are similar to the aspects
covered in Nicholls' orientation scales (e.g. In this class ... / work hard to learn), others
to the perceived emphasis of other students (students want to know how others score on
assignments and tests), and others to perceptions of the teacher's own orientation and
behaviours (the teacher doesn't want us to make mistakes). Nolen's (1990c) criticism of
the mixed referents (student, other students and teacher) included in each single goal
measure is well founded and in a study of change may confound the focus of the changes
that occur.
Table 2.2
Achievement Goal Analysis of Classroom Climate
Ames' scales ask students to rate their agreement with statements concerning their
perceptions of these characteristics in a particular classroom and thus specify the learning