Role of social academic goals in the relationships among fifth-graders' interest, achievement goals, and academic outcomes PDF
Preview Role of social academic goals in the relationships among fifth-graders' interest, achievement goals, and academic outcomes
ROLEOFSOCIALACADEMICGOALSINRELATIONSHIPS AMONGFIFTH-GRADERS'INTEREST,ACHIEVEMENTGOALS, ANDACADEMICOUTCOMES By MELANIEL.WATSON OS ADISSERTATIONPRESENTEDTOTHEGRADUATESCHOOLOFTHE UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDAINPARTIALFULFILLMENTOFTHE REQUIREMENTSFORTHEDEGREEOF DOCTOROFPHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDA 2002 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IamverygratefultoDr.PatAshtonforherintellectualandeditorialguidanceaswell asherunflaggingsupportandkindnessthroughoutthisproject.Iwouldalsoliketothank Dr.JamesAlginaforhisgenerousassistancewithastatisticsproblemandthefifthgrade teachersandstudentsatCrawfordville,Shadeville,andMedartElementarySchoolsfor theirtimeandeffort.Finally,myfamilyplayedanintegralroleinthisprojectbyproviding mewiththesupportandencouragementneededtocompleteit. ii TABLEOFCONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT v CHAPTERS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 StatementoftheProblem 1 Achievement Goal Theory 1 AchievementGoalTheoryandSocialAcademicGoals 3 SocialAcademicGoalsandLowInterestTopics 4 PurposeoftheStudy 5 Hypotheses 6 TheoreticalSignificanceoftheStudy 7 PracticalSignificanceoftheStudy 8 2 REVIEWOFLITERATURE 9 Introduction 9 Interest 9 AchievementGoalTheory 15 ExpandingGoalTheory 23 AchievementGoalTheoryandSocialMotivation 30 GenderDifferencesandAchievementGoalOrientation. 40 Conclusioa 42 3 METHODOLOGY 44 Introduction 44 Participants 44 Procedures 45 Measures 46 Data Analysis 55 iii 4 RESULTS 58 Introduction 58 Hypothesis 1 59 Hypothesis 2 70 Hypothesis 3 72 Hypothesis 4 73 Hypothesis 5 80 5 DISCUSSION 87 TheoreticalImplicationsofThisStudy 93 PracticalSignificanceofThisStudy 95 LimitationsofThisStudyandFutureDirections 96 APPENDICES ACONSENTFORM 99 BCHILDASSENTSCRIPT 101 CENGLISH SURVEY 102 DMATHSURVEY 108 E SOCIALACADEMICGOALSCALE 114 REFERENCES 115 BIOGRAPHICALSKETCH 123 iv AbstractofDissertationPresentedtotheGraduateSchool oftheUniversityofFloridainPartialFulfillmentofthe RequirementsfortheDegreeofDoctorofPhilosophy ROLEOFSOCIALACADEMICGOALSINTHERELATIONSHIPS AMONGFIFTH-GRADERS'INTEREST,ACHIEVEMENTGOALS,AND ACADEMICOUTCOMES By MelanieL.Watson May2002 Chair:PatriciaAshton MajorDepartment:EducationalPsychology Researchershavedocumentedthatchildren'sinterestinacademicsubjects declinesaroundthefifthgrade.Atthesametime,recenteffortstoexpandachievement goaltheoryhavehighlightedaneedtofurthertheroleofsocialmotivationinchildren's academicendeavors.Thepurposeofthisstudywastoinvestigatethehypothesisthat,in conditionsoflowinterest,childrenwilluseadaptivelearningstrategiesanddemonstrate highacademicachievementiftheyhavestrongsocialreasonsor"goals"forachieving. Becausetherehasbeennoresearchonchildren'ssocialacademicgoals,asocialacademic goalsscalewasdevelopedforthisstudy.Inaddition,genderdifferencesandrelationships amongstudents'interestsinmathematicsandEnglish,academicgoals,learning strategies,andachievementinmathematicsandEnglishwerealsoexamined. Thestudyincluded181fifthgraders.Thirty-onestudentshadmissingdata, resultinginafinaltotalof150participants.Participantswereaskedtocompletetwo surveys:oneinmathematicsandoneinEnglish.Eachsurveyaddressedtheirinterests, theirachievementgoalorientations,andtheirlearningstrategiesforthesubjectarea.In addition,theparticipants'fourthandfifthgradescoresontheTerraNovaComprehensive TestsofBasicSkills(TNCTBS)andtheFloridaComprehensiveAssessmentTest (FCAT)werecollectedfromtheircumulativerecords.Students'testscoresinEnglishand mathematicsobtainedinthespringoffourthgradewereusedtocontrolforprior achievementintheanalyses. Theresultsdidnotsupportthehypothesisthatsocialacademicgoalswouldbean importantsourceofmotivationforstudentsinconditionsoflowinterest.Inaddition,the findingsdidnotindicatethatstudents'useoflearningstrategiesmediatestherelationship betweentheiracademicgoalsandtheirachievements,asexpected.However,theresults ofthisstudycontributedothervaluableinformation.Amongthesefindings,gender differencesinacademicgoalorientations,theimportanceofstudyingsocialacademic goalsasaseparatecategory,andthepotentialacademicbenefitsofmultiplegoalshave particularlysignificantpracticalandtheoreticalimplications. vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION StatementoftheProblem Motivationisanimportantproblemineducationtoday,especiallywheneducatorsdeal withtopicsoflowinterest.Accordingtoanumberofrecentstudies,childrenshowa markeddeclineintheirinterestinacademictopicsbythemiddleoftheirelementaryyears (Eccles,Wigfield,Flanagan,Miller,Reuman,&Yee,1989;Eccles,Wigfield,Harold,& Blumenfeld,1993;Miller&Meece,1997;Wigfieldetal,1997).Thesefindingsareof particularconcerntoeducatorsbecausewhenchildrenareuninterestedinasubject,they arelesslikelytovaluethatsubjectortoengageandpersistattasksrelatedtothesubject (Pintrich&DeGroot,1990;Wentzel,1998).Moreover,recentresearchinreading motivationsuggestsacademicbenefitsrelatedtointerest.Studieshavefoundthatinterest inreadingmaterialleadstotheuseofadaptivelearningstrategies(Wigfield,1997)andto bettercomprehensioninchildren(deSousa&Oakhill,1996),regardlessofthedifficulty levelofthematerial(Renninger,1992).Althoughmotivationresearchhascontributed muchtoourknowledgeaboutchildren'smotivation,surprisinglylittleworkhasbeen conductedontheissueofmotivationandlowinteresttopics. AchievementGoalTheory Achievementgoaltheorymayoffersomeinsightsintothisproblem.Researchers workingwithinagoaltheoryframeworkhavefocusedonchildren'sreasonsorpurposes 1 2 fortheirbehaviorinachievementsettings.Theyhaveconceptualizedthesereasonsas "goals"andviewedthemaspowerfulsourcesofachievementmotivation.Forthemost part,goaltheoristshavefocusedongeneralandacademicreasonsfortryingtosucceedin theclassroom(Blumenfeld,1992;Urdan&Maehr,1995).Inparticular,goaltheorists havediscoveredthatcertaingoal-relatedclassroomstructures(e.g.,taskcharacteristics andevaluationmethods)haveanimportantimpactonacademicoutcomes(Ames,1978, 1981,1992;Ames&Ames,1978,1984;Ames&Archer,1988;Anderman&Midgley, 1997;Midgley,Anderman,&Hicks,1995)andhavelinkedstudents'personalgoal orientationstoclassroomperformance(Dweck&Leggett,1988;Elliott&Dweck,1988). Theconsensusfromthesestudiesisthatstudentsareprimarilyinfluencedbyeithera mastery-goalorientation(alsocalledtask-goalorientation)oraperformance-goal orientation(alsocalledego-goalorientationorability-goalorientation). Studentswithmastery-goalorientationsaredescribedasbeingmotivatedbyadesireto gainknowledge,understanding,andskills.Variousfindingssuggestthatmastery-goal orientedstudentsshowmoredesirableacademicoutcomes(Ames,1992;Archer,1994; Blumenfeld,1992)thanstudentswithaperformance-goalorientation.Forinstance,they usemoreadaptivelearningstrategies,and,asaresult,achievebettergrades(Anderman& Young,1994;Kaplan&Midgley,1997).Indirectcontrast,evidencesuggeststhat studentsinfluencedbyaperformance-goalorientationmaybemotivatedmorebyconcerns abouttheirabilitysuchasadesiretoavoidfailure,outperformtheirpeers,orachievea goodgrade;orbysocialconcernssuchasadesiretopleaseorimpresstheteacheror peers.Recently,someresearchersfurtherdistinguishedbetweentwotypesofperformance 3 goalorientations:performance-approachandperformance-avoidgoalorientations(Elliot &Church,1997;Elliot&Harackiewicz,1996;Midgley,Maehr,Hicks,Roeser,Urdan, Anderman,Kaplan,Arunkmar,&Middleton,1997).Studentswithperformance-approach orientationsaremostconcernedwithdemonstratingtheircompetenceinacademic situations(Midgleyetal.,1997).Theperformance-approachgoalorientationhasbeen linkedtobothpositiveandnegativeacademicoutcomes.Studentswithperformance-avoid goalorientationsaremostconcernedwithavoidinglookingincompetentinacademic situations(Midgleyetal.,1997).Aperformance-avoidgoalorientationleadstotheuseof maladaptivelearningstrategiesand,asaresult,undesirableacademicoutcomes (Anderman&Young,1994;Kaplan&Midgley,1997).Researchconcerningmasteryand performancegoalorientationshasgreatlycontributedtoourunderstandingthatstudents' learninggoalsaffecttheirmotivationandbehaviorandultimatelytheiracademic achievement. AchievementGoalTheoryandSocialAcademicGoals However,severalresearchersrecentlyarguedthatatwo-goaltheorydoesnot adequatelyaddressthediversityandcomplexityofreasonsunderlyingstudentmotivation (Blumenfeld,1992;Urdan&Maehr,1995;Wentzel,1989).Inparticular,Urdanand Maehr(1995)suggestedthatsocialandabilityconcerns,thetwounderlyingfactorsofthe performancegoalorientation,arebroadconstructsthatarerelatedtodifferentaffective, cognitive,andbehavioralprocesses.Instead,theyproposedthatsocialreasonsfortrying toachievebeinvestigatedinaseparatecategorycalledsocialacademicgoals.According toUrdanandMaehr,studentsoftenhaveanumberofsociallyrelatedreasonsfortryingto 4 achieveinschool.Forinstance,onestudentmaytrytoachieveinclassbecausehewants toimpresshisteacher.Anotherstudentmaybemotivatedtotryhardbecauseherfriends valueacademicachievement.Inpreviousgoaltheoryresearch,thesesocialacademicgoals havebeengroupedtogetherwithabilitygoalsunderthegeneralcategoryofperformance goal(i.e.,socialitemsandabilityitemshavebeenmeasuredonthesamescale:the performancegoalscale)andlinkedtopooracademicoutcomes.UrdanandMaehr suggestedthat,wheninvestigatedseparatelyfromabilitygoals,students'socialacademic goalswilllikelydemonstrateapowerfulandpositivemotivationalinfluenceontheir academicoutcomes. SocialAcademicGoalsandLowInterestTopics Socialacademicgoalsmaybeaparticularlyimportantsourceofmotivationwhen childrenlackinterestinasubjectmatter.Severalresearchers(Blumenfeld,1992;Chandler &Connell,1987;Deci,1992;Deci&Ryan,1985;Urdan&Maehr,1995;Wentzel,1989; Wentzel&Wigfield,1998)suggestedthatinconditionsoflowinterest,studentsmaybe moremotivatedbysocialconcerns.Forinstance,Wentzel(1989)wrotethat,"because manyclassroomtasksarenotintrinsicallyinterestingorchallenging,complianceto classroomnormsandperceivedadultexpectationsforbehaviorshouldbeespecially importantmotivationalfactorscontributingtoacademicperformance"(p.132).Deci (1992)suggestedthattheneedforsocialrelatednessbecomesthedominantsourceof motivationforchildrenwhentheyarerequiredtoengageinuninterestingbuteducationally importantclassroomactivities(e.g.,learningthemultiplicationtables).Accordingly,some childrenwillworkhardontedioustasksbecausetheyknowsucheffortpleasestheir
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