Motivation in Education: Theory, Research, and Applications

329 Pages·2013·128.144 MB·English

by  Dale Schunk

Pearson New International Edition

Motivation in Education
Theory, Research and Applications
Dale Schunk Judith Meece Paul Pintrich
Fourth Edition
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ISBN 10: 1-292-04147-1
ISBN 13: 978-1-292-04147-6
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P E A R S O N C U S T O M L I B R AR Y
Table of Contents
1. Motivation: Introduction and Historical Foundations
Dale H. Schunk/Judith R Meece/Paul R. Pintrich 1
2. Expectancy-Value Theory
Dale H. Schunk/Judith R Meece/Paul R. Pintrich 51
3. Attribution Theory
Dale H. Schunk/Judith R Meece/Paul R. Pintrich 91
4. Social Cognitive Theory
Dale H. Schunk/Judith R Meece/Paul R. Pintrich 139
5. Goals and Goal Orientations
Dale H. Schunk/Judith R Meece/Paul R. Pintrich 195
6. Interest and Affect
Dale H. Schunk/Judith R Meece/Paul R. Pintrich 243
7. Intrinsic Motivation
Dale H. Schunk/Judith R Meece/Paul R. Pintrich 275
Index 315
I
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Motivation: Introduction
and Historical Foundations
Motivation Defined Behavior Theories
Relation of Motivation to Learning and Performance Drive Theories
Motivation Theory and Research Purposive Behaviorism
Theory and the Study of Motivation Arousal Theories
Motivation Research Paradigms Cognitive Consistency
Assessing Motivation Functional Autonomy of Motives
Indexes of Motivation Humanistic Theories
Methods of Assessment Contemporary Perspectives on Motivation
Historical Theories of Motivation Common Themes in Current Theories
Volition/Will Neuroscience of Motivation
Instincts Summary
Freud’s Theory Further Reading
K
eith Mitchell teaches seventh-grade social studies at a middle school. His fourth-period class is
quite typical of those he teaches. The 12 male and 13 female students have varied socioeconomic
backgrounds but most are middle class. Although they represent a range in achievement, students gener-
ally perform well in class.
The students are engaged in small-group work. As Keith takes a break from walking around and
checking on the groups’ progress, he scans the room. As his eyes settle on the following students, he thinks
about each in terms of motivation.
1. Matt. Matt is intelligent but has little motivation for social studies. He would rather be play-
ing his electric guitar or hanging out with friends. Although Matt is motivated to be a great guitar
player, Keith wishes he could increase Matt’s academic motivation.
2. Emily. Emily is an intelligent student who enjoys learning for its own sake. She is motivated
to learn new things and enjoys the challenge. She sets goals for herself and checks on her goal prog-
ress. Keith wants to ensure that Emily’s academic motivation remains at a high level.
3. Erin. What seems to motivate Erin is doing better than everyone else and getting the top
grades. Erin is not content to be second best. Whenever she works on a task, she compares her
work with that of others to determine how well she is performing. Keith’s goal is to try to replace
Erin’s focus on high grades and outperforming everyone with a desire to cooperate and to find
satisfaction in learning for its own sake.
From Chapter 1 of Motivation in Education: Theory, Research, and Applications, Fourth Edition. Dale H. Schunk,
Judith L. Meece, Paul R. Pintrich. C opyright © 2014 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
Motivation: Introduction and Historical Foundations
4. Deanna. She is motivated to avoid being the slowest student in the class. Whenever the
students work on a task, Deanna compares her work with that of others to make sure she is doing
better than at least one other student. She wants Keith to think that she is not the dumbest student
in the class. Keith wants Deanna to stop thinking of herself in this negative fashion.
5. Trevor. Trevor is interested in schoolwork but has very low self-confidence for perform-
ing well. A few years ago, his older brother was an honor student in high school and attended a
prestigious university. Trevor has never considered himself to be as competent as his brother. His
low self-confidence adversely affects his motivation. He works lackadaisically on difficult tasks and
gives up easily when he does not understand.
6. José. Unlike Trevor, José does not know what it means to give up. He is a tireless worker
who believes that hard work will conquer almost any problem and lead to success. Keith appreci-
ates his persistence but occasionally it leads to problems, such as when José works endlessly on a
task he does not understand rather than asking Keith for assistance. Through his diligent effort,
José completes most of his work and earns decent grades.
7. Kris. Kris is a good student who works hard and makes good grades but takes little credit
for her success. When she performs well she feels that she was lucky or that the task was easy. She
never says that she is good in the subject area, nor does she believe that success derives from her
effort. Keith is concerned because Kris takes little personal responsibility for her successes and failures.
They are so different, thought Keith, and yet in many ways so much the same. After school that
day Keith went to the faculty lounge, where he and some other teachers talked about their students.
The conversation shifted to a discussion of why students act as they do.
“It seems to me,” said Keith, “that students act the way they do because of how they are treated
and what they are exposed to. People react to their surroundings. If we treat people well, they will
treat us well in return. If we don’t treat them well, we can’t expect much nice from them.”
“I agree with you, Keith,” said Sara Wylie. “I think sometimes we create problems for ourselves.
Look at competition. No wonder kids are so competitive. They’re exposed to competition at home, in
sports, and in school. We just make them more competitive by emphasizing grades and doing well so
they can make the honor roll and get into college. That’s why I think we need to stress cooperation more
in school. Having kids work together should help make them more cooperative and less competitive.”
A. K. Buerso was shaking her head. “You two think students are puppets. We pull the strings
and they react. Since when does that happen so automatically? Aren’t you forgetting about some-
thing? These kids are their own personalities. They’re so different and I’m not sure we have much
to do with it. I think their personalities are so heavily determined from birth. They come into the
world and they’re going to act certain ways. Look at all of the things that babies and preschoolers
do. They couldn’t learn them. They must be genetically determined.”
“Oh sure, A. K.,” said Keith. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that most of what my kids do
was present at birth. Did Trevor lack self-confidence at birth? Was Erin competitive? Did Deanna
not want others to think she was the slowest baby in the nursery? How do you explain these?”
2
Motivation: Introduction and Historical Foundations
“No, not everything is present at birth,” A. K. continued. “Traits come out over time, unfold so
to speak. But I think many of the predispositions are present at birth. Students change, sure, but it
represents more of an unfolding or maturing. My point is that I don’t think we have much influence
on how students behave.”
“Well, there is another way to look at it,” responded Sara. “How students act isn’t due just to
what they bring with them into the world or to how we treat them but rather a combination of the
two. Their characteristics interact with the setting and behavior results. Put an aggressive child in
an environment that does not reward aggression and the child will act less aggressively. Put the
same child in an environment where aggression is encouraged and aggression will become worse.
I think as teachers we can affect our students’ behaviors but we always must contend with some
pretty strong tendencies or dispositions that they bring with them. We succeed when what we do
complements those dispositions. We have problems when what we do goes against their grain.”
This discussion of the causes of behavior highlights different views of motivation. Keith
emphasizes the effects of the environment on behavior, A. K. stresses the role of inner causes, and
Sara compromises by adopting both. Keith’s students, representative of those in many classes,
illustrate the various motivational patterns that present challenges for teachers.
Keith’s students also highlight the point that motivation is an important quality that pervades
all student activities. Motivated students display interest in activities, work diligently, feel self-
confident, persist on tasks, and perform well. When students perform poorly, teachers may say
they were not motivated to learn but that they would do better if they tried harder. Given that
motivation affects all aspects of schooling and contributes to students’ school success, improving
students’ academic motivation is a worthwhile goal of schooling. Each year, many school work-
shops and in-service programs are devoted to motivational topics. Teachers often list “motivating
students” as one of their chief concerns.
And we might ask how students develop different motivational patterns for schooling. When
children enter school, most enjoy it and the activities they engage in. When asked how school
is, many say that it is fun. They value learning for the sake of learning; they are intrinsically
motivated to learn like Emily. How do many children lose this intrinsic motivation and adopt
the patterns we see in this scenario: low motivation (Matt), extrinsic motivation and competition
(Erin), motivation to not be perceived negatively (Deanna), low self-confidence (Trevor), persis-
tence to the point of it being a fault (José), and failure to take responsibility for outcomes (Kris)?
Especially problematic are students with low academic motivation (amotivation), which can lead
to discontent and poor achievement (Legault, Green-Demers, & Pelletier, 2006). These issues
are covered in this text to help educators, parents, and others understand them better and assist
students to develop and maintain their intrinsic motivation for learning.
Despite its intuitive importance, there is much we do not know about motivation. Profes-
sionals disagree over what motivation is, what affects motivation, how motivational processes
operate, what effects motivation has on learning and performance, and how motivation can
be improved. Our knowledge is further limited because many earlier research studies used
people engaged in artificial nonacademic tasks (e.g., ringtoss games) or laboratory animals.
Such research does not capture the complexity of motivation as students think, learn, and solve
problems. Fortunately, investigators increasingly are conducting research with students engaged
in academic tasks.
3
Motivation: Introduction and Historical Foundations
This chapter discusses some basic issues in the field of motivation. We begin by defin-
ing motivation, after which we discuss the relation of motivation to learning and performance
and examine the role of theory in the study of motivation. We follow with sections on types of
motivation research and on methods of assessing motivation to include indexes of motivation
and research strategies. Actual research studies are discussed to illustrate differences in research
methods and tools of assessment.
We then take a brief historical walk through the field of motivation, beginning with the early
part of the twentieth century and continuing to the emergence of cognitive perspectives around
1970. We make no attempt to discuss these theories in depth or review all relevant historical
work because this is beyond the scope of this text. Readers who are familiar with this material may
wish to omit it; those who desire further information should consult other sources (Heckhausen,
1991; Heidbreder, 1933; Hunt, 1993; Weiner, 1985b, 1992). Following the historical material
we discuss the common assumptions and features of contemporary perspectives on motivation.
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
• Define motivation and explain how it can affect learning and performance.
• Describe the critical features of the following research paradigms: correlational, experi-
mental, qualitative, laboratory, and field.
• Discuss advantages and disadvantages of direct observations, ratings by others, and self-
reports as assessment methods.
• Summarize the key assumptions of the following historical perspectives on motivation
and critique these views for their adequacy as an explanation for human motivation:
volition/will, instincts, Freud’s theory, behavior theories, drive theories, purposive be-
haviorism, arousal theories, cognitive consistency, functional autonomy of motives, and
humanistic theories.
• Explain the assumptions and features common to contemporary motivation theories and
methods and findings of neuroscience research on rewards and motivational states.
MotIvatIon DeFIneD
The term motivation is derived from the Latin verb movere (to move). The idea of movement
is reflected in such common ideas about motivation as something that gets us going, keeps
us working, and helps us complete tasks. Yet there are many definitions of motivation and
much disagreement over its precise nature. For now, we will say that motivation has been
viewed as due to inner forces, enduring traits, rewards, beliefs, and affects.
As we discuss later in this chapter, many early theories linked motivation with inner forces
such as instincts, traits, volition, and will. Behavior (conditioning) theories view motivation as
increased or continued responding to stimuli brought about by reinforcements (rewards). Con-
temporary cognitive views postulate that individuals’ thoughts, beliefs, and emotions influence
motivation.
Although there is disagreement about the precise nature of motivation, we offer a gen-
eral definition of motivation that is consistent with the cognitive focus and beliefs and that
4
Motivation: Introduction and Historical Foundations
captures the elements considered by most researchers and practitioners to be central to
motivation:
Motivation is the process whereby goal-directed activities are instigated and sustained.
Let us examine this definition in depth. Motivation is a process rather than a product. As a process,
we do not observe motivation directly but rather infer its presence from actions (e.g., choice of
tasks, effort, persistence) and verbalizations (e.g., “I really want to work on this”).
Motivation involves goals that provide the impetus and direction for activities. Cognitive
theories of motivation are united in their emphasis on the importance of goals. Goals may or
may not be well formulated and may or may not change with experience, but the point is that
individuals are conscious of something that they are trying to attain or avoid.
Motivation requires activities—physical or mental. Physical activities entail effort, persis-
tence, and other overt actions. Mental activities include such mental actions as planning, rehears-
ing, organizing, monitoring, making decisions, solving problems, and assessing progress. Most
academic activities that students engage in are geared toward attaining their goals.
Finally, motivated activities are instigated and sustained. Starting toward a goal is important
and often difficult because it involves making a commitment and taking initial actions. But
motivation is critically important for sustaining activities. Many major goals are long-term, such
as making the honor roll, completing a thesis, and graduating. Much of what we know about
motivation comes from determining how people respond to the difficulties, problems, failures,
and setbacks they encounter as they pursue long-term goals. The motivational processes that
people bring to bear in these situations, such as their strategies, beliefs, and emotions, help them
surmount difficulties and sustain motivation.
In short, motivation is an energized internal state that results in goal-directed behaviors.
Motivation may manifest itself in various contexts: at home, at work, in school, on the play-
ground, and on the athletic field. Sometimes motivated people are serious about what they are
doing (e.g., trying to score well on a test), whereas at other times they are simply having fun (e.g.,
trying to run under a sprinkler on a hot day). Although the contexts of motivation may differ, the
underlying idea is the same—goal-directed activities.
We now turn to a topic of critical importance to schooling—the relation of motivation to
learning and performance.
RelatIon oF MotIvatIon to leaRnIng anD PeRFoRMance
Keith Mitchell’s perceptions of his students exemplify our common understanding of the role of
motivation in classroom learning and performance. Educators and others believe that motivation
can affect what students learn and how well they perform skills, strategies, and behaviors that
they learned previously.
With respect to the role of motivation during learning, much research shown that motiva-
tion can influence what, when, and how we learn (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2008). Students
motivated to learn about a topic are apt to engage in activities they believe will help them learn,
such as attend to instruction, mentally organize and rehearse material to be learned, take notes
to facilitate subsequent studying, check their level of understanding, ask for help when they do
not understand the material, hold positive beliefs about the value of learning and their capability
5