Task Motivation and Mathematics Achievement in Actual Task Situations.

Abstract This article presents the findings of a study designed to investigate how specific cognitions and feelings, measured in the actual learning situation, influence learning intention and achievement in mathematics. A number of motivational and affective variables measured at the trait level (viz. goal-orientation, attributional style, and self-efficacy) were included in the study. The model of adaptable learning as developed by Boekaerts was used to measure task-specific motivation. In this model phenomena at a task-specific level are assumed to mediate the influence of trait characteristics. The matrix of covariances among the trait and task-specific variables was used as input for a path analysis. The data largely confirmed the assumptions of the model of adaptable learning. In a group of 8th graders (aged 11–12), the model was found to be effective in explaining the students' experimental state and learning intention when confronted with a complex math task.

[1]  P. Pintrich.  A Process-Oriented View of Student Motivation and Cognition. , 1988 .

[2]  P. Pintrich.  The dynamic interplay of student motivation and cognition in the college classroom , 1989 .

[3]  Elizabeth Fennema,et al.  Sex-Related Differences in Mathematics Achievement and Related Factors: A Further Study. , 1978 .

[4]  Jacob Arie Laros,et al.  Construction and validation of the SON-R 5 1/2-17, the Snijders-Oomen non-verbal intelligence test , 1991 .

[5]  Barbara M. Byrne,et al.  A Multifaceted Academic Self-Concept: Its Hierarchical Structure and Its Relation to Academic Achievement. , 1988 .

[6]  Karl G. Jöreskog,et al.  LISREL 7: A guide to the program and applications , 1988 .

[7]  Can achievement motivation theory succeed with only one conception of success , 1989 .

[8]  P. Pintrich,et al.  Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance. , 1990 .

[9]  H. Heckhausen.  Achievement motivation and its constructs: A cognitive model , 1977 .

[10]  M. Boekaerts,et al.  The Adaptable Learning Process: Initiating and Maintaining Behavioural Change , 1992 .

[11]  Scott G. Paris,et al.  Children's reading strategies, metacognition, and motivation , 1986 .

[12]  A. Bandura.  Regulation of cognitive processes through perceived self-efficacy. , 1989 .

[13]  B. Weiner.  An attributional theory of motivation and emotion , 1986 .

[14]  M. Boekaerts.  Subjective competence, appraisals and self-assessment , 1991 .

[15]  John G. Nicholls,et al.  Competence and affect in task involvement and ego involvement: the impact of social comparison information , 1987 .

[16]  C. Dweck.  The role of expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness. , 1975 .

[17]  Ulrich Schiefele,et al.  Interest, Learning, and Motivation , 1991 .

[18]  John W. Atkinson,et al.  A theory of achievement motivation , 1966 .

[19]  H. Marsh.  Causal ordering of academic self-concept and academic achievement: A multiwave, longitudinal panel analysis. , 1990 .

[20]  Peter Nenniger.  Cognitive and motivational orientations of U.S. and European students: differences and structural correspondences , 1988 .

[21]  S. Paris,et al.  How metacognition can promote academic learning and instruction. , 1990 .

[22]  A. Bandura,et al.  Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest through proximal self-motivation. , 1981 .

[23]  D. Schunk.  Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Regulated Learning , 1989 .

[24]  Sandra Graham,et al.  Motivational influences on cognition : task involvement, ego involvement, and depth of information processing , 1991 .

[25]  A. Bandura.  Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency , 2024, Psihologìâ ì suspìlʹstvo.

[26]  Douglas B. McLeod,et al.  Research on affect in mathematics education: A reconceptualization. , 1992 .