Understanding motivational structures that differentially predict engagement and achievement in middle school science

Middle school has been documented as the period in which a drop in students’ science interest and achievement occurs. This trend indicates a lack of motivation for learning science; however, little is known about how different aspects of motivation interact with student engagement and science learning outcomes. This study examines the relationships among motivational factors, engagement, and achievement in middle school science (grades 6–8). Data were obtained from middle school students in the United States (N?=?2094). The theoretical relationships among motivational constructs, including self-efficacy, and three types of goal orientations (mastery, performance approach, and performance avoid) were tested. The results showed that motivation is best modeled as distinct intrinsic and extrinsic factors; lending evidence that external, performance based goal orientations factor separately from self-efficacy and an internal, mastery based goal orientation. Second, a model was tested to examine how engagement mediated the relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors and science achievement. Engagement mediated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and science achievement, whereas extrinsic motivation had no relationship with engagement and science achievement. Implications for how classroom practice and educational policy emphasize different student motivations, and in turn, can support or hinder students’ science learning are discussed.     

Using Mobile Devices to Connect Teachers and Museum Educators

The use of mobile devices is increasing rapidly as a potential tool for science teaching. In this study, five educators (three middle school teachers and two museum educators) used a mobile application that supported the development of a driving question. Previous studies have noted that teachers make little effort to connect learning experiences between classrooms and museums, and few studies have focused on creating connections between teachers and museum educators. In this study, teachers and museum educators created an investigation together by designing a driving question in conjunction with the research group before field trips. During field trips, students collected their own data using iPods or iPads to take pictures or record videos of the exhibits. When students returned to the school, they used the museum data with their peers as they tried to answer the driving question. After completing the field trips, five educators were interviewed to investigate their experiences with designing driving questions and using mobile devices. Besides supporting students in data collection during the field trip, using mobile devices helped teachers to get the museum back to the classroom. Designing the driving question supported museum educators and teachers to plan the field trip collaboratively.     

Motivationale Aspekte von schulischen Besuchen in naturwissenschaftlich-technischen Museen

Museums are very popular for school excursions. One of their most important aims is to foster the visitors’ interest for the presented topics. Especially with regard to natural science, it is important to question to what extent this learning environment can indeed foster students’ learning motivation. The research presented here is based on the concept of situational interest. In two studies, the goals and the design of school museum visits as well as the impact of the design, the perceived support of basic needs, and the perceived content relevance for students’ situational interest were investigated. For this purpose a postal survey of 227 teachers of natural science was conducted on their goals and design of school visits to museums. Furthermore, 344 pupils of grades 7 and 8 (14 classes) were surveyed in a written questionnaire regarding their situational interest during the visit and on aspects of the design of the visit. The results show the high relevance of motivational aspects for the use of museums as learning environments.     

Science identity trajectories throughout school visits to a science museum

Research has repeatedly demonstrated how informal learning environments afford science-identity development by fostering a broader array of interactions and recognizing more varied participation modes and roles, as compared to the classroom. Thus, science teachers are encouraged to take students to field trips in informal environments, including science museums. However, the question of whether and how informal environments indeed support science identities also in a schooling context (i.e., in field trips) has not yet been explored. This case study addresses this question by analyzing identity trajectories of three students throughout six school visits to an Israeli science museum. We observed and recorded these students in the museum over the course of 3 years (fourth to sixth grade). We also visited their school and interviewed them after each visit. Drawing on a sociocultural interactional approach to identity, we analyzed 18 hr of video and audio recordings, tracking the participation of the three students across time and contexts, comparing between the students, points in time and settings, including structured (museum lab), semi-structured (riddle-solving activities in exhibition halls), and unstructured settings (free exploration). We employed linguistic ethnographic methods and microanalysis to examine the ways in which the students participated and their positioning by self and others. While we found differences between settings within the museum, overall, the findings show that the museum reproduced the school's interaction, positioning, and roles. The “(non)science person” in school was also the “(non)science person” in the museum, and thus, the museum visits did not appear to shift identity trajectories. These findings challenge the premise that informal environments support the development of science identities also in a schooling context and call for a more critical view of such fieldtrips in terms of their pedagogical and physical design, facilitation approach, and consideration of peers' social interaction.     

The impact of a museum travelling exhibition on middle school teachers and students from rural,low-income homes

Schools may be places of learning, but a great deal of learning occurs outside of school. A growing body of literature investigates how school field trips allow rural students to make real-life connections with their school curriculum. This paper contributes to that area of research by describing how students from five middle schools in the United States responded to a travelling museum exhibition hosted at a non-museum site. The authors explore the impact of the exhibition on students from poor, rural backgrounds, discussing how it helped them to engage with themes such as freedom of expression, democracy, citizenship and Holocaust education. The results show that, by connecting curricular content with real-life situations, field trips such as this have the potential to change not only students’ understanding of the curriculum, but also their teachers’ estimation of their abilities.     

Supporting Teachers on Science‐focused School Trips: Towards an integrated framework of theory and practice

Although science centres and museums are important educational resources, school trips to these places are not often conducted in a manner that could maximise learning. In addressing this issue, a Framework for Museum Practice (FMP) is proposed, derived from the perspectives of Cultural Historical Activity Theory, theories of intrinsic motivation, and research into conceptual learning. It is hypothesised that this theoretically derived framework, if implemented by museum educators, can potentially lead to the creation of resources for teachers that would enable them to make better use of the learning opportunities afforded by school trips, and to maximise the impact on pupil learning, including their affective experience. This paper also describes how the framework was used to guide the development of resources to be used in conjunction with a science museum trip. The resources were tested by two primary school teachers and their classes, and the data were analysed for evidence of teacher and student behaviour consistent with the design principles in the FMP. Findings lend some empirical support for the FMP and suggest that it may offer a guide for the development of museum‐provided resources, which would have the potential to improve the utilisation by teachers of informal science institutions and, consequently, their impact on pupil learning.     

Cross-grade analysis of Chinese students’ English learning motivation: a mixed-methods study

This mixed-methods study investigated the changes in Chinese students’ motivation to learn English from elementary to high school and explored the reasons for these changes at different school levels. A motivational questionnaire was designed and administered to 3,777 elementary, junior high, and high school students, and follow-up interviews were then conducted with nine students in order to investigate their perceptions of their motivations. Seven subcomponents of motivation were identified. The statistical results revealed that junior high school students had the highest learning motivation, followed by those in elementary school and those in high school. The interview data indicated that parents’ positive influence on students’ English learning motivation was greater for junior high school students compared to elementary and high school students. Furthermore, the pressure of the college entrance examination had a negative influence on high school students’ motivation to learn English. Based on the findings of this study, suggestions for further research are provided.     

Motivation and learning physics

Being involved in science education we cannot avoid confronting the problem of students' waning interest in physics. Therefore, we want to focus on arguments developed by new theoretical work in the field of motivation. Especially, we are attracted by the theory of motivation featured by Deci and Ryan, because it is related to an assumptions of human development similar to our own approach. Beneath elements of cognitive development, motivation is seen as a basic concept to describe students' learning in a physics classroom. German students at lower and upper secondary level regard physics as very difficult to learn, very abstract and dominated by male students. As a result physics at school continuously loses importance and acceptance although a lot of work has been done to modernise and develop the related physics courses. We assume that knowing about the influence of motivation on learning physics may lead to new insights in the design of classroom settings. Referring to Deci and Ryan, we use a model of motivation to describe the influence of two different teaching strategies (teacher and discourse oriented) on learning. Electrostatics was taught in year 8. The outcomes of a questionnaire which is able to evaluate defined, motivational states are compared with the interpretation of the same student's interaction in the related situation of the physics classroom. The scales of the questionnaire and the categories of analysis of the video-recording are derived from the same model of motivation.     

The effects of an active learning intervention in biology on college students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions,motivation, and achievement

This study examined differences in students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs between those enrolled in undergraduate Biology courses that implemented an innovative, active learning intervention and those enrolled in traditional Biology courses (control group). This study also sought to determine whether students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs mediated the effect of the intervention on course grades. Participants were 962 college students attending a large US public university. Students self-selected into one of the biology courses were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Multiple regression analyses indicated that students receiving the intervention reported greater instructor support, a perception of higher expectations for understanding (academic press), and a greater feeling that the course was interesting (situational interest). They also held higher self-efficacy and value for their biology course at completion compared to their counterparts in traditional biology classrooms. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that the effect of the intervention on course grades was better explained through students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs. Results gained from this intervention may be useful to other campuses interested in enhancing student motivation and success even when faced with large enrolments and minimal faculty and staff support.     

关于英语教师在商务英语课堂中动机策略运用的调查

在语言教学的课堂中,教师和学生是最为重要的参与者。而学习动机是影响学生的语言学习成效关键因素之一。教师在课堂教学中有意识地运用动机策略,增强学生的学习动机,能改善学生在语言课堂上的学习效果。通过采访对教师在实际课堂中运用的动机策略作调查,并通过问卷和统计的方法分析从学生的角度对教师在商务英语课堂教学中运用的动机策略的看法。试图能从结果中得出一些给商务英语教师的启示和对商务英语教学的改进方法。     

The effects of parental involvement on students’ academic self‐efficacy,engagement and intrinsic motivation

This research examined whether various dimensions of parental involvement predicted 10th‐grade students’ motivation (engagement, self‐efficacy towards maths and English, intrinsic motivation towards maths and English) using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS 2002). Results showed that both parents’ educational aspiration for their children and school‐initiated contact with parents on benign school issues had strong positive effects on all five motivational outcomes. On the contrary, parent–school contact concerning students’ school problems was negatively related to all five motivational outcomes investigated in the study. Additionally, parental advising positively predicted students’ academic self‐efficacy in English as well as intrinsic motivation towards English, and family rules for watching television were positively linked to students’ engagement and intrinsic motivation towards both English and maths.     

The comparative effects of different museum tours on children's attitudes and learning

Various studies contradict each other on the value of field trips and museum visits to improve learning and attitudes. This study concluded that students of grades, 5, 6, and 7 had significantly greater cognitive learning when they participated in a more structured tour, i.e., one led by a museum docent. Students of grades 5, 6, and 7, however, had significantly more positive attitudes when they participated in the less structured tour, i.e., one guided only by their classroom teacher. The study involved 816 students in 31 tours of the Natural History Gallery of the British Columbia Provincial Museum in Victoria.     

Deepening Students' Scientific Inquiry Skills During a Science Museum Field Trip

Field trips to science museums can provide students with educational experiences, particularly when museum programs emphasize scientific inquiry skill building over content knowledge acquisition. We describe the creation and study of 2 programs designed to significantly enhance students' inquiry skills at any interactive science museum exhibit without the need for advanced preparation by teachers or chaperones. The programs, called Inquiry Games, utilized educational principles from the learning sciences and from visitor studies of museum field trips. A randomized experimental design compared 2 versions of the games to 2 control conditions. Results indicate that the groups that learned the Inquiry Games significantly outperformed the control groups in the duration and quality of several inquiry skills when using a novel exhibit, with effect sizes ranging from 0.3σ to 0.8σ. The highest gains came from an Inquiry Game that was structured and collaborative rather than spontaneous and individualized. Students and chaperones in all conditions reported enjoying the experience. These results mirror those found in a previous study in which family groups learned the Inquiry Games.     

Comparative analysis of the impact of traditional versus innovative learning environment on student attitudes and learning outcomes

This study explored the claim that different classroom layouts can affect teaching and learning. At the time of the study, there were few robust evaluative frameworks able to isolate and then measure the impact of different educational layouts. In response, this study employed a quasi-experimental approached facilitated by a Single Subject Research Design (SSRD) to compare two different classroom layouts - a traditional classroom layout and ‘Innovative Learning Environment’ (ILE) in an Australian secondary schooling context. The study compared students’ attitudes to their learning experiences, motivation, engagement and academic outcomes in each layout over a school year. Comparative analyses highlighted how students’ attitudes to their learning experiences and engagement differed in the two designs. A correlation was identified between enhanced student attitudes in an ILE and higher English, Humanities and Mathematics academic achievement when compared with cognitively matched peers who occupied a traditional classroom for the same period. This initial empirical evidence, even though restricted to a single site, was able to discern a measurable link between the occupation of different learning spaces and an impact on student learning experiences, engagement and academic outcomes in secondary schooling context.     

Motivating young language learners: A longitudinal model of self-determined motivation in elementary school foreign language classes

Promoting intrinsic motivation is often a central concern in teaching foreign languages to elementary school children. Self-determination theory posits that intrinsic motivation develops through the interaction of the person and the environment. The present study investigated how elementary school students’ motivation develops over the course of a school year in Japanese public schools. Five-hundred and fifteen Japanese elementary school children were surveyed over the course of one school year. Self-reported motivation, perceptions of teacher support, need satisfaction, and engagement were measured at different times. External raters observed students’ engagement, while classroom teachers assessed the quality of students’ motivation and learning. Structural equation modeling results indicated a positive, dynamic relationship between motivation, perceptions of the learning environment, and engagement. External raters’ assessments showed significant positive correlations with students’ self-reported engagement. Findings indicate how the instruction offered in these Japanese elementary schools supported students’ foreign language learning motivation.     

Examining the relationship between holistic/analytic style and classroom learning behaviors of high school students

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how high school students’ cognitive tendencies in holistic/analytic style relate to their active or passive behavioral patterns observed in the classroom. It was speculated that academic intrinsic motivation might play the role as a moderator and learning approach (the structure-oriented approach versus the depth-oriented approach) might function as a mediator in the effects of holistic/analytic style on classroom learning behaviors. A sample of 1065 high school students in China were assessed in classroom learning behavior, holistic/analytic style, learning approach, and academic intrinsic motivation via the use of relevant measures. Results indicated that holistic style and analytic style were significant predictors of classroom learning behavior. The study also revealed significant moderation effects of intrinsic motivation and significant mediation effects of learning approach. Academic intrinsic motivation and learning approach were proven to be two relevant variables in unraveling the influence of holistic/analytic style on students’ behavioral performances in the classroom.     

What motivates students? A study on the effects of teacher leadership and students’ self-efficacy

Students’ educational motivation is significant for performance and achieving learning, but little is known about what fuels such motivation. Educational motivation is regarded as the drive and inner state that energise educational activities, facilitate learning and channel behaviour towards achieving educational goals. Educational motivation paves the way for students to learn and acquire the knowledge that is essential for successful study outcomes. This article aims to explore what determines students’ educational motivation. Building on the self-determination theory, we modelled the influence of teachers’ leadership and students’ self-efficacy on students’ educational motivation. We used survey data from a sample of upper secondary school students in Sweden; we received a total of 993 answers, equal to a response rate of 74%. The results show that students’ self-efficacy and teacher leadership are of extreme importance for students’ educational motivation, and that highly efficacious students lose most educational motivation when the teacher’s leadership is poor. The results thus support the importance of teachers’ leadership for encouraging student learning.     

Transformation of classroom spaces: traditional versus active learning classroom in colleges

Educational environment influences students’ learning attitudes, and the classroom conveys the educational philosophy. The traditional college classroom design is based on the educational space that first appeared in medieval universities. Since then classrooms have not changed except in their size. In an attempt to develop a different perspective of educational environment, a new design of classroom, the active learning classroom (ALC), was established at SoongSil University in Korea. Two questionnaire surveys were conducted for diagnosing the educational effects of students’ learning in the ALC and comparing the results with those obtained regarding the traditional classroom. The result proved the existence of a ‘golden zone’ and a ‘shadow zone’ in the traditional classroom, which discriminate students’ learning experiences depending on seating positions. On the contrary, the ALC did not produce such positional discrimination. Students perceived the ALC environment as more inspirational, especially in regards to active class participation. Students with more emphasis on academic achievement showed greater tendency to share information and to create new ideas in the ALC. However, in the traditional classroom setting, only students with high GPAs were more motivated to learn while the gap in learning attitudes was offset in the ALC setting. In-depth discussions about research findings were undertaken and four suggestions were provided in support of school administrators and relevant institutional personnel, faculty members, and researchers for future utilization of the ALC.     

The interplay between students' motivational profiles and science learning

Students' motivation plays an important role in successful science learning. However, motivation is a complex construct. Theories of motivation suggests that students' motivation must be conceptualized as a motivational system with numerous components that interact in complex ways and influence metacognitive processes such as self-evaluation. This complexity is further increased because students' motivation and success in science learning influence each other as they develop over time. It is challenging to study the co-development of motivation and learning due to these complex interactions which can vary widely across individuals. Recently, person-centered approaches that capture students' motivational profiles, that is, the multiplicity of motivational factors as they co-occur in students, have been successfully used in educational psychology to better understand the complex interplay between the co-development of students' motivation and learning. We employed a person-centered approach to study how the motivational profiles, constructed from goal-orientation, self-efficacy, and engagement data of N = 401 middle school students developed over the course of a 10-week energy unit and how that development was related to students' learning. We identified four characteristic motivational profiles with varying temporal stability and found that students' learning over the course of the unit was best characterized by considering the type of students' motivational profiles and the transitions that occurred between them. We discuss implications for the design and implementation of interventions and future research into the complex interplay between motivation and learning.