Supporting Students' Motivation in School: A Focus on Classroom Support

1. Supporting Students' Motivation in School: A Focus on Classroom Support Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia, Ph.D. Duke University Department of Psychology & Neuroscience Program in Education

2. Linnenbrink-Garcia Lab Adar Ben-Eliyahu Kate Flanagan Paul O’Keefe Erika Patall Other Collaborators Kenn Barron, James Madison Univ. AnneMarie Conley, UC, Irvine Amanda Durik, Northern Illinois Judith Harackiewicz, Univ. of Wisconsin Stuart Karabenick, Univ. of Michigan Kristin Koskey, Univ. of Toledo Christine Manzey, Univ. of Toledo Emily Messersmith, UNC-CH Kevin Pugh, Univ. of Northern Colorado Victoria Stewart, Univ. of Toledo John Tauer, Univ. of St. Thomas Acknowledgements Study 2 was funded by the National Science Foundation Study 3 was funded by Duke TIP

3. Outline of Talk • Overview of research • Focus on supporting interest in math and science • Why is interest important? (Study 1) • How can we support interest? (Study 2, 3)

4. Overview of Research My research focuses on understanding: • How classroom and school environments, peers, and parents shape students’ positive motivational beliefs • How motivational beliefs to academic outcomes

5. Motivational Beliefs • Two primary types of motivational beliefs: 1) Can I do this? 2) Why do I want to do this? • Reasons for engagement (goal orientations) • Interest/value in a domain • Shaped by the environment and what the individual brings to the environment

6. FOCUS ON INTEREST(Why do I want to do this?)

7. Individual Interest • Relatively stable, enduring characteristic of the individual • Includes both feeling (finding a domain enjoyable) and value (finding a domain personally meaningful, useful)

8. Why is Interest Important? Study 1: Focus on Science Learning

9. Students’ Learning in Science • Students’ learning of scientific concepts can be especially challenging, as many students enter the classroom with prior, well-developed, incorrect conceptions or theories about scientific phenomena • These personal theories may interfere with learning scientifically accepted view • Thus science instruction must often focus on teaching new concepts and overcoming existing misconceptions (e.g., conceptual change)

10. Supporting Conceptual Change in Science • To support changes in students’ misconceptions, instruction often focuses on creating cognitive conflict by: • Attempting to identify existing conceptions • Making existing conceptions visible and challenging them by allowing students to present, discuss, test, and reflect on them • Without high levels of engagement, this cognitive conflict approach may not be enough to support conceptual change • Suggests that students’ motivation (e.g., interest) may also be critically important

11. Does the effectiveness of cognitive conflict on students’ understanding of natural selection vary as a function of individual interest in biology?

12. Study 1 Participants • 126 freshman/sophomore biology students from six biology classes taught by the same instructor • Urban, parochial high school in Ohio • 60% female, 40% male • 75% Caucasian, 15% African American, 2% Latino, 1% Asian, 7% mixed

13. Study 1 Procedure • Students assigned to instructional condition for a 4-day unit on natural selection: • Control: no lesson modifications • Conceptual Change (CC): cognitive conflict lesson modifications • Conceptual understanding of natural selection measured before the intervention (pre), immediately after the unit (post), and five weeks after the unit (follow-up) • Individual interest in biology measured before the intervention (pre)

14. Significant main effects of time (F = 58.94***), individual interest (F = 20.02***), and time x interest x instructional condition interaction (F = 2.69*)

15. Summary • Results highlight the importance of individualinterest • Instructional intervention was not enough to facilitate conceptual change when individual interest was low • Highlights the importance of supporting and developing individual interest

16. Model of Interest Development(Hidi & Renninger, 2006) Context Triggered Situational Interest Maintained Situational Interest Individual Interest Individual

17. Situational Interest • Arises from the environment rather than individual • Two types of situational interest • Triggered Situational Interest • Stimulation of interest • Momentarily grabs attention but does not maintain engagement • Maintained Situational Interest • Heightened enjoyment of the domain supported through instruction • Increased personal involvement with the domain, as supported by instruction • Meaningful connection to the topic or domain being taught

18. Supporting Interest Development Study 2: Focus on Situational Interest

19. Study 2: Participants & Procedure • Participants were middle school (42%) and high school (58%) students from a large urban school district in southern California • 52% female, 48% male • Latino (80%), Asian (15%), Caucasian (4%), or African-American (1%) • Fall (Phase I), n = 284 • Assessed situational and individual interest in math • Spring (Phase II), n = 181 • Assessed individual interest in math

20. Does situational interest in math predict changes in adolescents’ individual interest in math? INDIVIDUAL INTEREST (FALL) .45*** INDIVIDUAL INTEREST (SPRING) .24*** SITUATIONAL INTEREST (FALL)

21. What Instructional Practices Support Situational Interest and Does this Lead to Changes in Individual Interest? Study 3

22. Study 3 Participants • 126 gifted adolescents taking science courses as part of a 3-week summer residential program in North Carolina • 8th-10th grades (Mean age = 14.6 years) • 54% male, 46% female • Caucasian (71%), Asian American (11%), Latino or Hispanic (6%), African American (3%), other or unreported (9%)

23. Residential Program 3 weeks Study 3 Procedure Pre Week 3 Phase I Phase II Individual Interest Instructional Techniques Situational Interest Individual Interest Achievement n = 117 n = 110

24. .15* Does situational interest predict individual interest in science? Phase I Spring 2006 Phase II Summer 2006 Triggered SI Individual Interest Individual Interest T2 Maintained SI-Feeling .12* Maintained SI-Value

25. How do Instructional Techniques Support Situational (SI) Interest in Science? Individual Interest - TI Perceived Choice .38*** Triggered SI .35*** Instructor Approach. .35*** Maintained SI-Feeling Connection To Real Life .19* .21* Opportunity For Involvement .27** Maintained SI-Value

26. -.13* .22** Do Instructional Techniques Support Individual Interest via Situational Interest? Perceived Choice .13*, z = 3.27*** Individual Interest T1 .37*** .25*** Instructor Approach. Connection To Real Life Individual Interest T2 .34*** Situational Interest Opportunity For Involvement .11* .03, z = 2.51*

27. Conclusion • Individual interest is important for enhancing students’ learning and engagement in school • Effectiveness of instructional interventions to facilitate learning may vary as a function of students’ interest (and subsequent engagement in the intervention) • Teachers can support situational interest by providing students with choices and helping to make connections of course material to real life, which is in turn associated with changes in domain-level individual interest • Suggests that teachers play an important role in shaping students’ interest in school, which can in turn facilitate engagement and learning

28. Thank you… Contact Information: Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia llinnen@duke.edu 919-660-5649