Chapter 3

1. Chapter 3 The Role of Expectancy & Self-Efficacy Beliefs Notes from class textbook: Pintrich, P.R., & Schunk, D.H. (1996). Motivation in Education: Theory, Research, & Applications. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice Hall.

2. Expectancy of Beliefs: • Do I have the ability to succeed at this task? • Do I have the skills or knowledge to do well? • If I attempt this task, what do I expect will happen?

3. Expectancy • Most individuals will not choose to do a task or continue to engage in a task when they expect to fail • Even if the task is interesting and valuable to the learner, trying and failing repeatedly will result in eventually not engaging in the task

4. Historical Perspectives on Expectancy Construct • Use of expectancy construct is from cognitive perspective of motivation • Reflects cognitive metaphor of individual as active and rational decision maker • Less need for instigator (like instinct, drive, need, habit) • Directionality: how learners make decisions about goals, direction of energies, curiosity, & activity

5. Level of Aspiration • Learners feel successful when meeting goals they set for themselves • Prior successes generally lead to increases in aspiration, whereas failure results in decreased aspiration levels • High ability learners set higher aspirations than low ability learners • Learners are influenced by group goals & performance and adjust aspirations to these

6. Atkinson Model Behavior is a multiplicative function of Incentive Value Motives Probability for Success

7. Motivation Matrix (Covington) Motive to Approach Success Low High Success- Oriented Students Motive to Avoid Failure Failure Acceptors Low Failure Avoiders High Overstrivers

8. 3 Current Perspectives on the Expectancy Construct • Recent Model of Expectancy for Success • Cognitive (student expectancies) & Organismic (personality/psychology) • Research on Self-Perception & Ability • Organismic (role of individual) & Cognitive (competence & motivation) • Model of Self-Efficacy Beliefs • More mechanistic perspective (from social learning theory)

9. 1. Model of the Expectancy-for-Success Construct • Derived from Atkinson’s expectancy-value model: • Probability of success • Incentive value • Developed by Eccles and Wigfield: • Expectancy construct • Task value construct

10. Future Expectancy for Success Value Construct Expectancy Construct Why should I do this task? Am I able to do this task?

11. Expectancy-Value Model Social World Cognitive Processes Motivational Beliefs Achievement Behavior 1.Cultural milieu 2. Socializers’ behaviors 3. Past per- formances and events Perceptions of social environment Interpretations and attributions for past events Goals Task value Choice Persistence Quantity of effort Cognitive engagement Actual performance Task-specific self-concept Perceptions of task difficulty Expectancy

12. Correlation Studies on Student Self-Perceptions of Ability & Expectancies for Success • Strongest predictors of subsequent grades in math & English (even better than previous grades) • Higher levels correlated with use of cognitive & metacognitive strategies

13. Actual Achievement Expectancy Beliefs Choice Behaviors Value Beliefs

14. 2. Research on Self-Perceptions of Competence & Ability • Self-perceptions of competence: • Students’ self-evaluative judgments about their ability to accomplish certain tasks • Is a more cognitive evaluation of ability in a domain, NOT just self-esteem about oneself

15. Self-Perceptions of Competence & Ability -- Some Issues • Related to self-concept & personal identity research • Early research very general & global • Actually very domain specific

16. Domains of Competence • Academic -- general competence for school work • Social -- competence in interactions with others • Physical -- competence in physical activities like sports and perceptions of physical attractiveness/appearance

17. Perceptions of Competence vs. Self-Esteem • Perceptions of confidence -- more cognitive judgments of personal skills & abilities • Self-esteem -- more global affective reaction or evaluation of yourself

18. Reciprocal Relationship Self- Concept Achievement

19. 3. Model of Self-Efficacy Beliefs Self-Efficacy: People’s judgments of their capabilities to organize & execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances (Example -- “I can high jump 6 feet.”)

20. Different from Self-Concept & Self-Perception of Competence • More specific & situational view of perceived competence in terms of including behavioral actions or cognitive skills necessary for performance • Used in reference to some type of goal

21. Model of Self-Efficacy Beliefs Outcome expectations: Judgments or beliefs regarding the contingency between a person’s behavior and the anticipated outcome (Example -- “If jump 6 feet, I’ll get applause, a trophy, and feel cool about myself.”)

22. Developmental Differences • Young children have an overall optimistic perception of situations • Young children tend to choose the end-points of Likert scales (extremes) • Younger children do not have information-processing skills available to integrate information & make necessary social comparisons • Changes in environment for older children affects both structure of the classroom situation & nature of evaluation

23. Gender Differences • When a gender difference is found, it is that females have lower self-perceptions of ability than males • Males have higher self-perceptions of their ability in math and sports • Females have higher self-perceptions of their ability in English

24. Ethnic Differences • Research often confounds race & ethnicity with social class differences • Generally have found that African American students do not have lower self-concepts of ability and often have higher expectations for success than Caucasian children • Minority students may compare themselves with social groups similar to their own

25. Implications for Teachers • Help students maintain relatively accurate but high expectations & efficacy and help students avoid the illusion of incompetence • Students’ perceptions of competence develop not just from accurate feedback from the teacher, but through actual success on challenging academic tasks. Keep tasks & assignments at a relatively challenging but reasonable level of difficulty

26. Implications for Teachers • Foster the belief that competence or ability is a changeable, controllable aspect of development • Decrease the amount of relative ability information that is publicly available to students

27. Implications for Teachers • Students’ perceptions of competence are somewhat domain specific and are not equivalent to global self-esteem. It is more productive for academic learning to help students develop their self-perceptions of competence rather than their global self-esteem