Predicting school achievement from general cognitive ability, self-perceived ability, and intrinsic value.

Abstract The present study examined the extent to which motivation contributes to the prediction of school achievement among elementary school children beyond general mental ability (g). The sample consisted of N = 1678 nine-year-old UK elementary school children who took part in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). Teachers provided achievement assessments according to the UK National Curriculum criteria for Mathematics, English, and Science, and pupils reported their ability self-perceptions and intrinsic values for these subjects. For all three domains, g proved to be the strongest, and, in the case of Science, the only predictor of school achievement. However, in Mathematics and English, children's ability self-perceptions as well as intrinsic values each contributed incrementally to the prediction of achievement beyond g, with ability self-perceptions being a better predictor than intrinsic values. Finally, commonality analyses revealed a substantial portion of common variance in school achievement explained both by g and motivation. In the light of these results it is argued that the study of motivation offers valuable clues for the understanding and improvement of school achievement.

[1]  C. Dweck,et al.  A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality , 1988 .

[2]  R. Sternberg,et al.  The general factor of intelligence : how general is it? , 2002 .

[3]  A. E. Gottfried,et al.  Academic Intrinsic Motivation in Elementary and Junior High School Students. , 1985 .

[4]  F. Schmidt,et al.  The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. , 1998 .

[5]  Linda S. Gottfredson,et al.  Where and Why g Matters:Not a Mystery , 2002 .

[6]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  Modeling cognitive adaptation: a longitudinal investigation of the impact of individual differences and coping on college adjustment and performance. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  J. Gustafsson,et al.  General and Specific Abilities as Predictors of School Achievement. , 1993, Multivariate behavioral research.

[8]  E. Skaalvik,et al.  Academic achievement and self-concept: An analysis of causal predominance in a developmental perspective. , 1990 .

[9]  Phyllis C. Blumenfeld,et al.  Change in Children's Competence Beliefs and Subjective Task Values across the Elementary School Years: A 3-Year Study. , 1997 .

[10]  P. Baltes,et al.  Children's action-control beliefs about school performance: how do American children compare with German and Russian children? , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[11]  J. Eccles,et al.  Age and gender differences in children's self- and task perceptions during elementary school. , 1993, Child development.

[12]  M. Csíkszentmihályi,et al.  Motivation and academic achievement: the effects of personality traits and the quality of experience. , 1991, Journal of personality.

[13]  John Hattie,et al.  The Relationship Between Self and Achievement/Performance Measures , 1982 .

[14]  R. Plomin,et al.  Twins Early Development Study (TEDS): A Multivariate, Longitudinal Genetic Investigation of Language, Cognition and Behavior Problems in Childhood , 2002, Twin Research.

[15]  Sarah A. Hezlett,et al.  Academic performance, career potential, creativity, and job performance: can one construct predict them all? , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  D. Mcclelland,et al.  The Achievement Motive , 1954 .

[17]  Fred S. Switzer,et al.  Meta-analyzing the relationship between grades and job performance. , 1996 .

[18]  Th. Just,et al.  Festschrift zum 60. , 1940 .

[19]  Jean Lloyd,et al.  Intrinsic intellectuality: Its relations to social class, intelligence, and achievement. , 1984 .

[20]  E. Skaalvik,et al.  Relations Among Achievement, Self-Concept, and Motivation in Mathematics and Language Arts: A Longitudinal Study , 1999 .

[21]  R. Plomin,et al.  Nature, nurture and academic achievement: a twin study of teacher assessments of 7-year-olds. , 2004, The British journal of educational psychology.

[22]  Eric M. Anderman,et al.  Differences between Elementary and Middle School Teachers and Students: A Goal Theory Approach , 1995 .

[23]  T. Christie,et al.  The Relationship between Teacher Assessments and Pupil Attainments in Standard Test Tasks at Key Stage 2, 1996–98 , 2001 .

[24]  R. Plomin,et al.  Phenotypic "g" Early in Life: On the Etiology of General Cognitive Ability in a Large Population Sample of Twin Children Aged 2-4 Years. , 2003 .

[25]  A. Elliot,et al.  A 2 X 2 achievement goal framework. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  J. W. Atkinson.  Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. , 1957, Psychological review.

[27]  J. Eccles,et al.  The development of achievement task values: A theoretical analysis , 1992 .

[28]  J. Carroll.  Human Cognitive Abilities-a sur-vey of factor-analytic studies , 1993 .

[29]  A. E. Gottfried.  Academic intrinsic motivation in young elementary school children. , 1990 .

[30]  H. Marsh,et al.  Self-concept: Reliability, stability, dimensionality, validity, and the measurement of change. , 1983 .

[31]  T. Fagan,et al.  Contributions of Self-Concept and Intelligence to the Prediction of Academic Achievement among Grade 4, 6, and 8 Students , 1994 .

[32]  Edward L. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior , 1975, Perspectives in Social Psychology.

[33]  H. Marsh,et al.  Causal effects of academic self-concept on academic achievement: Structural equation models of longitudinal data. , 1997 .

[34]  H. Marsh.  Verbal and Math Self-Concepts: An Internal/External Frame of Reference Model , 1986 .

[35]  Aljoscha C. Neubauer,et al.  The influence of personality on three aspects of cognitive performance: processing speed, intelligence and school performance , 2001 .

[36]  F. Gagné,et al.  When IQ is controlled, does motivation still predict achievement? $ , 2001 .

[37]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Intelligence: A Brief History , 2004 .

[38]  F. Schmidt,et al.  General mental ability in the world of work: occupational attainment and job performance. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[39]  J. Eccles,et al.  In the Mind of the Actor: The Structure of Adolescents' Achievement Task Values and Expectancy-Related Beliefs , 1995 .

[40]  L. Gottfredson.  G: Highly general and highly practical , 2002 .

[41]  A. Bandura.  Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. , 1977, Psychological review.

[42]  Aileen Gose.  The Relative Potential of Self-Concept and Intelligence as Predictors of Achievement. , 1980 .

[43]  J. Eccles.  Expectancies, values and academic behaviors , 1983 .

[44]  Michel Boivin,et al.  Academic Self-Concept and Academic Achievement: Developmental Perspectives on Their Causal Ordering. , 2003 .

[45]  A. Jensen,et al.  Bias in Mental Testing , 1980 .

[46]  R. Helmreich,et al.  Achievement strivings, scholastic aptitude, and academic performance: a follow-up to "impatience versus achievement strivings in the type A pattern". , 1989, The Journal of applied psychology.

[47]  Philip L. Roth,et al.  Meta-Analyzing the Relation between Grades and Salary☆☆☆ , 1998 .

[48]  J. Eccles,et al.  Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation. , 2000, Contemporary educational psychology.

[49]  Robert D. Hoge,et al.  Association Teacher-Based Judgments of Academic Achievement : A Review of Literature , 2008 .

[50]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns. , 1996 .

[51]  Jan-Eric Gustafsson,et al.  Individual differences in cognitive functions. , 1996 .