shelley ross, phd sdrme conference, salt lake city june 2015

Shelley Ross, PhDSDRME Conference, Salt Lake City

June 2015

Funding provided by a grant fromSociety of Directors of Medical Education Research

•Research assistant: Rosslynn Zulla

•I have no conflicts to disclose.

Motivation theory: what makes people want to learn?

Scoping review: Major theories

Applying the theories to health professions education

What is motivation?◦ Strength and willingness to engage in behaviour

In education: process and behaviours a learner exhibits as they complete a task◦ Task must be completed, whether learner wants

to or not◦ Called ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION

Outcome Assigned Task

LearningStrategies

PersistenceEffort

OutcomeAssigned

Task

Learning Strategies

Persistence Effort

Outcome Assigned Task

Achievement Motivation

Enormous amount of published research◦ And multiple theories in use

Use scoping review methodology to summarize key research findings

Offers medical education researchers an introduction to current motivation theories◦ As well as practical tips to implement in their

teaching

Scoping review to summarize research findings

Reviewed ToC of 5 leading Ed Psych journals (last 5 years)

Identified current leading motivation theories

Key terms: self-efficacy, achievement goal theory, expectancy-value, attribution theory

Multiple searches (PsycInfo, MedLine, ERIC; Google Scholar)

Reference lists of papers also searched for older key citations

For all articles found, abstracts were scanned

Inclusion criteria: education research, theory development or application of identified theories

Multiple consensus discussions re: final included papers

Data charted, then summarized; applied findings presented as “tips”

174 papers included in final summary. Each theory summarized; model was generated

showing how elements of all theories interact Any use or mention of theory in health professions

contexts highlighted in summaries. Tips for teaching extracted from papers and put in

health professions education contexts.

Key theorists: Bandura (1977,1997); Schunk, (1991); Zimmerman, (1992, 2000)

Task-specific – not generalizable

across contexts/tasks

Learning Strategies

Persistence Effort

Outcome Assigned Task

Achievement Motivation

Self-perception (I can do it) OR (I can’t do it) determines direction +/-

Previous experience

External input (teachers, peers, parents)

Mediated by anticipated outcome (grade, satisfaction, praise); can be high or low.

SELF-EFFICACY (key theorist = Bandura)

Key theorists: Eccles (1987, 2005), Eccles & Wigfield (2000); Wigfield (2014)

Value of task

Learning Strategies

Persistence Effort

Outcome Assigned Task

Achievement Motivation

Likelihood of success

4 dimensions of task value: 1.Attainment (what do I get out of success?)2. Intrinsic value: What does it do for me?3. Utility value: What benefit?4. Cost

Self-perceptions of competence

Determinants of direction of

behaviour

EXPECTANCY-VALUE (Eccles &

Wigfield)

Key theorist: Weiner (1979,1985)

Outcomes (esp. failure) lead to

search for reasons = causal search

(Why did it happen? Who is

at fault?)PAST ORIENTED

Learning Strategies

Persistence Effort

Outcome Assigned Task

Achievement Motivation

Attribution locus:Internal/External

ATTRIBUTION THEORY (Weiner)

Attribution controllability:Within learner control or not?

Attribution stability:

Stable/Unstable

Key theorists: Ames (1984); Nichols (1984);Dweck & Leggett (1988); Elliott (1999,

2001, 2011, 2013)

ACHIEVEMENT GOAL THEORY

Learning Strategies

Persistence Effort

Outcome Assigned Task

Achievement Motivation

Mastery goals (goal to learn/understand for own self) Approach

Performance goals (look good/ do it better than others

Implicit goals affect direction and degree of behaviour

Avoid Maladaptive behaviours

Adaptive behaviours

Applies to: All theories

Feedback: focus on skill and competence development; ability comments should be minimized, ie. “You took a good approach to developing your differential” rather than “You are good at this”

Applies to: All theories

Tasks: should be challenging, but also do-able◦ students need to be able to feel successful, but

also to feel that they worked for it

Applies to: Attribution theory

Feedback: emphasize the importance of effort and effective strategies

Tasks: offer choice, to encourage feelings of control; ◦ if possible, give options in learning

Applies to: expectancy-value; self-efficacy

Tasks: Relevant to students◦ connect a critical appraisal task directly to a

patient presentation (from lecture or PBL)

Present tasks and information in ways that answer the question “When will I ever need to know this stuff?”

Applies to: Achievement goal theory

Stress understanding when explaining concepts

Don’t post grades, or create an environment where comparisons are encouraged

Create an environment where peer helping and seeking help from the teacher are encouraged and facilitated

Feedback: never compare students to each other; use criterion-referenced feedback exclusively

Applies to: All theories

Provide variety and novelty in learning tasks , and be open to creative interpretations of any didactic assignments

Avoid praise, and use feedback instead◦ “You were very effective in finding common

ground with that patient”

Decades of motivation theory development and applied research exists;

summaries makes this literature accessible to health professions educators (may not otherwise be able to efficiently access it)

Contextualize tips into clinical and non-clinical environments - gives concrete ideas

Future research can examine theory development in the context of health professionals and learners (a unique population).

Status of the paper from SDRME grant◦ - complete◦ - 14000 words long◦ - exploring options for publication (monograph,

series, stand alone)

sross@ualberta.ca

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