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University of Groningen
Motivation: how to tame the elephant in the classroom?Prince, Arnout
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Motivation: How to tame the elephant in the classroom?
A study aimed at understanding motivation and testing the effect of
interventions on the motivation of students in pre-vocational education.
Arnout Prince
This research project was funded by the Programme of Educational Research of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (Project number NWO-PROO 411-07-123).
© 2014 Arnout Prince
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author, or when appropriate, the publishers of the papers.
ISBNISBN E-versieNUR-code
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978-90-367-7059-0978-90-367-7058-3848
Lotte Nijman | [email protected] Nijman | [email protected]
CPI – Koninklijke Wöhrmann
Motivation: How to tame the elephant in the classroom?
A study aimed at understanding motivation and testing the effect of
interventions on the motivation of students in pre-vocational education.
Proefschrift
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. E. Sterken
en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties.
De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op
donderdag 26 juni 2014 om 16.15 uur
door
Arnout Pieter Prince
geboren op 28 april 1982
te Groningen
Promotor
Prof. dr. A.E.M.G. Minnaert
Copromotor
Dr. M.C.J.L. Opdenakker
Beoordelingscommissie
Prof. dr. R. Martens
Prof. dr. J.D. Vermunt
Prof. dr. N. van Yperen
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
References
Nederlandse samenvattingDankwoordCurriculum Vitae
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Introduction
When theory meets practice becomes political: Can we combine scientific credibility and societal credibility?
Motivation in educational interventions: A systematic review exploring the concept in relation to intervention outcomes
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation: A longitudinal study in secondary education
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation: The surplus value of behavioral consultation on top of strategy instruction
Conclusion and discussion
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
9
Introduction
Motivation is considered to be an important topic in education. Students’
motivation is thought to influence the choices students make, the amount of
time and effort they invest in the academic tasks, the perceptions they have
of both themselves and the tasks, and their interpretation of feedback and
performance. Therefore motivation influences students’ learning behavior
(e.g. Minnaert, 1999), students well-being at school (e.g. Van der Veen &
Peetsma, 2009) and students’ academic performance (e.g., Multon, Brown &
Lent, 1991; Schiefele, Krapp, & Winteler, 1992). However, studies have shown
that student motivation decreases from the start of secondary education (e.g.,
Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 2001; Opdenakker, Maulana, & Den Brok,
2012; Van der Veen & Peetsma, 2009). This decline in students’ motivation
can have consequences for students’ academic careers. Not only the students’
enjoyment of learning can decrease, so can their perceptions of competence.
This can lead to maladaptive learning behavior, such as avoidance behavior
(Dickhäuser, Buch, & Dickhäuser, 2011), less help-seeking behavior
(Karabenick & Knapp, 1988), and decrease in invested effort (Covington,
1984). Additionally, it can lead to negative emotions, such as anxiety (Wigfield,
& Eccles, 1989) and boredom (Ahmed, Van der Werf, Kuyper, & Minnaert,
2013). Eventually, in the worst cases, a long lasting decrease in motivation can
10
lead to drop-out (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997). Especially students in
the lower educational tracks, such as the population of students in this study,
pre-vocational secondary education students, have a high risk of dropping-
out, compared to students in other tracks (Luyten, Bosker, Dekkers, & Derks,
2010). Currently, nine percent of the students in the Netherlands leaves
school without a qualification (Eurostat, 2013), most which are students in
pre-vocational secondary education (CPB Netherlands bureau for economic
policy analysis, 2006). Students in pre-vocational secondary education show a
higher incidence of learning problems and co-occurring behavioral problems
and often have a history of academic failure (Peetsma & Van der Veen, 2013).
An important aim of this study is to stop this decrease of students’ motivation
in order to increase the chance of academic success and to minimize drop-out
among this vulnerable group of students.
Alongside the increase of students’ motivational problems, classroom
challenges rise for teachers. Teachers are increasingly made responsible
for the students’ performance (Lauermann & Karabenick, 2011). Teaching
students who are less motivated becomes a greater challenge, since these
students often show less adaptive learning behavior. At the same time, more
demands are set for teachers due to recent educational reforms (Parliamentary
Inquiry Commission Educational Reform, 2008). Teachers need more and
more additional skills and expertise to deal with specific situations in their
classrooms. For example, the recent introduction of inclusive education
demands skills from the teacher to deal with special educational needs (Pijl,
2010). The same can be said for problems with students’ motivation. Teachers
need skills to deal with problems of students’ motivation (Eccles & Roeser,
2011; Matthijssen, 1986; Stipek, 2002). However, what can be done to foster
student motivation often remains a difficult question for teachers to answer
(Perry, Turner, & Meyer, 2006). In this thesis, extensive attention will be given
to the question what can be done to keep the students motivated. The teachers
play a big role in both the operationalization of this research to this question
Chapter 1
11
and the approaches that are hypothesized to bring the answer to this question.
In line with teachers being made responsible for students’ performance,
schools are likewise. School are increasingly given the opportunity to shape
their own policy, however they have to answer to demands regarding
students’ outcomes (Cochran-Smith, 2004). Thus, challenges for the teachers
become challenges for the whole school. Additionally, students’ motivation is
related to multiple features in the educational environment, making a broad
perspective even more eminent. In this thesis, the problem of decreasing
students’ motivation will not only be approached from the students’
perspective and the teachers’ perspective, but additionally from the whole-
school perspective.
In this introductory chapter, the reader will first find a section defining
motivation, both from a historical and theoretical perspective. Subsequently,
theory on educational interventions and the educational environment will be
considered, followed by a description of the population of students among
whom this study was performed. Finally, an overview of the chapters in this
thesis will be given.
Motivation
A lot has been written about motivation. Yet, it remains to some extentan
elusive concept. Since it is an umbrella term, it entails multiple theories
and multiple cognitive, affective and behavioral mechanisms. It entails the
incitement, direction and persistence of behavior. All three of these processes
use other processes of self-perception, attribution of significance and value,
feedback interpretation, goal setting, cognitive, affective, and behavioral
control. Not surprisingly, the concept has yielded several theories, most of
them concerning a specific mechanism or part of the concept. This pluralism
of definitions, appearance, and operationalization has led to several micro
Introduction
12
theories that, to a certain extent, all show empirical proof, but in some cases
yield contradicting results. This makes it harder for teachers to know how to
keep students motivated.
Historically, motivation has always had a strong connection with
learning. The initial motivational theories dealt with observed behavior
to fulfill physiological drives, such as hunger (e.g. Hull, 1930). This line of
research believed that animals and people learn to display behavior that is
most effective to fulfill their drives. This research evolved into reinforcement
or contingency theories (Stipek, 2002), of which behaviorism is the most
famous one. This theory states that rewards or punishments are made
contingent with outcomes (B.F. Skinner, 1974). These rewards or punishments
come from the environment. This can be in the form of operant conditioning,
in which someone, for example a teacher, deliberately reinforces behavior
with praise or rewards. It also can be in the form of classical conditioning,
in which positive outcomes of behavior function as reinforcing rewards and
negative outcomes as punishment. Motivation is considered to be equal to
learning, no further mental processing plays a role. Behaviorism has over
the years lost its good name due to examples of excessive experiments such
as experimenting on their own children (B.F. Skinner, 1945; Watson, 1930).
The principles of contingency are, however, still explicitly represented in
approaches to teaching behavioral control and task engagement to children
with behavioral problems, for example ADHD (e.g. Dovis, Van der Oord,
Wiers, & Prins, 2012).
Cognitive approaches to motivation arose out of discontent with
the behaviorists’ radical denial of the role of mental processes in human
motivation (Evans, 1989). At that time, some approaches such as projective
techniques and dream interpretations were quite popular, even though they
lacked empirical validation. The influence of these approaches was notable
in an increase of attention for mental processing of information, in either
explicit or implicit form. For example, in texts that are considered to form the
Chapter 1
13
basis of current motivational theories, such as McClelland, Atkinson, Clark
and Lowell’s (1953) The Achievement Motive and White’s (1959) Motivation
Reconsidered contain elaborated sections on dreams and children’s free play,
as well as the use of the Thematic Apperception Test. Meanwhile, several
assumptions of contingency theories on the influence of the environment
on learning were still represented in in cognitive theories (Bandura, 1975).
Additionally to theories on the influence of the environment on behavior,
theories on the influence of the self on behavior were devised. The recognition
of the role of mental processes in human behavior opened the door for
theories explaining the connection between information processing, self-
concept, learning, and behavior. Theories of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997),
attribution (Weiner, 1986), social learning (Rotter, 1990), expectancy-value
(Atkinson, 1964), self-worth (Covington, 1984), and cognitive control (E.A.
Skinner, 1995) explained processes of information processing considering
the own influence on achievement. Theories of social learning (Bandura,
1986), social constructivism (Piaget, 1952), social cultural learning (Vygotsky,
1978) elaborated on the social and cultural influences in learning. In most of
these approaches, the goal of learning was competence or achievement, and
therefore motivation was operationalized as striving towards these concepts.
Additionally, several other theories had a more enjoyment based approach to
tasks or competence. Theories of intrinsic motivation (DeCharms, 1976; Deci,
1975) and interest (Hidi, 1990) emphasize the enjoyment of task performance
or task mastery. These two pathways, one being more achievement or outcome
focused, with outside demands motivating the person, and one being more
enjoyment or mastery focused, with internal factors motivating the person,
were united in three major theories that are broadly used in motivational
research until recent day. The revised expectancy value theory (Eccles et al.,
1983), the achievement goal theory (Ames & Archer, 1988; Dweck & Elliot,
1983; Nichols 1984) , and the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985)
all include a form of motivation that is externally driven and strives towards
Introduction
14
performance or outcomes, and a form of motivation that is internally driven
and strives towards enjoyment and mastery. Since all three theories are
supported by abundant empirical evidence and most current motivational
research uses one of these three approaches as a theoretical background, they
will be described into more detail here.
Based on Atkinson’s (1964) expectancy-value theory, Eccles and
colleagues (1983) formulated their revised expectancy-value theory. This
theory states that a person determines a value of a task, as well as an expectancy
of successfully performing on that task. In this theory, the person’s assessment
or perception of the task and the personal ability determines the incitement,
direction and persistence of behavior. The task can be seen to have three
different values, representing different relationships between the person and
the task. Attainment value is the relevance of performing the task well to the
person self, utility value is the relevance of performing the task for other goals
that are not directly achieved by performing this task, and intrinsic value is
the enjoyment that a person gets from performing the task. The expectancy
of performance success is determined by several cognitive processes, such
as perceptions of own ability and perceptions of task difficulty (Eccles et al.,
1983). A well-known elaboration on this theory is the Future Time Perspective
(Husman & Lens, 1999), in which the future is more explicitly modeled in
order to more accurately determine the value and expectancy of the task.
Factors in the environment can influence the person’s perceptions of task
value as well as performance expectancy, but the main focus of this theory is
on the person, making it mainly a cognitive theory. The fact that this theory
clearly operationalizes the motivational objects in values and expectancies
has its advantages for measurement and comparison of the constructs in
theoretical models. This makes that this approach is often adopted when
the relationships between motivation and other variables, such as personal
characteristics, are investigated. However, by focusing mainly on cognitive
and rational processes, the theory offers less attention for the emotional and
Chapter 1
15
affective side of motivation (Pintrich, 2003).
Achievement goal theory states that persons can have different goal
orientations that influence their perception, choices, and behavior. The main
distinction of goal orientations in this theory is between task orientation and
ego orientation (Nicholls, 1984). Task orientation means that students want to
demonstrate mastery of the task or learn new things. This is self-referenced,
that is that students want to perform according to their own abilities and
learning is considered to be an end in itself. Ego orientation means that
students want to show high capacity to peers. This is norm-referenced, that
is, students want to perform as well or better than others, and avoid showing
low ability. Learning is at most considered a means. Another distinction made
in goal orientations is the distinction between approach and avoidance goals.
Approach goals mean that persons actively undertake tasks to achieve mastery
or show performance. Avoidance goals mean that persons actively refrain
from task performance in order to avoid failure (Elliot, 1999). Combining
these distinctions, different possible goal orientations can be defined, that
have different effects on the tasks people choose, the way they percept their
own ability, and the amount of effort they invest in task performance. The
dual-focus combining purpose and orientation of achievement goals (Elliot
& Trash, 2001) has on the one hand led to a Babylonian confusion of concepts
(see Kaplan and Maehr (2007) for different conceptualizations), but on
the other hand has led to a concept that is easily applicable in educational
contexts and therefore widely used in educational research. Exactly the fact
that achievement goals are easy to use in educational research creates the
threats of taking the meaning of within and between-concept processes for
granted (Minnaert, 2013). In other words, achievement goal orientations offer
an operationalization of motivation that has a close connection to students’
classroom behavior, but attention for qualitative interpretation of the concept
is needed to fully understand the relationship to other classroom factors.
Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) states that people
Introduction
16
can be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation means
that persons are motivated because they experience enjoyment or challenge
from a task or interest for a task. Extrinsic motivation means that people are
motivated by external reasons, for example rewards or avoiding punishment,
or because they believe other people think that they should perform a
task. People can become more intrinsically motivated when three innate
universal needs are fulfilled. The theory states that people have the need to
feel competent, autonomous in their choices, and related to other people.
The distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is not clear-cut,
rather a process of internalization of motivation is proposed. This means that
people can also be motivated by external reasons that do have a high amount
of importance for them. The needs can be fostered by the environment, for
example by teachers when applied to educational or school environments.
They can display behavior that is high on autonomy support (e.g. stimulating
own initiative and offering choice to the students) and low on control (e.g.
demanding compliance from the students), high on structure (e.g. offering
positive performance feedback), and that is warm and caring (Deci & Ryan,
2008; Vansteenkiste et al., 2012). The theory therefore does include a cognitive
appreciation of the environment by the person, but it is embedded in a more
organismic view on motivation of humans as growth oriented creatures
having universal needs and interacting with the environment. This makes
that self-determination theory shows potential as an approximation of human
motivation, but is less clear-cut in making statements on how to translate
these ideas of motivation into observable behavior (Stroet, Opdenakker, &
Minnaert, 2013).
Concluding, motivation should be seen as a collection of cognitive and
affective processes describing the influence of perception of own ability and the
environment, of need fulfillment, and of task appreciation on the incitement,
direction and persistence of (learning) behavior. Furthermore, motivation
has a clear connection to other cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes.
Chapter 1
17
This paints a picture of a rather abstract concept involving interaction of the
person, the task, and the environment. Three major theories have grown out
of the rich amount of motivational micro-theories applicable to the context
of academic learning and performance. On the one hand all three of them
include a form of motivation that is externally driven and strives towards
performance or outcomes, and a form of motivation that is internally driven
and strives towards enjoyment and mastery. On the other hand, apparent
differences can be spotted between the major theories. Each motivational
theory explains a part of the complex and multifaceted concept and all three
theories are supported by abundant empirical evidence. Of the three theories,
achievement goal theory shows most promise for measuring students’
motivation, since it offers the most clues on how to translate of motivation to
observable classroom behavior. In this thesis this is considered of importance,
since the aim is that teachers and students can make the link between
motivation and behavior, since the long term aims of enhancing motivation
are to improve learning behavior and to decrease drop-out. The three major
motivational theories do not yet offer, however, clear-cut recommendations
for intervention construction. None of the theories exhaustively explains the
relationships between self, task, environment, cognition, affect, and behavior.
Further understanding of motivation, especially in relationship with behavior
and the environment is needed to decide on a framework for translating
motivation into practice which can be used to construct the intervention of
the study. Therefore, motivation will now be considered in relation to the
environment.
Motivation as self-environment dialecticIn order to translate the motivational theories into practice and observable
behavior, motivation has to be considered in relation to the environment.
All human behavior takes place in an environment. In the case of academic
motivation, this is the classroom environment. In all three major motivational
Introduction
18
theories, the theme of finding a balance between the self and outside influences
can be found in some form. The outside influences can be found in the striving
for performance in attainment value in expectancy-value theory and ego
orientation in achievement goal theory, but also in extrinsic motivation in
self-determination theory. The influences of the self can be found in the task
enjoyment in intrinsic value in expectancy-value theory, in task orientation
in achievement goal theory, and in intrinsic motivation in self-determination
theory. This point of the dialectic between the self and the environment
as central to motivation was first made by White (1959), although the idea
of dealing with the environment already existed in evolutional theories.
After having reviewed the state of motivational literature, which was then
dominated by drive theorists and psychodynamic theorists, White concluded
that the main motive of humans was to effectively deal with environmental
demands. This idea of effectively dealing with the environment has found
its way to many motivational theories in roughly three forms. First, it can be
found in the mechanism of control. Second, it can be found as a quality in
interaction and knowledge construction. Third, it can be found as a general
human need or motive.
The concept of control, or related concepts, can be identified in
several motivational theories. The term has become widely used after the
1982 article by Rothbaum, Weisz, and Snyder. The idea behind the concept
of control is that a person strives towards equilibrium in his competence
in dealing with the environment. This equilibrium is maintained by either
showing competence, or finding a reason outside of the self for a lack
of competence. Concepts relating to this equilibrium of control over the
environment are primary and secondary control (Heckhausen, Wrosch, &
Schulz, 2010), perceived control (E.A. Skinner, 1995), learned helplessness
(Seligman, 1975), locus of control (Rotter, 1990), self-efficacy (Bandura,
1997), attribution (Weiner, 1986), attainment and utility value (Eccles et al.,
1983), approach and avoidance and attribution of effort (Covington, 1984;
Chapter 1
19
Elliot, 1999; Nichols, 1984), extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985). These
approaches all describe mechanisms dealing with interaction of the person
with the environment. A related concept, that not only includes motivation,
but also learning and behavior, is self-regulation. Self-regulated learning
means to be explicitly and purposefully planning, monitoring and evaluating
one’s own learning processes (Zimmerman, 1990). This makes self-regulation
a pre-requisite for durable effectiveness in learning and motivation. Self-
regulation and motivation are reciprocally linked. Students use for example
goal orientations and perceptions of ability to devise their self-regulation
strategies. Additionally, in order to successfully regulate their own learning,
the students must also regulate their motivation. Self-regulation is considered
to involve cognitive, meta-cognitive, motivational, and behavioral strategies
(Pintrich, 2000c; Zimmerman, 1990; 2000). Interventions aiming at teaching
self-regulation to students often aim at specific parts of self-regulation
(Campione, 1987; Dignath & Buttner, 2008; Hattie, Biggs, & Purdie, 1996).
However, knowledge and skills in all of these strategies are needed in order
to effectively self-regulate (Campione, 1987).
Dealing with the environment in the form of interaction or
knowledge construction derives mainly from educational theory. Especially
social constructivism focusses on processes of construction of knowledge by
combining existing knowledge with new information. The theory of Piaget
(1952) states that, striving for equilibrium in cognition, new knowledge
is either assimilated (fitted into existing knowledge schemes), or leads to
accommodation (adaption of the existing knowledge schemes). Vygotsky
(1978) stated that knowledge is socially constructed. The situated nature of
knowledge and social interaction continuously leads to new knowledge. These
two highly influential theories emphasize the importance of social interaction
in dealing with the environment. The same can be found in philosophical
theories on the development of epistemology in education. Dewey (1938)
emphasized the “democratic nature” of education. Knowledge is constructed
Introduction
20
in the interaction of the student with the teacher and the environment.
According to Dewey, this democratic nature extends beyond knowledge
construction and additionally leads to development of moral values and
self-regulation. It has been argued that these ideas should be incorporated
in teacher-student interaction. Teachers should adapt their teaching to
the students’ individual needs (Biesta, 2007). Indeed, teacher behavior has
been shown to positively influence students’ motivation when teachers are
perceived to be pedagogically caring (i.e. showing democratic interaction
style), to adapt their expectations of students to individual differences, and to
display constructive behavior (Wentzel, 1997).
Effectively dealing with the environment as a general human need or
motive can be found in the need for autonomy in self-determination theory
(Deci & Ryan, 1985) and the construct human agency in social cognitive theory
(Bandura, 2001, 2006b), although both have different conceptualizations
of dealing with the demands of the environment. According to the self-
determination theory the need for autonomy is being fulfilled when a person
experiences less controlling motivation, that is motivation by external rewards,
from the environment and more autonomous motivation, that is choice,
interest and enjoyment. The theory states that a person is innately intrinsically
motivated, but by thwarting of the need for autonomy, the person can become
extrinsically motivated. Bandura (2001, 2006b) formulated human agency
more from the social learning perspective. By successful interaction with the
environment a person develops intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness,
and self-reflectiveness, making the person more effective in dealing with the
environment. Concepts related to effectively dealing with the environment or
liberation of external demands from the perspective of a human need or motive
are intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985), interest (Hidi, 1990), intrinsic
value (Eccles et al., 1983) and task or mastery goal orientation (Nicholson,
1984; Ames & Archer, 1988; Dweck & Elliot, 1983; Pintrich, 2000b). All of these
processes demand for an environment enduringly fostering autonomy or
Chapter 1
21
agency, in contrast to the processes of control, which can work through rather
local mechanisms within the person.
Motivation in education takes place in the classroom context (Volet
& Järvelä, 2001). Perry, Turner, and Meyer (2006), in their review of research
on interventions stimulating motivation identified three categories of studies
of classroom interventions aiming at motivational change: studies looking at
the influence of classroom tasks, studies looking at the influence of teacher
instruction, and studies looking at the influence of social interaction on student
motivation. Additionally, other factors can be identified in the classroom
context that have their influence on motivation, such as focus on performance
and competition (Ames, 1992), school culture (Opdenakker & Van Damme,
2007), or students remedial care (Adelman & Taylor, 1983). This suggests that
change in students’ motivation may eventually demand school-wide change
(Maehr & Midgley, 1991).
In conclusion, motivation deals with the incitement, direction
and persistence of behavior. Motivation is related to learning, cognition,
emotion, and behavior. The ultimate goal of motivation can be considered
to be to effectively deal with environmental demands. Approaches dealing
with environmental demands involve control mechanism and self-efficacy,
knowledge construction and democratic interaction, and environments
fostering autonomy and agency. Besides the fact that environmental demands
play a role in the definition of motivation, additionally, research has shown
that environmental features influence students’ motivation. Therefore, an
important aim of this thesis is to take the educational environment into
account when investigating the concept of motivation as well as when
constructing, implementing, and evaluating interventions aiming at a change
in motivation. Although the exploration of literature on motivation has shed
some light on the concept of motivation as well as the relation of motivation
to classroom behavior and the environment, the findings are still multiform
and somewhat abstract. Therefore, in this thesis, further investigations will be
Introduction
22
performed in order to contribute to the understanding of motivation and how
it can be influenced, before deciding on the intervention contents and format.
Educational interventions
Academic motivation is situated in a classroom environment (Volet &
Järvelä, 2001). Furthermore, motivation and teaching are related to several
other concepts and factors in the educational environment (Eccles & Roeser,
2011; Stipek, 2002). This makes it necessary to explore not only the concept
of motivation, but also the processes in the educational environment that can
play a role in teaching and intervention implementation. Next to influencing
students’ motivation, the educational environment can also be argued to
influence educational research. Furthermore, since the aim of this thesis is
to implement interventions aiming at a change in students’ motivation, the
implementation of interventions is a subject of targeted attention.
From a research perspective, the educational environment is
considered to have a multilevel structure (Snijders & Bosker, 2012).
Interventions can be implemented and effects can be measured at different
levels, for example, student level, teacher level, school level, educational policy
level. The levels are related and to some extent influence each other. This means
that an intervention can be implemented on another level than the eventual
effect is expected. Intervening on the different levels will have advantages and
disadvantages. Intervening at student level has the advantages of producing
stronger effects and making sure that the intervention is implemented
exactly how it was intended by the researchers (Dignath & Buttner, 2008).
The disadvantage is that the effect is likely to be local and situational, which
makes it difficult to achieve transfer to other situations or persons and to
achieve durable effects (Campione, 1987). Intervening at teacher level has the
advantage that teaching quality is being improved, which has been reported
Chapter 1
23
to have a direct connection to student outcomes (Sashkin & Egermeier,
1992). Furthermore, it is expected to lead to a more durable effect and a
tailor-made approach for multiple students and/or situations (Messmann
& Mulder, 2011). Disadvantages of intervening at teacher level are that the
researcher has less control over the execution of the intervention (Dignath
& Buttner, 2008), and that the question remains to what extent the teacher
will internalize the intervention and develop ownership, which is needed to
achieve professionalization (Gregoire, 2003). This makes that generally less
strong effects are observed with interventions implemented at teacher level,
and that the implementation of the interventions not always goes as smooth
as hoped (Boekaerts & Minnaert, 2003). Intervening at school level has the
advantages of stimulating school ownership of the intervention and giving
responsibility of implementation to the school, which should contribute to
teacher professionalization (Van den Berg, Vandenberghe, & Sleegers, 1999).
Furthermore, this enables for more ecological validity since the characteristics
and demands of the school are better represented in the eventually implemented
intervention (Boekaerts & Minnaert, 2003). Disadvantages of intervening at
school level are the difficulty of achieving experimental control. Researchers
have to try to control every step of the implementation process to ensure
internal validity (Boekaerts & Minnaert, 2003). Intervening on educational
policy is a whole different ballgame. It involves different stakeholders and
is more politically focused than practical application focused (Cohen & Ball,
1990). Educational policy is not always intended to supply concrete policy on
the work floor; rather it supplies directions that have to be made into policy
by school administrators (Niessen, 2012).
Due to the leveled structure of education and their interrelatedness,
interventions permeate the educational environment in roughly two fashions,
being bottom-up and top-down. When interventions are implemented
bottom-up, the interventions are implemented in the lower levels and then
from there they influence the higher levels. This means that the lower levels
Introduction
24
shape the interventions and/or behavior, and policy rises when the new
behavior is found to be effective (Van den Berg et al., 1999). This often means
that the lower levels feel motivated to implement the intervention, but the
interventions themselves are in threat of lacking uniform structure (Cohen &
Ball, 1990). When interventions are implemented top-down, a uniform policy
is decided on on a higher level, and the lower levels have to execute this
policy. This makes that interventions have a greater change to be structured
and responding to a need of the organization, but that they are in threat of
lacking situational applicability and lower-level cooperation (Cohen & Ball,
1990). The leveled structure of education and the influences that can play a role
on the different levels make that educational research should be approached
from an interdisciplinary perspective. When studying learning, teaching, or
motivation, also subjects such as organizational development (Sashkin &
Egermeijer, 1992) and educational policy (Skrtic, 1991) should be taken into
account to develop full understanding.
Besides having a multi-level structure, the educational environment
also has a multifactorial nature. A lot of factors play a role in the educational
environment and therefore in educational research. Next to learning and
motivation, self-regulated learning, students’ learning problems and student
care, school culture, the instructional climate, teachers perceptions of students
and many more factors can be identified that in some way or another influence
the teaching process and student outcomes (Eccles & Roeser, 2011). This
makes that attentions for the classroom ecology or context is important for
the interventions to fit into that classroom ecology. A lot has been written on
intervention implementation (e.g. Huberman, 1999; Volet, 1999), ecological
validity of educational interventions (e.g. Cronbach, 1982; Dunlosky, Bottiroli,
& Hartwig, 2009), and the gap of research and practice (e.g. De Corte, 2000;
Schoenfeld, 1999). However, in addition to this importance of attention
for context or ecology for intervention implementation, it is important
to understand the real effects of interventions in that context or ecology
Chapter 1
25
(Cronbach, 1982). Interventions can be tested in controlled laboratory contexts,
but in classrooms found to deliver different results due to interactions with
contextual features. Therefore, educational research preferably has to be
tested in the classroom environment (Levin & O’Donnell, 1999).
Target population
The target population of this study is students in the first two years of pre-
vocational secondary education. In the Netherlands, the students enter
secondary education at the age of twelve years, after primary education.
Tracking is applied in secondary education. This has led to roughly
three different tracks, and when students finish one of these, admission
is automatically granted to a specific track of post-secondary or higher
education. The highest track, pre-university education, takes six years, and,
as the name makes clear, grants admission to a university. The middle track,
higher general secondary education, takes five years and grants admission
to bachelor studies at universities of applied sciences. The lowest track, pre-
vocational secondary education, takes four years and grants admission to
vocational education. It is possible to change tracks based on performance
during the school year, although limited transfer takes place (Peetsma & Van
der Veen, 2013), and also to advance to higher tracks after finishing lower
tracks. In pre-vocational education, classes actually teaching vocational
subjects are only scheduled in the senior years and for a limited amount of
hours per week. The main contents of pre-vocational education are general
subjects such as Dutch, English, math, and science (Luyten et al., 2010).
Around fifty percent of the students in secondary education are in the
pre-vocational track in the Netherlands. Students in pre-vocational secondary
education show a higher incidence of learning problems and co-occurring
behavioral problems (Peetsma & Van der Veen, 2013) and have a high risk
Introduction
26
of dropping-out, compared to students in other tracks (Luyten et al., 2010).
Support for students with special educational needs is to a certain degree
arranged by law, especially for schools of pre-vocational secondary education.
Students can get additional support when diagnosed with a deficit of two
years of education. The schools are obliged to have plans in which targeted
care and support of students with special educational needs is formalized.
Furthermore, the schools are required to form partnerships with other schools
in order to make distributed expertise on student care available for multiple
schools. Starting from summer 2014, the schools are no longer allowed to
refuse students based on their support demands and should be able to supply
all students with adequate support within their educational partnerships.
However, some problems can be noted. Interestingly, support plans are not
always used as guidelines for action; rather ad-hoc policy is formed between
teachers and support coordinators (Niessen, 2012). Additionally, many
teachers do not have the pedagogical expertise to deal with special educational
needs (Inspectorate of Education, 2013; Pijl, 2010). Already, worries of the
consequences of this combination of high demands from the government and
not enough support for schools and teachers have been expressed by both
independent authorities (Court of Audit, 2013) and scientists (Pijl, 2010).
Besides problems with learning and drop-out, pre-vocational education also
has problems with its image. It is associated with learning and behavioral
problems, unqualified teachers and generally regarded as hierarchically
lower than the other forms of education (Van Daalen, 2010).
Some characteristics of pre-vocational education can be regarded
to increase the risk of a decline in motivation of the students. Students with
learning problems have an increased chance of a history of academic failure,
which can lead to a decrease in motivation (Dickhäuser et al., 2011). The image
of the lowest form of education, combined with limited abilities for transfer,
can negatively influence students’ self-image and decrease their perceptions of
future opportunities (Peetsma & Van der Veen, 2013). Additionally, the same
Chapter 1
27
problems arise for the teachers, who need to deal with increasing demands
(Pijl, 2010), challenges (Skrtic, 1991), responsibility (Lauerman & Karabenick,
2012), and from time to time being confronted with the negative image of their
profession (Berliner & Biddle, 1995). This can affect their efficacy (Skaalvik &
Skaalvik, 2011) and therefore their willingness to innovate (Guskey, 1988).
Considering the increased chance of drop out of this specific group of students,
combined with the higher incidence of risk factors (e.g. learning problems,
negative image), makes that they have a heightened risk of experiencing
decline in academic motivation. Therefore, with this specific target group, it is
regarded that stopping the decline in motivation is all the more eminent.
Research aims
The main goals of this thesis are twofold: first, to contribute to the
understanding of motivation and how motivation can be influenced, and
second, to explore approaches to influencing students’ motivation in a specific
target group, being pre-vocational education. Combining the findings of the
two contributions should bring us knowledge on what can be done to stop
the decrease in students’ motivation from the start of secondary education.
In order to contribute to the understanding of motivation, the concept of
motivation and the way motivation is being influenced in the classroom
will be explored in the first half of the thesis. Additionally, the role of the
educational environment in constructing, implementing, and evaluating
interventions will be explored, in order to better understand what the role
of the multilevel structure and multifactorial nature of education will be
when influencing students’ motivation. This section will look for answers on
the questions: What kind of interventions can be constructed to change students’
motivation?; What is needed to effectively implement the interventions in the
classroom environment?; On what level of the educational environment should be
Introduction
28
intervened? Based on the findings of these explorations, it can be decided
what is expected to be the most useful motivational framework to base the
interventions on, what is expected to be the most effective educational area
to aim the intervention on (e.g. motivational mechanisms, teacher behavior,
self-regulation, students’ remedial care), and what is expected to be the most
effective level to implement the intervention on.
In order to explore what can be done to influence students’ motivation,
approaches to influencing motivation will be constructed, implemented, and
evaluated in the second half of this thesis. This implementation will be done
with the specific target group of pre-vocational education students, since this
group shows an increased risk of motivational problems and drop out. In
order to measure the effect of the interventions on students’ motivation, the
achievement goal theory has been chosen as the underlying framework. This
was decided because the achievement goal theory includes both sides of the
motivational dialectic, includes multiple motivational mechanisms including
cognitive and affective components, and the motivational components in
this theory are fairly easy to operationalize within the context of classroom
behavior. It was especially this last argument in which the achievement goal
theory was considered to suit the aims of this study better than the other
major motivational theories, since an eventual aim of this research is to
produce knowledge on motivation that is understandable and interpretable
by teachers. Furthermore, an important aim of this thesis was to review
the effects of the interventions from a longitudinal perspective. Since the
observed decline in students’ motivation in secondary education has a
longitudinal nature, the proposed remediation should also have longitudinal
effects. Additionally, in the case of educational interventions, it is of added
value to look at maintenance effects, since the effects of interventions are in
threat of disappearing over time due to interference of other factors in the
educational environment. Therefore, in this thesis, the interventions will not
only be tested on short term effects, but also on long term effects. The second
Chapter 1
29
Introduction
part of the thesis will look for answers to the question: What are the short and
long term effects of the intervention(s) on the students’ goal orientations?
Eventually, the findings of the research in the two parts of the thesis
will be combined in order to shed some light on the question: What can be
done to stop the decline in students’ motivation during pre-vocational secondary
education? Even though the question is quite complex and broad, taking into
account the complex and multifaceted nature of motivation and education,
a preliminary answer to this question is expected to be given based on the
combination of general knowledge on the concept of motivation and how it
can be influenced, and specific knowledge on what happens when motivation
is influenced with a particular target group. Therefore, the aims of this
thesis are to study the concept of motivation and the processes playing a
role in educational research, to construct one or more interventions aiming
at a change in students’ motivation, to implement the interventions in pre-
vocational secondary education, and explore the effects of the interventions
on the students’ goal orientations. The eventual goals are to contribute to the
understanding of motivation and to formulate applicable advice to teachers
on what they can do to stop the decline in student’ motivation.
Overview of the thesis
As stated before, the ultimate goal of this thesis is to investigate what can
be done to counter accordingly the decrease in students’ motivation from
the start of secondary education. In order to do so, the concept of motivation
and the environment in which interventions on motivation are to be
implemented will be explored first. Hence, the findings of these explorations
will be used to construct and implement approaches aiming at a change in
students’ motivation. Accordingly, the interventions will be implemented
in pre-vocational education classrooms and the longitudinal effects of the
30
interventions on the students’ goals orientations will be explored.
In the second chapter, the implementation of educational interventions
will be scrutinized. Since in this thesis interventions will be implemented, the
process of implementation is a subject of interest. Issues with implementation
will be regarded, as well as demands from both the scientific field and the
educational field. The players involved (e.g. teachers, school administrators)
in the implementation process will be described as well as their relationships
to each other and their influence on the implementation of interventions.
In this chapter there will be sought for directions for the scientific design
of the study, the form and contents of the interventions, and the process of
implementing the interventions.
In the third chapter, the concept of motivation will be explored both in
theoretical literature and in recent intervention studies. Based on theoretical
literature on motivation and the translation of motivational principles to
classroom research, a classification scheme will be created. Using this scheme,
recent studies trying to influence students’ motivation will be analyzed. This
chapter is expected to bring further insight on the concept of motivation, the
way students’ motivation is influenced in a classroom situation, and what
the form and contents of educational interventions aiming at a change in
students’ motivation should be.
In the fourth chapter, the effects of two school-based interventions
on students’ motivation and self-regulation will be presented. In a pre-test
- post-test - follow-up control group design the longitudinal growth curves
of the students’ goal orientations, self-efficacy, and self-regulation will be
examined. This chapter will explore the effectiveness of these interventions to
stop or counter accordingly the decrease of students’ motivation in secondary
education.
In the fifth chapter, the interventions will be explored on what works
and why. Not only will be elaborated on the differences in mechanisms of
influence, also the difference between the two interventions will be studied
Chapter 1
31
with regard to their short and long term effects. Hence, the interventions will
be scrutinized with regard to their components and the effects using a planned
variation design. In this chapter an in depth analysis of the connections
between intervention contents and observed effects on students’ motivation
and self-regulation will be carried out.
Finally, in the sixth chapter, the results of the three preceding chapters
will be combined in order to draw conclusions on the nature of motivation, the
role motivation plays in a classroom context and teacher-student interactions,
and on how the decline in motivation of secondary education students can be
stopped or countered accordingly.
Introduction
When theory meets practice becomes political: Can we combine scientific credibility and societal credibility?
CHAPTER 2
This chapter is based on:
Prince, A., Tiekstra, M., & Minnaert, A. (2013). When theory meets practice becomes political: Can we
combine scientific credibility and societal credibility? Manuscript submitted for publication.
34
Abstract
The implementation of educational interventions often turns out to be
not as straightforward as was expected at first sight. A lot of approaches
trying to bridge the so-called gap between theory and practice have been
predominantly formulated from a research point of view. In this article, the
implementation of educational interventions and the gap between theory and
practice is analyzed using the theory of Stokes’ (1997) Pasteur’s quadrant.
Can educational interventions indeed be both high on scientific credibility
and high on societal credibility? It is argued that educational intervention
research should not try to bridge the differences between scientific and
societal credibility, but strive towards a synergy of the two. An inspection of
scientific field and the educational field is made, including scientific demands
for credible research and players involved in the process of implementation
of educational interventions. The inspection of the scientific field and
the educational field shows apparent differences in goals, demands and
methodology between the two. The scientific field has extensive demands
for credible educational research. An intervention is said to be scientifically
credible when the lines within the experiment and between the experiment
and the target ecology are credible, when it has a well-built design, and
when it is executed in a systematic manner. The educational field shows a
lot of interdependent players, each having their own goals, demands and
methodology. This situation creates several paradoxes. An intervention is
said to be societally credible when it is able to deal with the paradoxes and
the high interdependency observed in the educational field, and when it
takes into account the pragmatic methodology of all players. Attention for the
process of implementation, mutual understanding, and cooperation between
researchers and educational field professionals is needed. It is argued that, in
order to achieve research that is high on both understanding and application,
educational intervention research should not try to bridge the differences
between scientific and societal credibility, but strive towards a synergy of the
two.
Chapter 2
35
When theory meets practice becomes political
Introduction
At first sight, implementation of educational interventions seems to be
straightforward practice. A researcher develops an idea based on theoretical
grounds of good-practice principles and instructs teachers how to use those
good-practice principles in their classrooms. This seems like a useful situation
enabling the teacher to professionalize and the researcher to gather scientific
information. In current times, researchers and teachers are interdependent,
since the scientific community calls for more evidence-based research, and
teachers are increasingly obliged to base their teaching on evidence based
practice. Therefore educational intervention research can be said to be a key
example of where theory meets practice; the main goal is applicable practices
grounded in basic educational research.
In practice, however, problems come to the surface while
implementing these interventions. Most of those problems are attributed to
what has been called ‘the gap between theory and practice’ by many authors
(De Corte, 2000; Huberman, 1999; Schoenfeld, 1999; Turner, Warzon, &
Christensen, 2011; Volet, 1999): a difference in goals, beliefs and methodology
between the scientists and the educational field professionals. There has been
a long history of research trying to close or bridge the gap between research
and practice. It has been approached by devising educational programs (e.g.
36
Brown & Campione, 1990; DeCorte, Verschaffel, Entwistle, & Van Merriënboer,
2003; Pellegrino, Baxter, & Glaser, 1999; Salomon & Perkins, 1989), by
devising research designs (e.g. Brophy, 1977; Brown, 1992; Brunswick, 1956;
Campbell, 1969), and by devising intervention implementation frameworks
(e.g. DeCorte, 2000; Huberman, 1999; Volet, 1999). A useful framework to
analyze the relationship between the basic research and applicable research
was offered by Stokes (1997). He concluded that for long researchers thought
the two to be on a one dimensional scale. For research to be more applied, it
meant that it was per definition less fundamental. Stokes made a plea for a
paradigm transformation. He proposed a two-dimensional model in which
research can both be high or low on consideration of use and high or low
on understanding of fundamentals. Subsequently, he called for research
that is for high on applicability as well as high on understanding, which
he called ‘Pasteur’s Quadrant’. Stokes’ model was quickly picked up by
educational researchers. They saw the similarities between their field and
the ideas offered by Stokes. Amongst others, Schoenfeld (1999) and Pintrich
(2000a, 2003) incited the educational research community to make research
in Pasteur’s Quadrant to be their main objective. Whitehurst (2003) made
the same call as a representative of the US Office of Educational Research.
Research approaches such as the integrative approach (Stark & Mandl, 2008)
and translational research (Tierney & Holley, 2008) were said to be answering
to the demand of both basic and applied research. In these approaches,
research questions generated in the field are first researched in a laboratory
setting and subsequently translated to field application. Also approaches in
educational research trying to deliver evidence based research, for example
the randomized control trials model by Levin and O‘Donnell (1999) operates
according to that same idea: scientific knowledge is first credibly proven and
explored in a small setting, and then tested on applicability in the field setting.
There is, however, a major pitfall to these approaches. They all focus
on what the scientific community wants and needs to do. They have less
Chapter 2
37
apparent attention for the demands and methodology of the other half of the
collaboration: the field. Levin and O’Donnell (1999) state that educational
research has to strive toward scientific credibility. In order to assess the
credibility of educational research from the point of view of the educational
field social validity (Wolf, 1978) and research creditability (Levin, 1994) have
been proposed. Both constructs, however, still approach the credibility of
research to the field from a research point of view: How can the research be made
useable by the field? In order to truly strive toward research that is working
toward both understanding and application, not only the scientific credibility
of research should be assessed, but also the ‘societal credibility’. The society
has its own goals, demands and approach of educational interventions.
Research that is both basic and applied should be answering to the goals,
demands and methodology of both the scientific field and the educational
field. In this article, the two fields are reviewed. It must be stressed that the
review will by no means be exhaustive. Rather, it is intended to identify and
illustrate possible concerns and opportunities for successful intervention
implementation. Afterwards, the question whether scientific credibility and
societal credibility can be combined will be reflected on.
Scientific Credibility
In the introduction, educational intervention research was said to be a field
highly suitable for the combination of basic and applied research. The goal of
educational intervention research is to deliver both scientific understanding
and applicable practices. Moreover, teachers are looking for science-based
information on what can be considered ‘good practice’. The researchers’
definition of good practice is based on the effect it has. In other words: Does
it work?. Marley and Levin (2011) remark that empirical evidence of the
effect of interventions is needed to make prescriptions for both educational
When theory meets practice becomes political
38
policy and educational research. The validity of the empirical evidence has
to be demonstrated. Research demands are needed to provide and guard
the validity of the empirical evidence. In other words, research has to be
scientifically credible in order to make prescriptions based on that research
and to avoid skepticism toward the results.
The assessment of the validity of experimental designs in educational
research is mainly based on the literature of Campbell and Stanley (1963) and
Cook and Campbell (1979). The approach in this literature is oriented toward
the experimental situation. Campbell and Stanley emphasize the validity of
the causal lines between treatment and outcome in the experiment, which they
call internal validity. Furthermore, they say that the generalizability of the
experimentally found effect to other ‘populations, settings, treatment variables
and measurement variables’ (p. 175) is desired. This they call external validity.
Cook and Campbell add construct validity as an assesment of generalizability
of the research operations to higher order constructs. According to Campbell
and Stanley, internal validity is the ‘sine qua non’, albeit that they emphasize
that external validity is a ‘desideratum’ (p.175). This illustrates the fact that
Campbell and Stanley, and later Cook and Campbell place the experimental
design and causality central in their approach of validity. The researcher
should feel responsible for construction of an internally valid design, which
can be generalized on the one hand to higher constructs and on the other hand
to other populations and settings. This approach does not only make a clear
distinction between internal and external validity, but also between external
and construct validity.
Krathwohl (1998) accepts the definitions of Campell and Stanley
(1963) of internal validity as the validity of the causal relationships and
external validity as the validity of the generality of those relationships, but
he sees the assessment of these validities as a logical chain from conceptual
evidence to empirical evidence. The causal links within this chain must be
both credible and generalizable. In this, he regards the judgments of evidence
Chapter 2
39
as comparable for internal and external validity. This means that Krathwohl
formulates the demands somewhat stricter, that is that he not only stresses
the connection between concepts, causal links and generalizable evidence, but
also demands those connections to be within a chain of logic.
Levin and O’Donnell (1999), in their essay on the credibility of
educational research, strongly emphasize the sine-qua-non dictum. They
state that ‘credibility should be first and foremost in the educational research
equation’ (p. 189). This emphasis on internal validity is also reflected in the four
criteria that Levin and O’Donnell prescribe that can be used to assess whether
the outcomes can credibly be attributed to the intervention, conveniently
leading to the acronym CAREful research. First, the effect of the intervention
should be evident during a comparison of the intervention condition with a
non-intervention condition. Second, the results of the intervention should be
shown again and again through replication. Third, a direct relationship between
intervention and outcome should be established. Fourth, the elimination of
alternative explanations for the outcomes should be achieved. Furthermore,
Levin and O’Donnell strongly recommend adding external validity and
research creditability standards.
Other authors, however, criticize the approach of Campbell and
Stanley (1963). Kruglanski and Kroy (1976) and Cronbach (1982) object to the
statement that causality is a matter of internal validity. They state that the
hypothesis of an experiment should always come from the field to which is
generalized and that the proof of causality should be supported by the field
to which is being generalized. This is why Cronbach does not distinguish
construct validity from external validity. A comparable call has been made
concerning ecological validity (e.g. Dunlosky, Bottiroli, & Hartwig, 2009;
Hammond, 1998). Bracht and Glass (1968) had defined ecological validity
as the part of external validity that deals with the generalization to other
environments from the environment in which the experiment has been
conducted. The original definition by Brunswick (1956) does, however, not
When theory meets practice becomes political
40
deal with generalization of the results to the target ecology, but rather with
representation of the target ecology in the experiment (Dunlosky et al., 2009;
Hammond, 1998).
The above shows that the differences in research demands between
the different authors are related to the connection with the field. For example,
Cronbach (1982) and to a lesser extent Krathwohl (1998) argue that external
validity is indispensable as a starting point for the experiment. Dunlosky et
al. (2009) and Hammond (1998) fear the linear model, where the experiment
is generalized to the ecology instead of the ecology being taken as the starting
point. It must be remarked, however, that Campbell and Stanley (1963) and
Levin and O’Donnell (1999), and more particularly the sine qua non dictum,
did not prescribe a linear model or rule out external or ecological validity.
This is illustrated while looking at how to achieve validity.
In order to achieve validity, the literature on methodology agrees on
one thing: it is important to have a well-built design. The demands leading
to an internally valid design are most elaborately worked out by Levin
and O’Donnell (1999). First, they emphasize that the unit of measurement
(‘grain size’) in educational research is not the individual student, but
rather the classroom. This also means that multiple classrooms or teachers
should be randomly assigned to the different conditions. Second, regarding
the assignment, some issues should be taken into account. On the one
hand, multiple intervention conditions should be included in the design as
well as multiple control conditions. Multiple intervention conditions are
needed in order to pin-point what part of the intervention works (Levin &
O’Donnell, 1999). Multiple control conditions are needed in order to ensure
appropriate comparison, since differences can be noticed between non-
exposed control-groups (Levin, 1994). On the other hand, the experimental
condition and control condition have to be comparable. This demands for a
qualitative inspection of the classrooms assigned to the different conditions
(Ong-Dean, Hoffstetter, & Strick, 2011), as well as careful exploration of the
Chapter 2
41
intervention in pilots and pre-experiments (Levin & O’Donnell, 1999). The
assignment of multiple conditions becomes even more complicated due to
the threat of contamination. Boekaerts and Minnaert (2003) strongly warn for
contamination effects when assigning classrooms to experimental or control
conditions within the same school. On the other hand, comparing different
schools can lead to school effects confounding with the intervention outcomes
(see Rhoads (2011) for a statistical treatise on the subject). All this makes that
the inclusion of a lot of units is needed. Although true randomization is
very difficult to achieve, it is possible (see Cook & Payne (2002) for a further
discussion of this subject).
The different approaches to external validity lead to different
demands. The main demand to achieve generalizability of the experimental
outcomes is random sampling (Cronbach, 1982; Dunlosky et al., 2009; Levin
& O’Donnell, 1999; Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002). Random sampling,
however, does not ensure a representative sample (Cronbach, 1982). In order
to assess representativeness of the experimental design an explicit description
of the target ecology is needed (Dunlosky et al., 2009). Getting a representative
sample in educational intervention research often is a demanding and
expensive task (Marley & Levin, 2011). Several proposals have been made in
order to assess and achieve the representativeness of a design. Campbell (1969)
envisioned an experimenting society. Wolf (1978) stressed the assessment of
the goals, procedures and effects of the research on social validity, which he
defined as validity from the point of view of the society. Levin (1994) stated
that educational research should be high on creditability, with which he
meant that it indeed works in the classroom. Some variations of research
designs that strive for representativeness can be identified in the literature.
Levin and O’Donnell (1999) recommend ample pilot testing under different
conditions before the final intervention is made and tested on the effect in
the Randomized Control Trials phase. The same is proposed by Boekaerts and
Minnaert (2003) with the recursive bootstrapping design they used to implement
When theory meets practice becomes political
42
their intervention in a cyclical manner, adapting it after empirical feedback.
The idea of a cyclical approach is also found in the integrative approach of
Stark and Mandl (2008). Other authors suggest scaling up of interventions in
order to ensure adequate levels of external validity (Chatterji, 2007; Glennan,
Bodilly, Galegher, & Kerr, 2004; Sternberg et al., 2006).
Concluding, even though different authors have different views on
what constitutes scientifically credible educational intervention research, some
commonalities can be identified. First, lines within the experiment should be
credible, as well as the lines between the experiment and the target ecology.
Second, a well-built design is of the utmost importance. Third, doing research
is a systematic activity, in which the credibility of the methodology should
always be made clear. After a scrutiny of the methodological literature, one
has to conclude that the research demands leave sufficient room for taking
the educational field into account. Indeed, external and ecological validity are
included in the research demands. The sine qua non dictum runs the risk of
suggesting that the connection of theory and practice is a linear one. This is,
however, a misconception; the verbatim text of the methodological literature
shows no trace of such an assertion.
Societal Credibility
Defining societal credibility of educational interventions is a bit more difficult
than scientific credibility. Basically, it also starts with the question Does it
work?. However, different players either have assigned themselves a role, or
have been forced into a role in the educational environment and therefore are
involved in educational intervention research. These different stakeholders,
including the teachers and the students, have their own goals, motives and
beliefs. They all have their personal question Does it work for me?. Therefore,
in the following section, the players will all be considered one by one from the
Chapter 2
43
point of view of the implementation of educational interventions. After that,
a résumé of the striking features will be made. At this stage it is important to
note that in this article when educational interventions aiming at outcomes
among the students are mentioned, interventions implemented at the level
of educational professionals are meant, instead of intervention implemented
directly at the level of the students. When the intervention is implemented
on the teacher’s level the influences of the players are more explicit, since
a lot of them are directly noticeable on an organizational level. One can
argue, however, that the educational environment always plays a role and
thereby the influences of the players are also notable when interventions are
implemented on students’ level.
The ParticipantsThe participants are the group receiving the instructions or training needed
for carrying out the intervention. In most cases mainly teachers take part
in the intervention, but also teacher consultants or remedial teachers are
possible participants. The participants bring their professional goals, motives,
and beliefs into the intervention situation. Many participants see scientific
research as mainly theoretical and its recommendations as not of direct use
for their everyday practice (Huberman, 1999). Researchers have to make an
effort to break this barrier of skepticism, by showing the relevance of their
work (Kennedy, 1997). On the other hand, the presentation of a familiar
or attractive message can lead to blind acceptation of the message by the
participants, without the realization of much to change in beliefs (Gregoire,
2003). Examples can be a researcher’s personal example displaying educational
experience, or a reference to a familiar or popular educational guru. Without
careful consideration of the group of participants, it is hard to predict whether
these examples will be accepted or rejected.
Several factors influence the goals, motives, and beliefs of the
participants. The first cluster of factors can be considered personal. Teaching
When theory meets practice becomes political
44
is considered taking place in relative isolation (Avalos, 2011; Doyle & Ponder,
1977) and it requires the proficiency to answer to situational demands
(Kennedy, 2006; McArdle, 2010). Factors such as student characteristics, the
school’s organizational system, parents, colleagues, media, governmental
policy, and even the season or the weather can all have their influence on
what teachers can and have to do to reach their goals. During a day’s work,
the teacher has to make countless decisions. A lot of these decisions are about
unexpected situations and have to be made in the split of a second, since
teaching takes place in a face-to-face context. Contrary to the expectations
of a lot of educational researchers, the methodology of the educational field
is not characterized by rational, goal directed behavior. The complexity of
the classroom situation makes it hard for the teacher to oversee all possible
outcomes and to choose the response that maximizes the outcome. In order
to cope with this complexity teachers often adopt a different decision-making
approach introduced by Simon (1957) called ‘bounded rationality’ (Lee &
Porter, 1990; Simon, 2000). According to Simon (1957), human beings do not
have the cognitive resources to oversee all on-going processes. Therefore
they select a good-enough solution on basis of ‘a simplified model of the real
situation.’ (Simon, 1957, p. 199). Instead of maximizing, they satisfy. In the case
of the teacher, this simplified model is constructed on basis of information such
as experiences of own teaching behavior and the outcomes of that behavior,
knowledge on teaching, reflection, and observations of students’ behavior or
achievement (Kelchtermans, 1994; Lee & Porter, 1990). This simplified model
has high pragmatic value for the teacher. For example it is used to generate
tricks and rules of thumb to quickly react to the situation (Kennedy, 2006), or
to devise subjective educational theories that the teacher uses to understand
the complex situation and to interpret new information (Kelchtermans, 1994;
Van den Berg, Vandenberghe, & Sleegers, 1999). Additionally, it can serve a
motivational and affective purpose. Teachers can use the simplified model to
legitimize their behavior in order to avoid negative emotions of uncertainty
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or failure (Lee & Porter, 1990). Concluding, on the one hand, the pragmatic
advantages of using the simplified model are evident. It enables the teacher
to quickly react and adapt to the environment and to feel efficacious. On the
other hand, when a teacher’s model for example has false expectations of
student potential, cherry picking behavior from the teacher’s side can lead to
self-fulfilling prophecies (Lee & Porter, 1990).
The second cluster of factors that influences the goals, motives,
and beliefs of the participants can be considered socio-cultural. Influences
from within and outside the school can play a role in shaping those goals,
motives and beliefs. School cultures or the organizational climate within
the school, created by school leaders and colleagues, can influence the
personal effectiveness of teachers (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011) as well as the
receptiveness to innovations (Van den Berg et al., 1999). For example, whether
or not a participant enters the intervention voluntarily can make a big
difference in teacher motivation to change (Kennedy, 1998). At the same time
outside influences play a role. For example excess of regulation, obligatory
educational reforms, policy changes, and increased accountability can lead to
identity problems (Bolivar & Domingo, 2006), increasing pressure (Carlgren
& Klette, 2008), increasing workload (Rinne, Kivirauma, & Simola, 2002), and
a conservative attitude among the teaching staff (Buxton & Provenzo, 2011).
All these developments do not contribute to a nurturing environment for
educational interventions.
To summarize, both the personal factors and the social-cultural
factors can interact with the treatment offered. This can lead to big differences
among the participants.
The School AdministratorsWhen talking about the school administrators in this model, the people
exerting leadership on the participants in the intervention study are meant.
These can be the principal, managers, or internal support professionals such
When theory meets practice becomes political
46
as senior teacher coaches. School administrators are important players in the
educational change situation. They can exert influence on the social-cultural
processes among the participants of the intervention (Fullan, 2007; Van den
Berg et al., 1999). By displaying what has been called ‘transformational
leadership’, school administrators can create a culture of cooperation,
support, and intellectual stimulation in which change and improvement is the
ideal. Important characteristics of transformational leaders are having vision
and charisma, being pro-active and supporting, and having the tendency
to cooperate with their subordinates. This is supposed to greatly stimulate
teachers to develop themselves professionally and as a group and create a
situation receptive to educational change (Fullan, 1992; Van den Berg et al.,
1999).
The school administrators bring their own motives into the
intervention situation. The changing educational landscape has had major
implications for school administrators. They have been forced to change their
goals due to recent ‘economization’ (Carlgren & Klette, 2008) of the educational
world. The schools have been made accountable for quality, and this quality
is defined in learning outcomes. This leads to school administrators being
inclined to demand fast teacher professionalization (Bolivar & Domingo,
2006; Carlgren & Klette, 2008; Rinne et al., 2002), orientate on performance
and obtaining targets (Carlgren & Klette, 2008), and search for reform that
is easily implemented and not differing too much from current practice
(Datnow, 1999). This not only means a greater focus on outcome goals, as
opposed to learning goals, but also the prevalence of short term thinking
over long term vision. Additionally, the change in the educational landscape
has led to a change in relationship between the school administrators and
their subordinates. Before, school leaders functioned for a great deal as a
teacher confidant. With increasing focus on accountability of teachers and
school administrators, the role of the school leader has shifted to managerial
(Rinne et al., 2002). Not all school administrators are able to translate this to a
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situation in which they both request performance from their subordinates and
try to support them at the same time. Some feel forced to make a choice for
either an executive or a supporting role; others postpone the choice, leading
to a fuzzy mixed role.
Also among school administrators the use of bounded rationality can
be noted. One example is when they choose a form of educational reform.
Datnow (1999) showed that several educators choose the form of reform on
basis of satisfying or legitimizing motives. They choose reforms that were
good enough, easy to implement and ‘preserve the status quo in school’ (p23).
This way, reform only has a legitimizing role: I am a good school because I
reform myself.
Government and InspectorateThe government enacts the laws concerning education and the inspectorate of
education oversees whether these laws are executed by the schools. In several
countries, the educational legislation has been subject to a lot of change during
the last decades (Bolivar & Domingo, 2006; Carlgren & Klette, 2008; Kennedy,
1997; Parliamentary Inquiry Commission Educational Reform, 2008; Rinne et
al., 2002). History has shown that top-down methods of changing education
never led to large scale effects (Sashkin & Egermeier, 1992). In most cases,
the government has explicitly decided to set the demands for schools and see
whether they live up to them, without providing any resources to meet these
demands. The schools have been given the freedom to organize themselves
but are made responsible for their performance. Cochran-Smith (2004) refers
to this kind of policy, which can be observed in different countries, as ‘tightly
regulated deregulation’; schools are demanded to show responsibility but
the ways to facilitate that responsibility are being taken away from them
by controlling measures from the government. This increases pressure on
teachers and decreases autonomy, which is detrimental to the chance of
accomplishing educational change.
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Commercial Education Advisory AgenciesTo educate their teachers, schools can call upon education advisory agencies.
In the Netherlands, the schools have been made completely responsible for
their own performance. In order to have their teachers function on an adequate
level, they have to provide in-service training or send the teachers to external
courses. At this point education advisory agencies come into focus. Originally,
they were government agencies. Later the government decided to let them
commercialize and to let them function following free-market principles. This
may have led to a quality boost (although never scientifically reported), but
also has had some side effects. In order to make a profit, the agencies try to sell
their products to schools. Thereby their main motive of improving the level of
education has been joined by the economic motive of maximizing profit (Van
Tits, Vermaas, & Van Zandvliet, 2009).
This has also changed the situation for the schools. Since they are now
responsible for buying their own professionalization and support, schools
have to choose their supplier and articulate their own needs. In some schools
this has put into action a fruitful process of innovation and professionalization.
For other schools, however, this is a difficult transformation. For them it
is hard to judge the value of the different offers. Quality marks are almost
non-existent (Inspectorate of Education, 2011). Because articulation of their
needs is difficult, these schools resort to a familiar agency or choose an offer
based on attractiveness instead of scientific value. Because the commercial
agencies are not bound to demands of scientific credibility, they can make
their presentations and messages very attractive and applicable to the
teachers and school administrators. Even though this approach lacks long
term effect and evaluation of effectiveness (Avalos, 2011; Stein & Wang, 1988),
it is an easy option for schools experiencing problems with choosing what
professionalization and support they need (Van Tits et al., 2009).
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ParentsThe involvement of parents in their children’s education is promoted more and
more. For example, in the United States it has been assigned an explicit place
in the both the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Katsiyannis, Yell
& Bradley, 2001) and the No Child Left Behind Act (Pommerantz, Moorman &
Litwack, 2007). Parents can be involved in their children’s education in several
ways. The most common form is a supportive one. Parents show interest in
their children’s academic performances, visit parent-teacher conferences
or volunteer at activities taking place at school. Furthermore, parents can
be represented in the school board, giving them influence on the school
governance (Bridges, 2010; Pommerantz et al., 2007). However, since both the
curriculum and the method of assessment are determined centrally by the
government in many countries, neither the schools nor the parents have much
control over those areas. This makes the parents’ role restricted to that of a
‘customer’. They are free to choose the school of their liking for their children,
but all schools operate within the demands set by the government (Bridges,
2010). This minimizes the direct influence of parents on the implementation of
educational interventions. Parents can, however, have a big influence on their
children’s academic performance and motivation (Pommerantz et al., 2007),
as well as a supportive role toward schools. Therefore is important that the
school establishes good communication with the parents in order to maintain
the parental support (Bridges, 2010).
StudentsStudents play a determining role in education, since they are the persons on
the receiving end of the educational process. This means that both the content
and the process of education are constantly ‘under negotiation’ by teacher
and student (Biesta, 2007). This ‘democratic value’ of education (Biesta, 2007),
implies that teachers have an active role in synthesizing their own teaching
goals with the demands of individual students (see also Vermunt & Verloop,
When theory meets practice becomes political
50
1999). Even though the students’ preferences have been shown to be quite
stable (Könings, Brand-Grubel & Elen, 2012), they can greatly differ between
students (Struyven, Dochy & Janssens, 2008). The students’ appreciation of
the educational approach has been shown to be influenced by the perception
of the learning environment as well as the expected method of assessment.
This means that it is the interaction of the student with the educational
environment that determines the appreciation of the environment, and not so
much the environment itself (Könings et al., 2012; Struyven et al., 2008). This
illustrates that, when designing an educational intervention, the students’
perceptions of the approach should be taken into account.
Media, politicians and commercial companies The media has been painting a predominantly negative picture of education
(Berliner & Biddle, 1995). The information in the media is often framed in
order to influence the public opinion for one reason or the other. Behind this
framing of the message several agendas can be identified. The media benefit
from creating a spectacle, politicians benefit by presenting their approach as
the solution and companies benefit by sponsoring educational programs and
offering products needed for educational reforms (Anderson, 2007; Goldstein,
2011). This has its influence on the overall appreciation of educational research
and reform (Anderson, 2007; Goldstein, 2011).
The ResearcherThe researcher’s main objective is to translate his or her scientific ideas to
the specific context the intervention is implemented in, that is the school.
This means that on the one hand the researcher has to control the research
design in order to answer to the demands of scientific credibility. On the
other hand, the researcher is confronted with the demands from the complex
educational field. Additionally, as mentioned before, participants attribute
certain values to scientific research based on previous experiences or general
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representation in the media. For the researchers to think, however, that they
enter the process value-free would be somewhat naive. The research design
is grounded on several assumptions, some of which will be about the context
in which the design is implemented. Additionally, researchers, just as all the
other players, always bring implicit ideas of their own into the intervention
implementation setting. This is extensively stressed by the field of action
research (Argyris, Putnam, & Smith, 1985). The intervention message as well
as the way it is communicated to the participants by definition interacts with
the personal and social-cultural beliefs of the participants. There is always
the chance of this interaction resulting in misunderstanding or misattribution
of the meaning. Since the educational context is complex, many factors in it
are eligible for interacting with components of the intervention content or
the process of implementation. This is why Huberman (1999) recommends
extensive interaction between the researchers and the teachers in order to
develop a shared language and understanding.
Important to add is that some interventions are implemented
using some intermediary for the contact with the educational field. This
person can be, for example, a trainer or coach, and has to work on basis of
the researcher’s design. In this organizational set-up, this person functions
as the core communicator between theory and practice and he or she has to
be conclusively instructed about what to communicate. The researcher has
to realize that this might influence and therefore complicate the process of
implementation.
In search of a definition of societal credibilityWhat strikes one most when examining the educational field is that it is a
landscape filled with paradoxes. Participants on the one hand are looking for
science based information on the best way to teach their students; on the other
hand they want the interventional approach to be highly applicable, attractive,
and deliver results on short term, which is, according to educational theory,
When theory meets practice becomes political
52
detrimental to long term results. School administrators are confronted with
on the one hand the demand for short term results by the government and on
the other hand the demand for long term development and support by their
subordinates. The government on the one hand wants to create autonomous
and reflective schools and teachers, but at the same time undermines the
growth of autonomous and reflective practice by setting controlling demands
and creating competitiveness without support. Researchers on the one hand
have to control the implementation process to guard their scientific demands;
on the other hand they have to adapt the intervention to the demands of the
situation at that specific school. When it comes to intervention implementation,
all the before mentioned are key players and have their important roles in
the implementation processes. More peripheral in the player model, players
operate on just one side of the paradoxes, negating the other side. Players such
as commercial advisory agencies and the media strengthen the paradoxes
when they ignore the dualism of the situation.
The paradoxes are created by several features of the educational field.
First, the complexity of the educational environment plays a role. A lot of
players are involved and all of the players have their own personal theories,
cultures, motives, and goals. This makes the process of communication,
decision-making, and cooperation complicated. Additionally, the dialectic
nature of education can be seen at several places. All players have to unite
their personal goals, motives and beliefs with those of the environment. This
democratic value of education, which starts at micro level between teacher
and student, is the basis of both the paradoxical nature of the educational
processes as well as the pragmatic methodology the field handles in order to
cope with the paradoxes.
Second, the players are highly interdependent. It is not possible
to influence one separate player or several players without influencing the
other players within the system. They form a web in which the paradoxes are
created and maintained. The high interdependence of the players is also one
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53
of the explanations for the fact that the paradoxes cannot be resolved easily.
Trying to influence a small piece of the web, the teacher and administrators of
one school for example, would in the long run not lead to any change, since
the system will restore itself (Sashkin & Egermeier, 1992).
The differences among the players show that attention for the process
of intervention implementation is needed. Processes within participants as
well as between participants were identified. Additionally, motivational
and affective processes should be considered (Gregoire, 2003; Pintrich,
Marx, & Boyle, 1993). The researcher undisputable becomes part of these
implementation processes as soon as the implementation of the intervention
starts. Therefore the researcher should be considered a separate player within
the player model. Since not only processes at teacher level play a role, but also
processes at group level and governmental level, communication becomes of
utmost importance to deal with the differences among participants (Avalos,
2011; Bulloug & Kauchak, 1997; Hutchinson & Huberman, 1994; Messmann
& Mulder, 2011). Furthermore, the attention for social-cultural factors has led
to increased use of internal social techniques like peer-coaching (Matsumura,
Garnier, & Resnick, 2010), informal, collaborative learning (Jurasaite-Harbison
& Rex, 2010) and teacher co-learning (Avalos, 2011).
Societal credibility does not have well-described demands. Rather,
what makes an intervention considered credible depends on the environment,
the persons involved and the situation. A look at the educational field tells
us that all players strive toward good practice. However, countless different
opinions can be found about What works? and about How to establish that it
works?. A societally credible educational intervention should be able to
encompass both the demands from the teacher and the students. It should
be able to encompass both the personal beliefs and the social-cultural beliefs
within a school. It should be able to encompass both the goals from the
government and from the individual teachers. In short, it should be able to
deal with the paradoxical nature of the educational field. This makes that
When theory meets practice becomes political
54
not only the intervention content has to be considered credible, but also
the implementation process. Good examples of players dealing with the
paradoxes as both… and…-situations instead of either…or…-situations are the
school administrators successfully adopting a managerial role, or teachers
constructing knowledge together with students.
Discussion
This article makes the analogy between the theory of Stokes (1997) and the
implementation of educational interventions. Educational interventions
should not be seen as on a one dimensional scale from theoretical to practical,
nor should the implementation of educational interventions be seen as a
linear process. Educational intervention research should be high on scientific
credibility as well as societal credibility. An inspection of both scientific
credibility and societal credibility has shown differences in both the goals
as well as the methodology. These differences should be accepted as a fact,
and not by definition be seen as a problem. Stokes stated that research can be
responsive to goals of fundamental research and goals of applied research at
the same time, even though these goals might be differing. The same is valid
for scientific and societal credibility. An intervention can be able to respond
to research demands and the demands of the educational field, even though
these demands may be different.
For educational field professionals, the complexity of the educational
environment is an irrefutable part of their daily practice. The fact that they
cannot totally control the classroom situation and still have to deliver quick
and adequate reactions to unpredictable situations has its consequences in the
methodology deployed, the mutual relationships within the web of players,
and the expectations about the intervention operationalization. The application
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55
of bounded rationality enables teachers to cope with the uncertainty of
the classroom situations, both from a behavioral and motivational point of
view. On the other hand, however, the downside of this methodological and
professional attitude of the educational field is also apparent. Being overly
conservative or falsely hanging on to inaccurate beliefs can do great harm
to the teaching offered as well as the relationship and communication with
other players in the educational environment. Science-based good-practice-
principles should be used by teachers to make their implicit theories as
accurate as possible. Additionally, paying extensive attention in pre-service
teacher education to how to avoid the pitfalls of bounded rationality, using
for example reflection techniques and collegial consultation, should really be
considered.
At the same time, researchers should recognize the value of
the bounded rational methodology and try to understand the teachers’
legitimizing behavior and pragmatic skepticism toward scientific theory
(Doyle & Ponder, 1977; Hargreaves & Dawe, 1990). Over the years, more
and more recognition came for the pragmatic methodology used by the
educational field as an explanation and rationale for the reaction of the
educational field to educational interventions (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Kennedy,
1998). The recognition of the pragmatic methodology of the educational field
has, however, made the difference between the scientific methodology and
the educational field methodology more explicit. The structured approach of
the scientific methodology does not match the bounded-rational approach
of the educational field, looking for a good enough solution and thus being
less structured. Following Stokes (1997), this should not be considered a
problem. The gap between research and practice is not so much based on
these differences, since to a great extent they can be understood from the role
the researcher and the teacher have in the educational situation. Rather, the
gap is created when misunderstandings of the other group’s methodological
approach lead to wrongful appraisals and communication problems. False
When theory meets practice becomes political
56
expectations can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies in the interaction between
researcher and educational field professional. This means that, in their
search for something that works, scientists must have an understanding for
the pragmatic and ecologically determined methodology of the educational
field, without discarding the demands needed to achieve scientific credibility.
In other words, all players have to reflect on the strengths as well as the
weaknesses of their methodological approach.
Due to interactions in the web of players paradoxes arise. The players
all have their personal theories about ‘what works’, schools have a culture
of their own, the environment plays a significant role, and motivational and
emotional factors come into play. The interaction of all of these factors might
lead to paradoxes. The players are highly interrelated and, as shown in the
previous paragraph, they have motives to legitimize their point of view. The
system as a whole strengthens and maintains the paradoxes, making it hard
to achieve long lasting improvement within the educational system. The clue
to bringing improvement in the landscape dominated by paradoxes appears
to lie in processes instead of content. This is where it becomes political. With
the use of communication, vision, and coaching the players can learn to see
the paradoxes as something of which they can achieve both sides instead
of choosing either one or the other. Additionally, when striving toward
educational change, one should have attention for motivational and emotional
processes within the players. This notion can be observed in educational
intervention research, where both the system processes and the hot variables,
being important components of societal credibility, receive more and more
attention (Gregoire, 2003).
The researcher is often depicted as a player separate from the other
players. The reason for this can be found in the facts that the researcher has
different motives and a different position in the course of the intervention.
Additionally, when doing research before implementing the intervention,
the educational environment is often studied as a separate culture. However,
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the researcher undisputable becomes part of the implementation process as
soon as the implementation of the intervention starts. The researchers bring
in motives, goals and beliefs of their own, and influence the other players.
The fact that researcher and field are often seen as separate systems is best
illustrated with the example of what often happens when researchers evaluate
an implementation process as failed. Most of the times, the causes of failure are
placed either in the educational field, or in the researcher’s operationalization
of the research design. This completely ignores the interaction of the
researcher with the educational field once the implementation process has
started. Rather, one should evaluate the two together as well as the process
of their cooperation. Considering the researcher a separate player within the
player model would contribute to this.
This review of the landscape of educational intervention
implementation shows lot of possibilities for a fruitful cooperation of research
and practice. However, it is a delicate practice. The threat of seeing intervention
implementation as a linear process is around the corner. An exploration of the
educational field shows, just as Stokes (1997) predicted, that this is not an
option. The dialectical and pragmatic nature of the educational field makes it
a complex and multifaceted reality. This is why it is just as important for an
intervention to be societally credible as it is to be scientifically credible. Only if
researchers fully consider and appreciate the bounded rational methodology
and the dynamic and paradoxical nature of the educational field, they can
strive toward interventions that truly work. In his 1999 AERA presidential
address, Schoenfeld, following Stokes, called for a synergy of theory and
applications (Schoenfeld, 1999). A same call for synergy is being made here.
However, the review of both the scientific field and the educational field shows
that, when implementing educational intervention research, one should not
so much strive toward a synergy between theory and application. Rather one
should strive toward a synergy of scientific credibility and societal credibility.
When theory meets practice becomes political
Motivation in educational interventions: A systematic review exploring the concept in relation to intervention outcomes
CHAPTER 3
This chapter is based on:
Prince, A., Minnaert, A., & Opdenakker, M.-C. (2013). Motivation in educational interventions: A
systematic review exploring the concept in relation to intervention outcomes. Manuscript submitted for
publication.
60
Abstract
The concept of motivation was explored in a systematic review of literature
of educational interventions used to improve student motivation. Focus,
aim, contents, instruction, and outcomes of the interventions were reviewed
from the lens of four motivational approaches, being behaviorism, cognitive
approaches, social cognitive approaches and social cultural approaches. The
review results showed a predominance of socially oriented interventions over
learning oriented interventions. Additionally, an analysis of the combinations
of aim, contents, instruction and outcomes used in the interventions studies
showed three theory congruent approaches leading to positive outcomes.
Interventions aiming at a positive appreciation of academic efficacy used
limited social interaction and produced outcomes solely in line with their
aim. Interventions emphasizing social interaction produced positive task
appreciation outcomes. Interventions focusing on task appreciation produced,
on top of positive task appreciation outcomes, positive appreciation of
academic efficacy outcomes in case of extensive social interaction and explicit
construction of content.
Chapter 3
61
Motivation in educational interventions
Introduction
What motivates our students? After years of research, motivation still remains
an intangible concept. Several ‘big’ theories on motivation have gathered
abundant empirical evidence. However, univocal answers to questions such
as How can we motivate our students? What keeps our students motivated? How can
we get our students to motivate themselves? still remain difficult. For long it is
known that motivation plays an important role, direct or indirect, in academic
performance (e.g., Multon, Brown, & Lent, 1991; Schiefele, Krapp, & Winteler,
1992). Moreover, research in different countries has shown that students show
a drop in academic motivation directly after their transition to secondary
school (e.g., Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 2001; Opdenakker, Maulana, &
Den Brok, 2012; Van der Veen & Peetsma, 2009). Teachers should somehow
be able to motivate their students or keep them motivated. Can scientific
outcomes of research on educational interventions help them? The aim of this
chapter is to explore the concept of motivation by inspecting the different
interventions used to improve student motivation. Recent intervention
studies will be reviewed on intervention composition and outcomes. A large
variation in motivational theories, operationalization, and measurement
instruments can be identified in motivational intervention research. Therefore
a global indication of the effects is used. This way all of the approaches can be
62
included, and the interventions can be reviewed in relation to the outcomes.
Furthermore, since theoretical motivational literature is abundant and many
motivational approaches are strongly empirically supported, the interventions
characteristics and outcomes will additionally be reviewed from the point of
view of the different theoretical motivational perspectives.
MotivationA search of literature shows a long history of studies of motivation in
education. Therefore, it goes beyond the scope of this study to deal with all
the separate theoretical approaches. The reader is advised to look in excelled
overviews such as Stipek (2002). In this review motivation is considered to be
located in a context (Volet & Järvelä, 2001), more explicit, in the classroom.
This is different from other perspectives in the facts that it assumes a strong
connection with learning, to great extent a social situation, a teacher-student
relationship, and some compulsory elements such as attendance and often
a prescribed curriculum. One can reason that this imposes some restrictions
to the exploration. However, it also creates opportunities for generalizing
the outcomes to a field situation. Perry, Turner, and Meyer (2006) wrote a
chapter providing a state of the art overview of motivational research in the
classroom. They used four categories to classify the motivational theories.
The first category is called behaviorist approaches. This category is
composed of contingence theories and reinforcement theories of learning
and motivation. These theories consider the environment to be the cause
of behavior. Behavior is reinforced by the contingency of behavior and
desired outcomes. Mental functions are not considered to play a role in these
mechanisms; they are at most a result of consciousness of the contingency
process (Skinner, 1974). Motivation therefore is considered to be equal
to learning. The main focus of this approach is on creating contingency
relationships through reinforcement.
The second category is called cognitive approaches. These approaches
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also assume a learning perspective on motivation in which a connection
between environment and behavior is made. This connection, however, is
mediated by cognitive processes. This makes learning and motivation separate
processes. Both the appreciation of the task and the student’s self-concept play
a role in the development of motivation. This creates a dichotomy between
external and internal sources of motivation. When a student has an external
source of motivation, the task and the subject’s performances on the task
influence the student’s self-concept. When a student has an internal source
of motivation, the subject’s interest influences the task appraisal. Examples
of this differentiation of sources of motivation can be found in the Self
Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), achievement goal orientations
(Ames & Archer, 1988; Dweck & Legget, 1988; Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002;
Nichols, 1984; Pintrich, 2000b) and the expectancy-value theory (Eccles et al.,
1983). The main focus of this approach is on studying and influencing the
mental processes interpreting the environment and translating it to behavior.
The third category is called social cognitive approaches. As opposed
to the previous two categories, the motivational theories in this category do
not assume that motivation starts with learning. According to these theories,
the relationship from the student with the environment is an interactive one.
The student interacts with the task and other features of the environment
(Bandura, 1986). Comparable with cognitive theories, social cognitive theories
contain the assumption of internal mechanisms in the student that mediate
the interactions between the student and the environment. The main focus
of this approach is still on these cognitive processes. They are approached,
however, in a more social and interactive manner.
The fourth category is called social cultural approaches. The most
important assumption of these approaches is that knowledge is socially
constructed (Vygotsky, 1978). Therefore motivation and learning takes places
between people. Processes within people can play a role, but not a definitive
one. Moreover, since knowledge is constructed, it has a strong situational
Motivation in educational interventions
64
character, which makes the determination of motivational mechanisms
difficult.
Motivation and classroom environment in educational interventionsThe overview of motivational approaches in the previous paragraph shows
that both motivational processes within the individual as well as characteristics
of the environment, that is the classroom context, should be considered when
inspecting interventions used to improve student motivation. The cognitive
theories place emphasis on the motivational processes that are brought about
by the intervention and lead to corresponding outcomes. This view, stemming
from the information processing approach to psychology (Stipek, 2002),
considers these processes as mediating between the self and the environment,
comparable to the processes of accommodation and assimilation found in the
theory of Piaget (1952). Therefore, an intervention, regardless its contents,
causes motivational processes to take place. These processes are likewise
considered to be the outcome. Many processes and motivational outcomes
have been identified by the different theoretical perspectives (e.g. attribution
(Weiner, 1986), self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997), interest (Hidi, 1990), intrinsic
motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985), achievement goals and achievement goal
orientations (Ames & Archer, 1988; Dweck & Legget, 1988; Linnenbrink
& Pintrich, 2002; Nichols, 1984; Pintrich, 2000b), expectancies and values
(Atkinson, 1964; Eccles et al., 1983)). The social cognitive approaches add
ideas about the social influences on the origination and development of the
motivational processes.
Additionally, since motivation is considered to be located in the
classroom context, it is of importance to see in which way this context is
represented in the interventions. Learning contents and instruction are
both important features of the classroom context, and should therefore be
considered when looking at interventions aiming at motivational change
(Perry et al., 2006; Turner, Warzon, & Christensen, 2011). Perry et al. identified
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three categories of studies of classroom interventions aiming at motivational
change; that is, studies looking at the influence of classroom tasks, studies
looking at the influence of teacher instruction, and studies looking at the
influence of social interaction on student motivation. Attention for the
influence of the classroom context is especially found in the more socially
oriented approaches of motivation. The way the interaction of the student with
the classroom context is conceived, shows the importance that is being placed
on social influence in these theories. The social cultural approaches emphasize
social construction of the contents, and interaction in Vygotsky’s (1978) zone-
of-proximal-development in order to achieve learning and motivation. Social
cognitive approaches consider instruction and social comparison of task
performance of importance for the construction of academic self-concept.
The classroom tasks and instruction have a place in the behaviorist and
cognitive approaches to motivation, however them being considered strictly
instrumental to learning. Therefore differentiation between socially oriented
intervention and learning oriented interventions can be made on the degree
of social construction in the contents and social interaction in the instruction
of the intervention.
Concluding, the cognitive approaches emphasize the motivational
processes and outcomes appreciating the task and the academic self. The social
approaches emphasize the classroom context and the social and constructivist
processes in them. Furthermore, the learning-based approaches emphasize
learning and contingency processes. Combining these conclusions leads to
four expected forms of interventions, based on the theoretical approaches.
Behavioristic or contingency oriented interventions are expected to have
pre-determined contents and instruction without social interaction, with
explicit emphasis on task performance. Cognitive oriented interventions
are also expected to have pre-determined contents and instruction with
some room for interaction between teacher and student, and with explicit
emphasis on instruction and on cognitive and motivational processes. Social
Motivation in educational interventions
66
cognitive oriented interventions are also expected to have explicit emphasis
on cognitive and motivational processes, but will be more socially oriented
in content construction and instruction. Social cultural interventions are
expected to have social constructed contents and group instruction, without
explicit emphasis on cognitive and motivational processes.
The aims of this studyThis study had four aims in order to explore the concept of motivation. The
first aim was to examine the components of interventions (focus, aim, contents,
instruction) aimed to improve students’ motivation. The second aim was to
review intervention outcomes from the perspective of the different theoretical
motivational approaches. The third aim was to examine the effectiveness of
different kind of interventions in terms of the trends observed in the outcomes.
Finally, the fourth aim was to combine the results from the inspection of the
components of the interventions, outcomes, and theoretical approaches in an
attempt to shed a light on the concept of motivation as well as to make some
recommendations for future research.
Method
A systematic search of literature was performed in October 2012. The search
of literature consisted of two steps: First, a search of articles was performed
in EBSCO host complete, a web based search engine of academic databases,
and using search-words based on predetermined criteria. Then, the retrieved
articles were further selected manually using the criteria. The two-step
approach was used in order to be exhaustive, grasping the full variety of
articles in the first round, and having a well-targeted approach in the second
round.
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Search wordsFollowing the research aims, search words were determined in order to
search for articles including an intervention, motivational outcomes and
the appropriate target group. The search words aiming at motivation were
determined using motivational literature (e.g. Stipek, 2002). The terms are
linked to motivational approaches that are identified in the literature. The
search words used were:
• Motivation: motivation, engagement, expectancy value, value,
instrumentality, self determination, need, competence, autonomy,
relatedness, intrinsic, extrinsic, SDT, goal orientation, ego, task,
performance, mastery, goal, attribution, reward, reinforcement,
incentive, drive, motive, punishment
• Intervention: intervention, reform, innovation
• Education: education, school, students, learning
The databases searched were Psychinfo and ERIC. The search was
performed on title, keywords and abstract. The search was limited to
the years 2007-2011. With the use of database limiters the search
was limited to: grade 5-9, middle school, (elementary) secondary
education or (junior) high school.
The literature search produced 1825 articles.
CriteriaThe articles produced by the literature search were further selected manually
using pre-determined criteria. The inclusion criteria were based on the research
aims of this study as well as on practical considerations. The following criteria
were used:
• An article should explicitly include an intervention.
• An article should have motivation as an outcome variable. An
outcome variable is considered to be motivation when it is related
to either academic motivation, or one of the theoretical approaches
Motivation in educational interventions
68
mentioned in the introduction of this chapter.
• An article should include students between ages 12 and 14 years
old. The age limit was broadened to 5th grade – 9th grade (10 -15 years
old) in order to be able to deal with differences in educational systems
in different countries (e.g. middle school vs. primary and secondary
education). The intervention should not necessarily be implemented on
student level. The outcome variable should, however, report on student
motivation.
• An article should contain some form of empirical results and the
article should be peer-reviewed. The article text should be composed in
the English language.
The manual inspection resulted in a vast amount of articles being excluded,
mainly because they did not include empirical results on student level, or of
the appropriate age groups, did not include an intervention, or did not have
motivation as an outcome. Finally, 48 studies were found to be eligible for
selection.
Analysis of the articlesAll articles selected for review were analyzed using a pre-determined
classification scheme. The scheme, following the central research question,
mainly focusses on the interventions used in the articles and the outcome
variables. Additionally, further empirical information was gathered in order
to see what kind of research was reported. The articles were inspected on
research design, data collection method, number of participants, setting,
and intervention implementation level. Furthermore, the classification of
the articles was compared with the classification of the major theoretical
approaches to motivation in order to estimate which approaches were used
and with what outcomes.
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The classification schemeThe classification scheme used to classify the included articles contains
six columns. The first four are included in order to differentiate between
the articles. The fifth column gives the theoretical approach to which the
study is assigned based on the study’s characteristics. The last column is
included to draw a picture of the outcomes. In each column, combinations
are possible. The differentiation between the interventions has been made by
looking at main focus of the intervention, the main motivational aim, and the
operationalization of the intervention in the form of intervention contents and
instructional format.
Focus – What is the main focus of the intervention? This column
refers to the columns representing the components of the interventions, and
indicates what the intervention components are expected to bring about
the change in motivation in the particular study. An intervention can be
judged to focus on Learning Contents (LC), on Instruction (In), or on both. A
judgment in this category was predominantly based on information on the
locus of experimental part of the intervention. Furthermore, textual emphasis
of either Learning Contents or Instruction in the intervention description is
informative.
Aim - What motivational process is aimed at? An intervention can
be judged to aim at change regarding Academic Self (AS), or regarding Task
Perception (TP), or both. When scored aiming at academic self, the aim of the
intervention is to change the student’s perception of academic self with the use
of a task, instruction or a change in the learning environment. When scored
aiming at task perception, the aim of the intervention is to change the student’s
perception of an academic task or, in broader sense, the learning environment.
The scoring of this category was mainly based on the intervention description
and intervention theory.
Contents – How are the contents of the intervention determined? This
category was judged upon the degree to which the student was involved in
Motivation in educational interventions
70
the construction of the intervention contents according to the intervention
description and therefore reflects the relationship of the student with the
contents. The intervention contents can be judged to be Static (Stc), Dynamic
(Dyn), Constructed (Con), or a combination of the three. Static contents are
pre-constructed and teacher centered. It represents a stimulus response
mechanism, with basically a pass/fail outcome. The student cannot have
influence on the contents. Dynamic contents are adapted to the student’s
needs or performances. These contents are student-centered. The student can
have some influence on the contents. Constructed contents are collectively
constructed. Everybody who is involved in the intervention has equal
opportunity to influence the contents. The outcome is open.
Instruction – In which way is the instruction offered to the student? It
was judged on the amount of social interaction. Possible ways of instruction
are Standard (Std), Interaction (Int), Group (Gr) and Support (Sup). Standard
instruction means that the instruction is offered one-way. It is communicated
by either a teacher or a task, and no interaction is possible. Interaction means
that the instruction is given in an interactive fashion, either by a teacher, a
peer or an electronic agent. Interaction in the form of questions, feedback,
or scaffolding fit into this classification. Group means that the instruction
is received and interpreted in a group. Either a small group of students or
a whole class collectively figures out what is being instructed and how the
tasks are to be performed. Support means that support is given that does
not specifically relates to the academic task at hand but rather in the form of
general encouragements. This can be done by a teacher, a peer, or an electronic
agent.
Theoretical approach – In order to be able to interpret the results
from the viewpoint of the theoretical approaches, the basic premises of the
four theoretical approaches as described in the introduction of this chapter
were combined with the classification scheme. This led to the studies being
assigned to one of the four approaches, based on their characteristics as
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scored in the classification scheme. A schematic overview of the translation of
the theoretical approaches to the categories of the classification scheme can be
found in Appendix A.
Outcome – Which category of outcome variable is reported? The
motivational variables were differentiated in four outcome categories; Academic
Self (AS), Task Perception (TP), Behavior (Beh), and Well-being (WB). Academic
Self relates to the mechanism mentioned under motivational aim. It comprises
outcomes reflecting change in the perception of academic self, for example
self-efficacy, competence, and performance-orientation. Task perception, also
relating to the before mentioned mechanism, comprises outcomes reflecting
change in the perception of the task or the learning environment, for example
interest, intrinsic motivation, mastery, and enjoyment. Behavior comprises
outcomes such as strategy use and on-task behavior, but also performance.
The last outcome variable, well-being, comprises more general well-being,
which does not directly relate to the academic task, for example, self-esteem,
self-worth, or belonging. Behavior and well-being are expected to add
information on the way motivation is conceptualized in the particular study
and therefore are included in the classification scheme. The scoring of this
category was based on the reported outcomes and the instruments used to
measure them. In order to see what trend can be spotted in the outcomes, they
are reported as either positive (+), no difference (0) or negative (-). Using this
global indication of outcome trend makes comparison between the outcomes
of the studies possible in spite of the fact that they were reported in different
fashions depending on the research design used. Positive (+) can refer to either
a gain over time, a higher outcome in the experimental group than in the
control group or an group X time interaction effect. Accordingly, no difference
(0) shows no difference over time, no difference between experimental and
control group, and no interaction effect. A negative outcome (-) refers to either
a decrease over time, a lower score for the experimental group, or a negative
interaction effect.
Motivation in educational interventions
72
Results
Characteristics of the review sampleArticles with participants residing in different parts of the world were
found, including United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Research
performed with participants from the United States was highly represented
in the selected articles (21 studies), making up more than half of the included
articles. For other countries, a maximum of two investigations was found, with
only one for most of the countries. In total, 22 countries were represented. An
in depth inspection showed no obvious connection between the country the
research was set in and other variables.
Regarding the research designs and methodology used in the articles,
also a great diversity was found. Different research designs were used,
including case studies, repeated measures with or without a control group,
and Solomon four group designs. Also different methodologies were used.
A small overrepresentation of quantitative methods was found, but also
qualitative methods, and mixed or multi-methods were used by multiple
studies. In addition, a diversity in outcomes as well as ways in which outcomes
were presented was discovered. The presentation of outcomes ranges from
clustered bar charts without numbers reported to effect sizes. In qualitative
studies the outcomes ranged from mentioning a gain to triangulation.
Furthermore, the amount of participants included ranged from 1 to 2000.
Most of the studies used between 35 and 200 participants. Five studies were
implemented school-wide, 20 at teacher level and 23 at student level. Some
obvious relationships between design characteristics and other variables were
found (e.g. cognitive interventions having a higher incidence of quantitative
methods). No further remarkable results were found in this section.
Categorization of interventions: Characteristics The results of the categorization of the articles on intervention characteristics
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and outcome variables are represented in Table 1. A full overview of the
categorization of the interventions can be found in Appendix B. When looking
at the separate categories, the intervention focus shows one quarter of the studies
focusing on instruction, one quarter on learning contents and half on both. In
the motivation aim category, a slightly higher occurrence of task perception can
be noted, being scored as motivational aim in half of the studies against one
quarter academic self, and one quarter both. The intervention characteristics
contents and instruction show no predominance of one method of determining
contents or instruction. However, a strong tendency towards social approaches
is notable. In 39 studies an interaction or group instruction format is used, 28 of
which use group instruction. In 38 studies dynamical or constructed contents
are used, 24 of which use constructed contents. Regarding the outcome
variable, a pre-dominance of combinations of motivational variables can be
noticed. Only task perception is used slightly more frequent as a singular
outcome. Concerning the effectiveness of interventions, only three articles can
be spotted that do not report any positive outcomes of the interventions. One
of these studies reports no positive outcomes (Kim & Wei, 2011), one reports
negative outcomes (Davis, Chang, Andrzejewski, & Poirier, 2010), and one
is written to explicitly illustrate the negative effects of a specific intervention
(Thompson, Madhuri, & Taylor, 2008).
When looking at the combination of interventional focus and
intervention contents and instruction, it can be noted that the interventions
focusing on solely instruction, and the interventions focusing on both
instruction and learning contents, all use a social form of instruction and a
dynamic or constructed form of contents. The interventions focusing solely
on learning contents all appear to use standard instruction and static contents.
A look at the combination of aim and outcome shows that two out of three of
the studies have an outcome in line with the motivational aim, and one out
of three does not. Of the studies that have an outcome in line with their aim,
half of the studies shows a positive outcome, about one quarter shows a half
Motivation in educational interventions
74
Component Characteristic Occurrence
No. %
Focus Instruction 13 27%
Learning Contents 9 19%
Instruction and Learning Contents 26 54%
Aim Academic Self 10 21%
Task Perception 26 54%
Academic Self and Task Perception 12 25%
Contents Static 10 21%
Dynamic 8 17%
Constructed 11 23%
Static and Dynamic 6 12%
Dynamic and Constructed 4 8%
Static and Dynamic and Constructed 8 17%
Static and Constructed 1 2%
Instruction Standard 9 19%
Interaction 6 13%
Group 8 17%
Standard and Interaction 5 10%
Interaction and Group 9 19%
Standard and Group 5 10%
Standard and Interaction and Group 6 13%
Outcome Academic Self 9 19%
Task Perception 12 25%
Academic Self and Task Perception 18 38%
Other 9 19%
Note. No. = number; percentages may add up to more than 100% due to rounding off; a full overview of the characteristics of the interventions is presented in Appendix B; Outcome: Other includes Behavior, Well-being and Unknown.
Table 1
Characteristics of the interventions
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positive outcome and one quarter a non-positive outcome.
Categorization of interventions: Theories and outcomesA look at the intervention outcomes from the perspective of the different
theoretical approaches, based on the categorization described in the
introduction of this chapter, is represented in Table 2. Noticeable results in
Table 2 are that the interventions categorized as cognitive oriented, being
cognitive and social cognitive interventions, report more academic self
outcomes, while the contingency and social cultural interventions report
more task perception outcomes. This is in line with their motivational aim.
Furthermore, the interventions categorized as social, being social cognitive
and social cultural, use more often a combination of motivation outcomes than
the interventions in the other two categories, that are more learning oriented.
Regarding the effectiveness of the different categories of interventions, the
contingency interventions and the social cultural interventions are slightly
more effective in terms of achieving positive outcomes than the cognitive and
social cognitive interventions.
Table 2
Outcomes and effectiveness based on theoretical classification
Motivational Approach
Academic Self
Task Perception
Academic Self and Task Perception Other Total
No. Eff. No. Eff. No. Eff. No. Eff. No. Eff.
Contingence 1 100% 3 50% 1 50% 2 100% 7 71%
Cognitive 2 25% 0 2 75% 1 100% 5 60%
Social Cognitive 3 33% 1 100% 5 40% 3 100% 12 58%
Social Cultural 3 67% 8 94% 10 70% 3 100% 24 81%
Note. No. = number; Eff. = effectiveness: percentage of interventions in that category showing a positive outcome; Other includes Behavior, Well-being and Unknown.
Motivation in educational interventions
76
Categorization of interventions: Effective intervention combinationsWhen looking at the combinations of motivational aim, intervention
characteristics and outcome trends, three noteworthy combinations can
be noted. First, studies that combine an aim at producing an academic-
self outcome, static contents and standard instruction, and show a positive
outcome consistent with the motivational aim of the study (Cleary, Platten, &
Nelson, 2008; Daki & Savage, 2010; Falco, Crethar, & Bauman, 2008; Finnan
& Kombe 2011; Shirilla, Gass, & Anderson, 2009; Woods, Sylvester, & Martin,
2010; Yeung, Mooney, Barker, & Dobia, 2009). In these studies, limited positive
outcomes can be noted in areas other than the one the intervention was
aiming for. Additionally, when looking at studies using a less standardized
intervention format, the academic-self outcome remains absent (Andreassen
& Braten, 2011; Guthrie et al., 2009; Meyer, Wijekumar, & Lin, 2011; Perry,
DeWine, Duffy, & Vance, 2007). Furthermore, following the classification of
motivational approaches, these studies can all be classified as based on either
contingence or cognitive theories.
Second, studies that combine high students’ influence on the contents
and social instruction, being almost always group instruction, and show a
positive outcome on task perception (Certo & Brinda, 2011; Del Favero,
Boscolo, Vidotto, & Vicentini, 2007; Gambrell, Hughes, Calvert, Malloy, & Igo,
2011; Halat, Jakubowski, & Aydin, 2008; Ketelhut & Nelson, 2010; Klopfer,
Scheintaub, Huang, Wendel, & Roque, 2009; Koivisto, Vinokur, & Vuori, 2011;
H. Lin, Hong, Chen, & Chou, 2011; J.M. Lin & Wu, 2010; Scheel, Madabhushi,
& Backhaus, 2009; Stecz, 2009; Stemn, 2008; Stephens, Bottge, & Rueda, 2009;
Sturm & Bogner, 2008; Yardi, Krolikowski, Marshall, & Bruckman, 2008;
Yerrick & Johnson, 2009). These studies all have their focus on instruction,
half of them combined with focus on learning contents. The studies using
a more standardized intervention do not show results on task-perception
(Cleary et al., 2008; Daki & Savage, 2010). Some other studies do have a
social intervention composition, but do not, however, produce a positive task
Chapter 3
77
perception outcome. For example, two studies using the CORI intervention
(Andreassen & Braten, 2011; Guthrie et al., 2009). Andreassen & Braten (2011)
speculate that complexity of the intervention instruction might have led to
absence of positive motivation outcomes among the students. Additionally,
in the study by Sturm & Bogner (2010) a richer learning environment supplied
by workstations in museums leads to increase in academic performance and
academic self perception, but not in task perception. Furthermore, some
studies show a positive effect on the task perception variable enjoyment, but
not on other task perception variables such as interest or value (Gambrell et
al., 2011; Samuelsson, 2008; Yardi et al, 2008).
Third, several articles can be identified that use construction of
contents, group instruction, have their motivation aim solely on task perception
and do produce an academic task outcome. This combination can be observed
in six articles (C. M. L. Ho, Nelson, & Mueller-Wittig, 2011; Ketelhut, Nelson,
Clarke, & Dede, 2010; O'Brien, Beach, & Scharber, 2007; Samuelsson, 2008;
Sturm & Bogner, 2010; Wolsey & Grisham, 2007). These studies all have their
focus on both instruction and learning contents.
Regarding behavioral outcomes, it can be observed that all
interventions leading to a positive behavioral outcome have a focus on
instruction, often combined with a focus on learning content, and most of
them use a social form of instruction and a dynamic or constructed form of
contents. The outcome variable of well-being shows no obvious relationship
with either intervention composition or motivational outcome. Nearly all
interventions producing a well-being outcome are either counseling focused
or school atmosphere focused.
Discussion
In this article, the use of motivation in educational interventions was explored
Motivation in educational interventions
78
in an attempt to expand the knowledge of the concept and the knowledge
on the effectiveness of interventions. Since both the operationalization in the
interventions as well as the representation of outcome variables showed huge
variability, a categorization scheme was created in order to search for trends.
Some notable outcomes can be spotted. First, motivation seems to be a pre-
dominantly social concept, since most interventions use social approaches
to enhancing motivation. Second, the concept appears to include a certain
degree of personal choice. Third, the combination of social interaction and
personal choice in the intervention can create academic self outcomes, even
though only explicit attention has been given to the task in the intervention.
All three outcomes will be discussed more thoroughly.
Social processes appear to have played a major role in intervention
research aiming at a motivational outcome. This can be noted in both
the instructional component of the interventions as well as the content
component. Perry et al. (2006) already mentioned a gain in influence of the
social environment in motivational theories. A look at the development of
theoretical approaches of motivation of the last fifty years shows a similar
trend. It started with the predominance of individual theories. The last decades,
however social cognitive theories and social constructivist theories seem to
be most prominent in motivation research, as well as studies exploring the
influences on motivation of e.g. teacher-student interaction (e.g., Opdenakker,
Maulana, & Den Brok, 2012) or social learning environments (e.g., Eccles &
Roeser, 2011; Opdenakker & Minnaert, 2011). The predominance of social
approaches in the interventions can also be caused by the developments in
classroom intervention research the last decade. A high incidence of social
techniques can be spotted in educational research. Examples are tutoring and
collaborative learning (Slavin & Lake, 2008; Slavin, Lake, Davis, & Madden,
2011). This illustrates the fact that educational approaches and motivational
approaches are interwoven.
The inclusion of individual choice in the form of influence on the
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interventions contents appears to play a role in the concept of motivation.
This idea can be spotted in motivational literature (e.g. personal agency
(Bandura, 2001, 2006b); autonomy (Deci & Ryan, 1985); primary and secondary
control (Heckhausen, 2010); co-construction of knowledge (Vygotsky, 1978;
Hickey, 2003)). The importance of a certain degree of personal choice or
influence is also shown when articles are considered having time on task or
task engagement as outcome variables. Although these variables seem like
behavioral observations of motivation, an inspection of these articles showed
different. Not only was the word motivation absent in these articles, but also
the research designs and intervention operationalization showed a strong
demand for student compliance. This turned out to be a differentiating factor
from the other articles. Therefore, these articles were not included in the
article selection. They show, however, where the boundaries of the concept
of motivation can be placed. Additionally, the idea of personal choice in
educational content can also be found in educational literature. Dewey (1938)
stated that education contains a certain degree of democracy. In order to
achieve learning, the learner has to have influence on the contents. However,
the results show that students’ individual choice does not contribute to the
enhancement of every form of motivation. Several studies show the contrary,
that motivational outcomes can also be obtained using static contents and
standard instruction. Another example is the fact that thus far only one article
has been published using Self-Determination Theory and implementing
an autonomy supporting intervention in a classroom context (Reeve, Jang,
Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004). Apparently, the way that choice or autonomy
should be implemented in the classroom and how it influences students’
motivation still needs further exploration.
When looking at the three combinations of intervention aim,
characteristics, and outcomes that were mentioned in the paragraph on
effective intervention combinations in the results section of this chapter, it
strikes that the three identified combinations show strong resemblance to
Motivation in educational interventions
80
approaches described in motivational literature. The first combination of
comparable aim and outcome and static contents and standard instruction
can be interpreted as the learning perspective on motivation. The fact that
motivation can be learned and taught stems from the early learning views on
motivation, such as the behaviorist and cognitive approaches to motivation. It
can also be found in for example the concept of self-regulation (Zimmerman,
1990). All studies using this approach reach the desired outcome. Notable
is, however, that no transfer to other forms of motivation occurs. Therefore,
these theories give credit to their learning background in their approach to
motivation, and indeed appear to produce a form of motivation by learning
to change the academic self.
The second combination, a socially constructed intervention that elicits
positive task perception can be found in the social approaches to motivation
as described in literature. Especially in the early 2000s an abundance of
motivational research employing socially oriented interventions could be
noted. Interestingly, some nuance in the use of interventions using social
contents and instruction can be spotted. A review of the studies in this category
that are not showing a positive task perception outcome seem to suggest that
an intervention on motivation still needs to make a clear connection to the
task that needs to be learned. Merely making the instruction more social or
the environment more rich with stimuli does not necessarily supply enduring
gains in task perception.
The third combination on interventions and outcomes noted in this
review is, however, less widely represented in motivational research. Several
articles were discovered showing positive academic-self outcomes (e.g.
self-efficacy, competence), even though in the intervention only attention
was given to task perception factors. Somehow, a process of internalization
occurred without the intervention intentionally playing into this process. This
phenomenon was only observed by articles including the social interaction
and a certain degree of student influence on the contents. This observation
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seems to support the theory of “co-regulation”, as introduced by McCaslin &
Good (1996). The theory of co-regulation states that self-regulation of learning
processes can be achieved when the core values of social constructivist learning
as described by Vygotsky (1978) are achieved (Hickey, 2003; McCaslin & Good,
1996); first, knowledge is socially constructed and situational; second, besides
an internalization of knowledge, an internalization of values is important.
Social interaction demands shared democratic values. These assumptions are
indeed supported by the findings discussed above, that both social interaction
and a certain degree of democratic influence contribute to student motivation.
This finding makes it even more remarkable that only five studies used school-
wide implementation. If learning and motivation are social and demand for
shared democratic values, one would think it should be implemented school-
wide.
The results show that motivation is a multifaceted concept. Even
though the different theoretical approaches are not found to be explaining
the differences in the use of, and the effectiveness of, motivational outcomes,
the determining processes behind these approaches are. The learning process,
being considered the starting point of behaviorism and cognitive approaches,
is indeed found to produce positive academic self outcomes. The social and
interaction process, being considered the starting point of social cognitive
and social cultural approaches, is found to produce positive task perception
outcomes. These social and interaction processes still appear to depend
heavily on the social form of instruction, since this is the intervention focus in
all of these studies. In order to achieve transfer to the academic self, the degree
of personal influence in the contents has to be added to social instruction. No
direct relationships are observed between behavior or well-being, and either
form of motivation in these studies. Behavioral outcomes show a connection
to a focus on instruction. All of these outcomes suggest that it is not the
environment that motivates; rather learning environments create possibilities
for different forms of motivation and behavior to occur (Rozendaal, Minnaert,
Motivation in educational interventions
82
& Boekaerts, 2005). Lessons using static contents and standard instruction
create the opportunity for academic self motivation to be learned. Socially
constructed learning contents and group instruction create the opportunity for
positive task perception and positive behavior to develop. However, in order
to create the opportunity for internalization of task perception motivation to
academic self motivation, the learning environment has to be co-constructed
by the students.
Some limitations to this study can be noted. The studies analyzed are
all published between 2007 and 2011. Therefore a certain degree of trendiness
in the research designs as well as a cohort effect among the participants
cannot be ruled out. For example the high incidence of studies performed
with participants from the United States may have had an influence on
the outcomes. It would be interesting to perform a review of educational
interventions aiming at motivational outcomes on a larger scale in future
research. Additionally, one can argue that these conclusions depend for
a certain degree on the choices made by the researchers, especially in the
categorization of the articles. Some measures were taken, however, to ensure
a high degree of independence of the findings. First, in the keyword selection
exhaustiveness was attempted. The keywords were pre-determined and
formulated as broad as possible using all sorts of motivational literature.
Furthermore, in the article selection no quality criterion was used except for the
demand for academic peer-reviewed articles with empirical report, in order
to achieve the highest amount of broadness possible. Finally, the classification
scheme was based on the review of motivational intervention literature by
Perry et al. (2006) and created beforehand. Therefore, it can be concluded
that both the article selection as well as the article categorization is heavily
grounded in theoretical work. An inspection of the results confirms a good
fit between the theoretically oriented classification scheme and the empirical
results. Even though the classification scheme might have given an advantage
to cognitively oriented theories due to the cognitive orientation in the aim
Chapter 3
83
and outcomes categories, this does not in fact lead to a higher incidence of
cognitive approaches in the results. On the contrary, the cognitive approaches
show less effectiveness regarding achieving positive outcomes than the other
approaches.
Moreover, empirical proof for the premises of the theoretical
approaches is offered by the fact that the empirical studies not only fit the
categorization scheme, but also more than half of them show a pattern of
intervention aim, composition, and outcomes that is highly consistent with
theoretical premises. This is another added value of the combination of
theoretical approaches and empirical results. The theoretical approaches help
in categorizing and comparing the different studies, and the empirical studies
help in giving an applied look at the theoretical approaches to motivation and
therefore on the concept of motivation itself. When a meta-analytical approach
would have been chosen, a great deal of information would have been lost
due to stricter demands for research designs and outcome representations.
Moreover, it would have lacked deepness in concept exploration. However,
further empirical research is needed in order to see whether the conclusions
can indeed be translated to applied research the way this study predicts.
This review, exploring the concept of motivation by combining theoretical
approaches and intervention composition, should be seen as a building block
needed to work towards future meta-analyses or effect studies on intervention
components fostering motivation.
Motivation in educational interventions
84
Chapter 3
Appendix A
Table A.1
Categorization of theoretical approaches
Motivational approach
Intervention focus
Motivational aim
Contents Instruction
Contingence Learning Contents
Task Perception Static Standard
Cognitive Instruction Academic Self Static Standard, Interaction
Social Cognitive Instruction andLearning Contents
Academic Self Static, Dynamic, Constructed
Standard, Interaction, Group, Support
Social Cultural Instruction andLearning Contents
Task Perception Dynamic, Constructed
Standard, Interaction, Group, Support
85
Motivation in educational interventions
Appendix BTa
ble
B.1
Inte
rven
tion
char
acte
rist
ics
and
outc
omes
Stud
yFo
cus
Aim
Con
tent
sIn
stru
ctio
nTh
eore
tical
A
ppro
ach
Out
com
e
InLC
AS
TPSt
cD
ynC
onSt
dIn
tG
rSu
p
AS
TPBe
hW
BU
K
And
reas
sen
and
Brat
en (2
011)
xx
xx
xx
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cial
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nitiv
e0
0+
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to a
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rind
a (2
011)
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tura
l+
Cle
ary
et a
l. (2
008)
xx
xx
xx
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tive
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i and
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age
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0)x
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nitiv
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0
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is e
t al.
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tura
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xx
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cial
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o et
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tive
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tinge
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brel
l et a
l. (2
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xx
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al C
ultu
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hrie
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l. (2
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x x
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.L. H
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al.
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al C
ultu
ral
++
F.F.
Ho
and
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(200
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xx
xx
Soci
al C
ultu
ral
++
86
Chapter 3
Tabl
e B.
1 (c
ontin
ued)
Stud
yFo
cus
Aim
Con
tent
sIn
stru
ctio
nTh
eore
tical
A
ppro
ach
Out
com
e
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AS
TPSt
cD
ynC
onSt
dIn
tG
rSu
p
AS
TPBe
hW
BU
K
Hol
t et a
l. (2
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xx
xx
xx
Soci
al C
ogni
tive
0+/
0+
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and
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addu
s (2
007)
xx
xx
xSo
cial
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tura
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Ker
aro
et a
l. (2
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xx
xx
Soci
al C
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tive
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Ket
elhu
t and
N
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n (2
010)
xx
xx
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Soci
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0
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elhu
t et a
l. (2
010)
xx
xx
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tive
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nitiv
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tura
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genc
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+
87
Motivation in educational interventions
Tabl
e B.
1 (c
ontin
ued)
Stud
yFo
cus
Aim
Con
tent
sIn
stru
ctio
nTh
eore
tical
A
ppro
ach
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e
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AS
TPSt
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dIn
tG
rSu
p
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TPBe
hW
BU
K
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y et
al.
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7)x
xx
xx
Soci
al C
ogni
tive
0
Sam
uels
son
(200
8)x
xx
xSo
cial
Cul
tura
l+
+/0
0
Sche
el e
t al.
(200
9)x
xx
xx
xx
xSo
cial
Cul
tura
l+
++
Shih
usa
and
Ker
aro
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xx
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ontin
genc
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illa
et a
l. (2
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al C
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illi
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xx
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88
Chapter 3
Tabl
e B.
1 (c
ontin
ued)
Stud
yFo
cus
Aim
Con
tent
sIn
stru
ctio
nTh
eore
tical
A
ppro
ach
Out
com
e
InLC
AS
TPSt
cD
ynC
onSt
dIn
tG
rSu
p
AS
TPBe
hW
BU
K
Wol
sey
and
Gri
sham
(200
7)x
xx
xx
xSo
cial
Cul
tura
l+
+
Woo
ds e
t al.
(201
0)x
xx
xC
ogni
tive
+
Yard
i et a
l. (2
008)
xx
xx
xx
xx
Soci
al C
ultu
ral
+/0
Yerr
ick
and
John
son
(200
9)x
xx
xx
xx
Soci
al C
ultu
ral
+
Yeun
g et
al.
(200
9)x
xx
xx
Con
tinge
nce
+/0
+/0
+/0
Not
e. In
= In
stru
ctio
n; L
C =
Lea
rnin
g C
onte
nts;
AS
= A
cade
mic
Sel
f; TP
= T
ask
Perc
eptio
n; S
tc =
Sta
tic; D
yn =
Dyn
amic
; Con
= C
onst
ruct
ed; S
td =
St
anda
rd; I
nt =
Inte
ract
ion;
Gr =
Gro
up; S
up =
Sup
port
; Beh
= B
ehav
ior;
WB
= W
ell-b
eing
; UK
= U
nkno
wn.
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation: A longitudinal study in secondary education
CHAPTER 4
This chapter is based on:
Prince, A., Minnaert, A., & Opdenakker, M.-C. (2013). The effect of school-based interventions on
motivation and self-regulation: A longitudinal study in secondary education. Manuscript submitted for
publication.
92
Abstract
Studies show a decrease in students’ motivation in secondary education.
Hence it was investigated whether training of teachers could stop this decline.
Two interventions were implemented in pre-vocational secondary education,
being self-regulated strategy instruction and behavioral consultation
combined with strategy instruction. The longitudinal effects of the two
interventions were tested on students’ goal orientations, self-efficacy, and
self-regulation. The growth curves show a long term effect of the intervention
combining teacher consultancy with strategy instruction on task orientation,
ego-enhancing orientation and ego-defeating orientation as compared to the
control condition. For the strategy instruction only condition, only short term
effects on ego orientation were found. The outcomes suggest that combining
the instruction of self-regulation strategies with teacher consultation on
student problem-solving can stop the downward trend in student motivation,
even on the long term.
Chapter 4
93
Introduction
Motivation in secondary education is a topic of interest. Motivation to learn
is considered indispensable for a successful academic career. Students’
motivation determines what tasks they choose, how much effort they invest
in a task and how they interpret feedback given on their performance. On
the long run this influences students’ perception of own academic ability
and willingness to start and persist in academic tasks (Morgan & Fuchs,
2007). Studies have shown a decrease of student motivation from the start of
secondary education (e.g., Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 2001; Opdenakker,
Maulana, & Den Brok, 2012; Van der Veen & Peetsma, 2009). This can have
detrimental consequences for students’ performance and ultimately the
tendency to stay in school (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997). Among
students of lower educational tracks, such as pre-vocational secondary
education, drop-out levels are above average (Luyten, Bosker, Dekkers, &
Derks, 2003). This group of students has a higher risk of being diagnosed with
learning difficulties and being confronted with academic failure. Repeated
negative perceptions of academic performance can lead to a downward spiral
of decreasing motivation, especially when the students do not have the ability
to regulate their own motivation and learning behavior (Dickhäuser, Buch, &
Dickhäuser, 2011).
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
94
Additionally to the consequences for the students’ academic careers,
students’ motivation also has consequences for the way the students can
be taught. Teachers often consider student motivation to be of important
influence on classroom behavior, as well as, in the long run, on academic
performance. However, what can be done to foster student motivation often
remains a difficult question for teachers to answer (Perry, Turner, & Meyer,
2006). Students can be motivated by giving them a sense of competence
or by making the task interesting (Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000). In order to
remain motivated over time, the students should learn to regulate their own
motivation and learning behavior (Lüftenegger et al., 2012). Teachers need
skills and knowledge in order to interact effectively with students in order
to teach them to self-regulate and to foster motivation. To stop the decrease
of students’ motivation, long term effects of two interventions are tested on
student outcomes in terms of motivation and self-regulation in pre-vocational
secondary education.
MotivationA predominant motivational theory is achievement goal theory, linking goals,
ability, effort investment, and self-regulation. This theory states that students
can have different goal orientations that influence their perception, choices,
and behavior. The main distinction of goal orientations in this theory is
between task orientation and ego orientation (Nicholls, 1984). Task orientation
means that students want to demonstrate mastery of the task or learn new
things. This is self-referenced, that is that students want to perform according
to their own abilities and learning is considered to be an end in itself. Ego
orientation means that students want to show high capacity to peers. This is
norm-referenced, that is students want to perform as well or better than others,
and avoid showing low ability. Learning is at most considered a means. Other
authors have made comparable distinctions; for a full overview of theoretical
approaches to goal orientation the reader is advised to see Kaplan and Maehr
(2007).
Chapter 4
95
Goal orientations have consequences for students’ interpretation
of performance feedback and the effort invested. Task orientated students
consider performance feedback as feedback on the task and not so much
on their level of ability. Additionally, they consider the effort they invest
in the task and their performance on the task to covary. This leads them to
choose tasks of moderate difficulty, since then they have a reasonable chance
of succeeding. For ego oriented students, the amount of effort invested in
the task depends on their expectations of own ability. When low ability is
assumed, the main motive becomes avoiding failure. This is done by choosing
easy tasks and decreasing investment of effort. When high ability is assumed,
either the chance for a successful outcome is maximized by choosing moderate
task difficulty or highly difficult tasks are chosen, on which others fail, so
succeeding would mean great success. These strategies followed by ego
oriented students were labeled respectively ego defeating and ego enhancing
orientation (Skaalvik, 1997).
For long it was assumed that task orientation was contributive to
educational situations and ego orientation detrimental (Wolters, Yu, & Pintrich,
1996). Therefore research focused on aspects of the learning environment
that would support task orientation and minimize ego orientation, being
cooperative learning (Hänze & Berger, 2007), positive feedback (Rakoczy,
Harks, Klieme, Blum, & Hochweber, 2013) and autonomy support (Reeve &
Jang, 2006). Lately, research has shown that ego enhancing goal orientation
can positively contribute to positive academic outcomes, (Dickhäuser et al.,
2011; Pintrich, 2000b; Wolters et al., 1996)
Perceived ability on a task is of importance to students when choosing
tasks and deciding how much effort they will invest in task performance. A
construct commonly used for perceived ability is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is
the expected performance in a certain situation (Bandura, 1997). It is based on
experiences from the past, both from the person self as well as from observing
others, and on expectancies about future situations. Self-efficacy has been
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
96
shown to influence motivation, self-regulation, self-concept and behavior.
Feedback from the environment is determining for self-efficacy. Successful
task completion leads to an increase of perceptions of ability. Negative
feedback, however, can lead to negative perceptions of own ability and, when
experienced repeatedly, lead to downward spirals (Dickhäuser et al., 2011).
Students with learning difficulties are in risk of having a history of repeated
negative academic experiences. This can lead to decrease in self-efficacy and
anxiety as well as avoidance behavior.
Research has shown that during adolescence the feelings of
competence as well as the task interest and therefore self-efficacy and task
orientation of students decline. Additionally, ego orientation inclines during
adolescence (Wigfield, Byrnes, & Eccles, 2006). Concerning the influence of
gender on goal orientations, no decisive outcome has been found yet. Only a
few studies have examined the differences between boys and girls and their
findings were contrasting (Meece, Bower Glienke, & Burg, 2006). It appears
to be that gender influences variables closely related to goal orientations,
such as perceived ability, task value and effort investment, rather than the
goal orientations themselves (Greene, DeBacker, Ravindran, & Knows, 1999).
Contrary to goal orientations, a lot of research has been done on the influence
of gender on self-efficacy. However, the differences between boys and girls
found were in self-efficacy for specific subject domains, such as math and
science, in which girls report lower self-efficacy than boys (Pintrich & De
Groot, 1990; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1990).
Self-regulationAs stated in the context of achievement goal theory, motivation and self-
regulation are linked. Self-regulated learning means to be explicitly and
purposefully planning, monitoring and evaluating one’s own learning
processes (Zimmerman, 1990). Self-regulated students are goal-directed,
construct their learning process, and monitor, control and regulate their
Chapter 4
97
cognitive and metacognitive strategies, motivation and behavior. It demands
for forethought and planning, monitoring and controlling, and evaluation
(Pintrich, 2000c; Zimmerman, 2000). When the students are able to regulate
their learning, they are better able to focus on the task and their own
performance and have a higher feeling of personal influence on the learning
outcomes. Additionally, motivation is an important part of self-regulated
learning. Goal orientations and efficacy beliefs are being used in order to plan
and monitor learning behavior. Motivation is being controlled and monitored
in order to maintain effective learning. Learning feedback is used in order to
evaluate and adapt the learning process to environmental demands (Pintrich,
2000c; Zimmerman, 1990; 2000).
The use of self-regulation strategies has been shown to decrease over
time (Ahmed, Van der Werf, Kuyper, & Minnaert, 2013). Furthermore, girls
have been shown to display more self-regulating behavior than boys (Bardos,
Naglieri, & Prewett, 1992; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1990). Students
with learning difficulties often lack self-regulation skills (Graham & Harris,
2003). When they have low efficacy beliefs, this influences the process of
regulation as well as the motivation to learn. Furthermore, monitoring and
controlling their own learning behavior is problematic for students with
learning problems. In order to boost self-regulated learning, all three main
components of self-regulation have to be influenced, being (meta-)cognition,
motivation, and behavior (Zimmerman, 1990). It has been shown that the
effects of interventions focusing on self-regulation strategies only are difficult
to maintain over time (Campione, 1987). Additionally, self-regulation and
motivation are reciprocally related, influencing each other (Minnaert, 1999;
Pintrich, 2000b; Pintrich & De Groot, 1990), suggesting a combined approach
within interventions.
The interventionsIn order to achieve a durable change in the motivation of vulnerable students,
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
98
two promising interventions were implemented in this study, being Self-
Regulated Strategy Development (Harris & Graham, 1996) and Behavioral
consultation (Bergan, 1977) with an integration of Self-Regulated Strategy
Development.
Self-Regulated Strategy Development Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is a well-acclaimed approach
to teaching writing strategies to students with learning difficulties. The main
goal is teaching self-regulation. The students are being taught knowledge and
skills on how to regulate their motivation and learning behavior. Examples of
knowledge taught are strategic knowledge on self-regulation and problem-
solving strategies, or content knowledge on what strategies can be used and
how. Examples of skills taught are self-regulation skills such as planning,
self-monitoring and self-reinforcement, or study skills, such as rehearsal,
structuring, and use of resources. Additionally, motivation is boosted by
visualization of progress and emphasizing the importance of effort on task
completion. This is expected to lead to improved self-regulation, improved
study skills, improved performance, and ultimately improved self-efficacy.
This knowledge and these skills are being taught using a six stage
teaching structure combining explicit teaching with teacher-student interaction
and tailored instruction. The first stage is Develop background knowledge, in
which the teacher activates student’s knowledge relevant for the strategy.
The second step is Discuss it, in which the teacher and the student discuss
the strategy and adapt it to the students understanding and skills. The third
step, Model it, involves the teacher modeling the strategy. The fourth step,
Memorize it, consists of rote learning of the strategy and the self-instructions,
and is especially important for students with memory or concentration
problems. The fifth step, Support it, entails the student practicing the strategy
while assisted by the teacher or peers. Eventually the sixth step, Independent
performance, means that the student performs the strategy without assistance
Chapter 4
99
or monitoring. The last two steps mean that the teacher gradually fades out of
the instruction. Not all phases have to be used in every occasion, and phases
can be repeated if necessary.
This approach aims at offering a specific approach to the individual
student’s problems as well as an internalization of self-regulation strategies.
By using explicit teaching and structured feedback students with learning
problems are served in their needs. This way of teaching has shown to be most
effective for students with problems with memory, attention or information
processing. Especially among students with learning difficulties, the SRSD-
approach has been shown to deliver good improvements in writing skills
and self-regulating behavior, with effect sizes ranging from 1.1 to 2 and
above (Graham & Harris, 2003). Additionally, immediate positive feedback
on their task performance as well as gain in ability to overcome academic
problems is expected to boost the students’ self-efficacy and to increase their
interest in academic tasks. Especially for girls, for whom this intervention has
been reported to make their perceptions of performance more in line with
their actual performance (Garcia & Fidalgo, 2008). Additionally, by using
interactive teaching, tailor-made solutions and fading-out, the students are
stimulated to make the knowledge and skills their own. This constructivist
learning contributes to task orientation and self-efficacy (Nie & Lau, 2010).
Behavioral consultation Behavioral consultation (BC) is a problem-solving approach that has its roots
in student counseling (Bergan, 1977; Gutkin & Curtis, 1999; Shapiro, 1987).
The consultant helps the consultee identifying and analyzing the problem
with a client, and devising, implementing an evaluating a plan to solve the
problem. In the case of implementation in education, the consultee can be
a teacher and the client a student with learning or behavioral difficulties.
The problem is approached from a behavior perspective and with a holistic
view on the person and the environment. The solution can entail changes in
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
100
the environment as well as in the person. The model consists of four stages,
that is Problem identification, Problem analysis, Plan implementation, Problem
evaluation. In the first two stages, the consultant and consultee collaborate to
identify the problem and gather relevant information about the client and the
environment. The consultant asks questions and consults with knowledge or
experience. The consultee provides information and decides what the plan
will be. In the third and fourth stage the plan is implemented and monitored
by the consultee and evaluated after which is decided what the next step will
be.
BC has been shown to effectively improve student performance,
to reduce disruptive behavior, and to improve attendance (Shapiro and
Kratochwill, 2000). Especially when a step-by-step plan is used systematically,
adherence is shown to the treatment plan, and the evaluation is done by
comparing with baseline behavior, the effects on student behavior change are
significant (MacLeod, Jones, Somers & Havey, 2001). By effectively solving
students’ problems with learning and improving students’ learning behavior,
students’ self-efficacy is boosted as well as their enjoyment of the learning
task. No differences between boys and girls were found in the effects of
consultation (Dunson, Hughes, & Jackson, 1994).
Additionally to having beneficial effects for students, BC has
been shown to be effective to contribute to teacher professionalization.
Consultation has been shown to increase innovative and experimental
teaching (Alinder, 1994), increase teacher skills and satisfaction (Kaiser,
Rosenfield, & Gravois, 2009), improve the teachers’ ability to meet the needs
of special needs of students (Seppälä & Leskelä-Ranta, 2006), decrease
teacher stress (Tunnecliffe, Leach, & Tunnecliffe, 1986), and be facilitive to
developing a learning organization that is able to cope with the challenges
of inclusive education (Nevin, Thousand, Paolucci-Whitcomb, & Villa, 1990).
Additionally, shared vision and increased teacher communication, which
are organizational level outcomes of consultation, have been shown to
Chapter 4
101
significantly influence both student achievement (Lomos, Hofman, & Bosker,
2011), and student motivation (Opdenakker & Van Damme, 2007). However,
to effectively change teacher behavior, school-wide implementation, support
from the school administrator, and on-the-job training are needed (Van den
Berg & Vandenberghe & Sleegers, 1999).
Integration of BC and SRSD With the SRSD intervention, students experiencing learning difficulties are
taught strategies. Using these strategies, the students can gain control over
their performance on academic tasks, boost their perceptions of ability, and
direct their effort towards the task. The change brought forth by SRSD remains,
however, local. It remains limited to the individual student to whom the specific
strategies are taught, and to the teacher teaching the strategies to the student.
The integrated version of BC and SRSD was constructed to strive towards
change that is durable, school-wide and on the multiple aspects of motivation.
This intervention adopted the holistic approach to students’ learning problems
of BC, and integrated the specific approach to students’ learning problems of
SRSD in it. Literature has shown that, in order to achieve an effect on learning
behavior, both specific and general knowledge and skills have to be included
in the intervention (Campione, 1986). In this format, the learning behavior of
the individual student is analyzed taking the whole learning environment
in regard. By changing the learning environment and teaching tailor-made
self-regulation strategies, the learning behavior is boosted. This effect is
expected to transfer to other students and other subject domains, since the
intervention strives towards an optimization of the learning environment and
is implemented school-wide. Additionally, this approach has its effects on
the teachers. The teachers are constantly stimulated to professionalize. Not
only do they have to reflect on the effectiveness of their interaction with the
student, but also they consult each other and communicate in order to achieve
a school-wide vision on solving students learning problems. The parts of
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
102
BC and SRSD that were expected to influence student cognition, motivation
and behavior were integrated. This combination of a specific and a holistic
approach, as well as the combination of intervening on teacher level as well
as on organizational level, is expected to lead to a durable change in student
motivation and self-regulation.
The present studyThe aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of these interventions on
the development of motivation and self-regulation of the students of pre-
vocational education, since these students are most at risk for academic
failure and a downward spiral of motivation. The development of motivation
and self-regulation over a time span of 18 months of students with whom
the interventions were implemented were compared to the development of
motivation and self-regulation of a group of students without a treatment. The
expectations based on the literature were that task orientation, self-efficacy
and self-regulation would decline over time. Both ego-enhancing and ego-
defeating orientation were expected to incline over time. The interventions,
however, were expected to have a positive effect on the motivation and
self-regulation of the students, based on the explicit connection of learning,
self-regulation and motivation. Therefore, it was expected that the decline
in motivation and self-regulation amongst the students receiving one of
the interventions would be less steep then the decline of the students not
receiving either of the interventions. Over time, this effect would be most
noticeable for the students for whom BC was combined with SRSD. For the
SRSD intervention, a short term positive effect is expected on task orientation,
self-efficacy, and self-regulation, as well as less incline in ego orientation. This
effect is, however, not expected to last. For the BC and SRSD combination
condition, effects on short term are expected on all variables, although most
of the effects are expected on the long term. Additionally, gender differences
will be included in the model.
Chapter 4
103
Method
ParticipantsThe participants were 279 first grade students of 4 schools of secondary
education in four distinct medium sized towns in the north of the Netherlands.
They all attended pre-vocational secondary education. The distribution boy
girl was 47% boys, 53% girls.
ProcedureA pre-post-follow up experimental control group design was used. Two
treatment groups were used, each consisting of students of a separate
school, and a control group, consisting of students of two other schools.
It was opted to include the students of two schools in order to increase
representativeness of the control group. The numbers of participants per
condition per measurement are represented in Table 1. The interventions
were implemented between the pretest and the posttest. Both interventions
were implemented using three two hour training sessions and a follow-up
session. The participants of the SRSD intervention training sessions were
the Dutch and English language teachers of the students participating in the
study. The participants of the combined intervention training sessions were
all teachers of the students participating in the study as well as the school
administrators, since the behavioral consultation intervention demanded
school-wide implementation. In both interventions, the intervention contents
based on SRSD were adapted in such a fashion that the domain specific writing
strategies of the intervention were replaced by general self-regulated learning
strategies. The behavioral consultation in the combined condition was aimed
at optimizing student remedial care. Trainers were the first author assisted by
a colleague. The school administrators had communicated that participation of
training sessions was mandatory. The teachers were made responsible for the
judgment of when the training contents could be properly implemented in the
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
104
classroom. Implementation fidelity was judged during the follow-up coaching
session in the form of teacher appraisals of the interventions applicability and
change of teacher vision in line with the interventions. The student outcomes
were measured at three time points: a before-implementation pre-test, an
after-implementation post-test, and a one year later follow-up test. Not all
student participants completed the test on every measurement moment, but
they completed the tests on at least two moments. A schematic representation
of the research design can be found in Table 2.
SRSD training and coaching sessions The first training session dealt with theory of self-regulation and analysis
of student self-regulating behavior. The second training session dealt with
devising a plan and teaching a self-regulation strategy to a student. The
teachers were handed a strategy teaching planning scheme consistent with
the phases of SRSD. During the third training session the whole model was
practiced with three cases. During the follow-up session the teachers had
the opportunity to ask questions. Additionally this created the possibility to,
when needed, re-activate the intervention. For a complete overview of the
SRSD training and coaching sessions the reader is referred to Appendix A.
BC and SRSD combined training and coaching sessions The first training session dealt with problem identification and problem
analysis. The teachers were handed an analysis scheme consistent with
the stages of behavioral consultation and received training in consultation.
The second training session dealt with devising a plan and teaching a self-
regulation strategy to a student. The teachers were handed a strategy
teaching planning scheme consistent with the phases of SRSD. The third
training session dealt with in-class implementation and evaluation. The
follow-up session was held with only the school administrator and dealt
with independent implementation of the BC and SRSD combined approach
Chapter 4
105
in order to work towards ownership by the school. For a complete overview
of the BC and SRSD combined training and coaching sessions the reader is
referred to Appendix B.
Table 1
Number of participants per measurement
Pre-test Post-test Follow-up Unique participants*
SRSD 72 56 42 75
BC & SRSD 73 33 53 60
Control 139 139 126 144
Note. *Participants that completed the test at at least two measurement moments.
Table 2
Design of the study
Time Start 1 month 3 months
15 months
Activity Students Pre-test Post-test
Follow-up test
Teachers* Training Classroom Implementation
Coaching Classroom Implementation
Note. *Intervention conditions.
InstrumentsAll instruments were self-report questionnaires and were answered either
electronically or paper-pencil, depending on the schools’ facilities. The items
were scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “totally disagree” to “totally
agree”. For example items and scale reliabilities, see Appendix C.
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
106
Goal Orientations - The Goal Orientation Questionnaire (Seegers,
Van Putten, & De Brabander, 2002) was used. The Task orientation subscale
consisted of five items concerning the extent to which the students enjoyed
new and challenging tasks. The Ego-enhancing orientation subscale consisted
of six items concerning the extent to which the students enjoy outperforming
their classmates. The Ego-defeating orientation subscales consisted of six
items, concerning the extent to which the students are afraid to show failure. In
this study, the reliabilities across the three measurement moments were α=.83
for the Task orientation subscale, α=.85 for the Ego-enhancing orientation
subscale, and α=.87 for the Ego-defeating orientation subscale.
Self-Efficacy - The Academic Self-Efficacy scale of Patterns of Adaptive
Learning Scales (Midgley et al., 2000) was used. The Self-efficacy scale
consisted of six items concerning the extent to which the students expected
to perform well on their school work. In this study, the reliability of the self-
efficacy scale across the three measurement moments was α=.83.
Self-Regulation - The Self-Regulation scale of the MSLQ (Pintrich & de
Groot, 1990) was used, expanded by two items from the Reappraisal factor
of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003). The self-
regulation scale concerned the metacognitive regulation of study tasks. One
item was left out after the reliability analysis, leaving six self-regulation items.
The emotion regulation items concerned the reappraisal of negative emotions
and stress. In total, the self-regulation scale as used in this study consisted of
eight items and showed a reliability of α=.78 across the three measurement
moments.
AnalysisThe data was analyzed using multilevel longitudinal (growth) analysis. Three
levels were entered into the model in order to do justice to the multilevel
structure of the data. Level one is the measurement level, level two is the
student level, and level three is the class level. An advantage of multilevel
Chapter 4
107
analysis is that it is capable of handling missing data. Gender was entered
as a dummy variable, with boys receiving the score “0” and girls receiving
the score”1”. The condition variable was entered with dummy variable for
the experimental conditions, so that the control conditions functioned as the
comparison. For each variable, models with linear and quadratic effects were
tested against models with only linear time effects, and models with gender
were tested against models without gender, in order to see if there were any
gender effects. The models were tested against each other using likelihood
ratio tests (Snijders & Bosker, 2012).
After establishing what the best growth model for the data was, the
parameters of the models were tested using Wald’s t-test. Since the power
to detect relevant effects was hindered by the rather small sample sizes of
the experimental conditions (Cohen, 1988), and educational interventions are
known to have on average small to medium effect sizes (.40; Hattie, 2012),
next to an alpha of .05 an alpha of .10 was used. The test was performed
two-sided, since no clearly defined hypotheses could be formulated and the
analysis of the effects would be merely explorative.
Results
Treatment fidelityIn the case of the SRSD-only condition, the teachers indicated during the
follow-up coaching session that they had implemented the intervention in
the classroom. The teachers judged the interventions as useful and suitable
for classroom application. The teachers could offer multiple examples of how
they had implemented the intervention and how it had worked out.
In the case of the BC and SRSD combined condition, the school
administrator indicated during the follow-up coaching session that the
approach was found to be especially useful when used for group-wise
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
108
evaluation of the students and solving student problems during group-wise
evaluations by the teachers of student performance. This was indeed in line
with the core ideas behind the approach. Moreover, they indicated that the
school was working to further develop the approach to make it even more
suitable to their demands, indicating that the school had developed ownership
of the approach.
DescriptivesThe means of the variables and their standard deviations at the different time
points is can be found in Table 3. A visual representation of the means can be
found in Appendix D.
Multilevel growth curve modelsThe results of the multilevel growth curve analysis are displayed in Table 4.
Task orientationThe linear model was found to be the best fitting model for the data. No
significant differences in the deviance tests were found for models including
quadratic parameters, therefore the simplest model was decided to be the best.
No differences in intercepts were found between the conditions. A
significant decline in task orientation was found for the control condition
(p<.05). For the SRSD condition, the development of task orientation did not
differ significantly from the control condition. For the SRSD and BC condition,
the decline in task orientation over time was significantly less than the decline
in task orientation of the control condition (p<.10). The development of task
orientation is represented in Figure 1.
Chapter 4
109
Table 3
The means of the variables
Condition Pre-test Post-test Follow-up
M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)
Task Orientation
SRSD 3.92 (.69) 3.88 (.74) 3.50 (.71)
BC and SRSD 3.76 (.76) 3.77 (.74) 3.62 (.57)
Control 3.82 (.66) 3.65 (.78) 3.44 (.83)
Ego Enhancing
SRSD 3.02 (.98) 3.11 (.80) 2.72 (.80)
BC and SRSD 2.96 (.96) 2.97 (1.09) 3.07 (.82)
Control 3.06 (.91) 2.91 (.82) 2.81 (.89)
Ego Defeating
SRSD 1.87 (.78) 2.22 (1.05) 1.68 (.88)
BC and SRSD 1.92 (.71) 1.97 (.82) 2.17 (.80)
Control 2.06 (.86) 2.16 (.84) 1.95 (.85)
Self-Efficacy
SRSD 3.82 (.69) 3.78 (.71) 3.79 (.64)
BC and SRSD 3.84 (.75) 3.88 (.65) 3.76 (.59)
Control 3.71 (.76) 3.69 (.75) 3.68 (.73)
Self-Regulation
SRSD 3.37 (.67) 3.42 (.77) 2.64 (.74)
BC and SRSD 3.22 (.87) 3.18 (.72) 2.78 (.60)
Control 3.30 (.77) 3.15 (.73) 2.79 (.58)
An effect of gender was found. A significant difference was found
in deviance scores (p<.05) for a model including a fixed effect for gender as
well as fixed effects for interaction of condition with effect as compared to a
model without including gender as a predictor. The girls scored lower than
the boys in the control condition (p<.01) In the SRSD condition, this effect
was not found. The model showed a significant interaction between the SRSD
condition and gender (p<.05). This effect undid the difference between boys
and girls observed in the control condition. The SRSD and BC condition was
also nearly significantly different (p<.15) from the control condition with
regard to the gender effect. No interaction effect of gender and task orientation
score over time was found for any of the conditions.
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
110
Fig. 1. Graph of the growth curves of task orientation. Time is displayed in months since the start of the intervention. Gender differences were not included in this representation.
Ego-Enhancing orientation The model combining linear and quadratic effects was found to be the best
fitting model for the data. No significant differences in the deviance tests were
found between the linear and quadratic models. However, some quadratic
parameters were found to be significant, and therefore it was decided that the
combination model showed the best fit for the data.
No differences in intercepts were found between the conditions. A
significant linear decline of ego-enhancing orientation was found for the
control condition (p<.05). The quadratic effect was not significant, although
being not far from significance (p<.15), suggesting that a trend of slightly less
decline in ego-enhancing in the long term. The linear effect of ego-enhancing
orientation of the SRSD condition approached significance in difference from
the control condition (p<.15), suggesting a stable to slightly upwards trend in
the short term. The quadratic effect of ego-enhancing orientation showed an
Chapter 4
3,2
3,4
3,6
3,8
4
4,2
0 5 10 15
task
ori
enta
tion
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
111
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
accelerated decline compared to the control condition (p<.10). The decline of
ego-enhancing orientation of the SRSD and BC condition was significantly less
than the decline observed for the control condition (p<.05). The development
of ego-enhancing orientation is represented in Figure 2.
Fig. 2. Graph of the growth curves of ego-enhancing orientation. Time is displayed in months since the start of the intervention. Gender differences were not included in this representation.
An effect of gender was found. A significant difference was found
in deviance scores (p<.0001) for a model including a fixed effect for gender
as compared to a model without including gender as a predictor. The girls
scored lower than the boys all the conditions. (p<.0001). No interaction effect
of gender and ego-enhancing orientation score over time was found for any of
the conditions.
Ego-Defeating orientation The model combining linear and quadratic effects was found to be the best
fitting model for the data. No significant differences in the deviance tests were
2,6
2,8
3
3,2
3,4
3,6
0 5 10 15
ego-
enha
ncin
g or
ient
atio
n
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
112
Chapter 4
Tabl
e 4
Mul
tilev
el g
row
th c
urve
mod
els
Task
Ori
enta
tion
Ego
Enha
ncin
gEg
o D
efea
ting
Self
-Effi
cacy
Self
-Reg
ulat
ion
(N=7
32)
(N=7
32)
(N=7
32)
(N=7
30)
(N=7
25)
Coe
ffici
ent
SEC
oeffi
cien
tSE
Coe
ffici
ent
SEC
oeffi
cien
tSE
Coe
ffici
ent
SE
Fixe
d Eff
ects
Inte
rcep
t3.
9518
1**
.100
143.
2679
8**
.111
822.
0658
6**
.120
533.
8531
5**
.068
943.
3851
6**
.089
90
Tim
e-.0
2315
**.0
0521
-.046
21**
.022
92.0
3715
.024
61-.0
0356
.005
13-.0
5025
**.0
2325
Tim
e2.0
0203
.001
41-.0
0306
**.0
0152
.001
08.0
0144
SRSD
-.0
3473
.178
81-.0
6393
.182
53-.1
8060
.120
53.0
7489
.096
99.0
6300
.147
20
SRSD
and
BC
-.210
55.1
6290
-.105
64.1
6671
-.162
64.1
1527
.096
42.0
9929
-.076
51.1
3761
SRSD
*tim
e-.0
0679
.010
17.0
7160
.045
44.0
8488
*.0
4872
.005
02.0
0986
.052
74.0
4399
SRSD
*tim
e2-.0
0504
*.0
0288
-.005
87**
.003
10-.0
0448
.002
79
SRSD
and
BC
*tim
e.0
1540
*.0
0930
.022
09**
.010
26.0
2295
**.0
0917
-.003
40.0
0918
.074
43.0
5048
SRSD
and
BC
*tim
e2-.0
0495
.003
26
Gen
der
-.296
72**
.098
87-.3
9857
**.0
8558
-.241
21**
.069
62-.1
6116
**.0
6555
Gen
der*
SRSD
.336
59**
.169
56
Gen
der*
SRSD
and
BC
.265
76.1
7164
Not
e. *p
<.10
**p<
.05
113
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
Tabl
e 4
(co
ntin
ued)
Task
Ori
enta
tion
Ego
Enha
ncin
gEg
o D
efea
ting
Self
-Effi
cacy
Self
-Reg
ulat
ion
Coe
ffici
ent
SEC
oeffi
cien
tSE
Coe
ffici
ent
SEC
oeffi
cien
tSE
Coe
ffici
ent
SE
Rand
om E
ffect
s
Leve
l 3 v
aria
nce
Inte
rcep
t.0
3529
.020
76.0
4823
8.0
2897
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.023
70.0
1435
Tim
e.0
0008
.000
09.0
0006
.000
10.0
0000
.000
00.0
0010
.000
07.0
0000
.000
00
Inte
rcep
t*Ti
me
-.001
40.0
0112
-.000
15.0
0130
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
Leve
l 2 v
aria
nce
Inte
rcep
t.2
3303
.038
32.4
8238
.059
21.4
0085
.055
01.3
1107
.040
71.3
3767
.044
33
Tim
e.0
0033
.000
30.0
0104
.000
37.0
0070
.000
39.0
0024
.000
26.0
0083
.000
30
Inte
rcep
t*Ti
me
-.000
03.0
0260
-.009
64.0
0366
-.005
12.0
0356
-.004
89.0
0247
-.012
39.0
0297
Leve
l 1 v
aria
nce
Res
idua
l.2
4611
.023
60.2
5395
.024
51.3
0487
.029
29.2
1077
.020
33.2
1694
.021
09
Dev
ianc
e14
62.8
9940
1652
.361
0416
66.1
4724
1383
.372
5014
06.3
6089
Not
e. *p
<.10
**p<
.05
114
found between the linear and quadratic models. However, some quadratic
parameters were found to be significant, and therefore it was decided that
the combination model showed the best fit for the data. No differences in
intercepts were found between the conditions. No significant incline or decline
in linear development of ego-defeating orientation was found for the control
condition, although the linear incline approached significance (p<.15). The
quadratic effect was significant (p<.05), suggesting a trend of slight incline
at first, turning into a decline at the long term. The same trend was visible
for SRSD condition, with even more explicit developments in the trends;
the linear development of ego-defeating orientation showed an significantly
higher incline compared to the control condition (p<.10), and the quadratic
slope showed significantly higher decline (p<.05). The incline of the linear
development of ego-defeating orientation for the SRSD and BC condition was
significantly higher than the development of the control condition (p<.05). No
effect of gender was found. The development of ego-defeating orientation is
represented in Figure 3.
Self-efficacy The linear model was found to be the best fitting model for the data. No
significant differences in the deviance tests were found for models including
quadratic parameters, therefore the simplest model was decided to be the best.
No effect over time was found and no effect of the conditions, neither
on the intercept, nor on the development of the self-efficacy scores. The
scores stay stable over time in all conditions. An effect of gender was found.
A significant difference was found in deviance scores (p<.0001) for a model
including a fixed effect for gender as compared to a model without including
gender as a predictor. The girls scored lower than the boys all the conditions.
(p<.001). No interaction effect of gender and self-efficacy score over time
was found for any of the conditions. The development of self-efficacy is
represented in Figure 4.
Chapter 4
115
1,4
1,6
1,8
2
2,2
2,4
0 5 10 15
ego-
defe
atin
g or
ient
atio
n
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
Fig. 3. Graph of the growth curves of ego-defeating orientation. Time is displayed in months since the start of the intervention.
Fig. 4. Graph of the growth curves of self-efficacy. Time is displayed in months since the start of the intervention. Gender differences were not included in this representation.
3,4
3,6
3,8
4
4,2
4,4
0 5 10 15
self
-eff
icac
y
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
116
Self-regulation The quadratic model was found to be the best fitting model for the data. No
significant differences in the deviance tests were found between the linear
and quadratic models. However, some quadratic parameters were found to
be approaching significance. Also an inspection of the means suggested that
the quadratic model would be the best approach to the data. Therefore it was
decided that the quadratic model showed the best fit for the data.
No differences in intercepts were found between the conditions. A
significant decline of self-regulation was found for the control condition (p<.05).
The quadratic effect was not significant. None of the intervention conditions
differed significantly from the control condition, neither in the linear nor the
quadratic development. Some coefficients approached significance though,
suggesting some trends. The quadratic development of self-regulation of the
SRSD condition approached significance, suggesting a trend of more decline
in self-regulation than the control condition (p<.15) on the long term. Both the
linear and the quadratic effect on the development of self-regulation of the
SRSD and BC condition were approaching significance, suggesting a trend of
less decline compared to the control condition on the short term (p<.15), and
more decline on the long term (p<.15). The development of self-regulation is
represented in Figure 5.
An effect of gender was found. A significant difference was found
in deviance scores (p<.05) for a model including a fixed effect for gender
as compared to a model without including gender as a predictor. The girls
scored lower than the boys in all the conditions. (p<.01). No interaction
effect of gender and self-regulation score over time was found for any of the
conditions.
Chapter 4
117
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
Fig.5. Graph of the growth curves of self-regulation. Time is displayed in months since the start of the intervention. Gender differences were not included in this representation.
Conclusion
The control group showed the expected decline over time for the variables
task orientation and self-regulation. For ego-defeating orientation a trend in
the expected direction was visible, as well as the development in the long
term. Contrary to the expectations, ego-enhancing orientation showed a
decline, and the self-efficacy scores remained stable over time.
The SRSD group showed similar developmental patterns with
reference to the control group. Only on ego-enhancing orientation, this
condition showed a trend that differed from the development observed in the
control condition. Instead of a stabilization or decline on the short term, the
SRSD group showed a trend towards an incline. On the long term, however,
a decline in ego-enhancing orientation was observed for this group. For ego-
defeating orientation, a development comparable to the control condition was
observed. The effects were more explicit, however. Self-regulation showed
a trend of less decline on the short term as compared to the control group.
2,60
2,80
3,00
3,20
3,40
3,60
0 5 10 15
self
-reg
ulat
ion
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
118
Neither an effect nor a trend of the intervention on task orientation was found
however.
The BC and SRSD combined group showed, however, different
developmental patterns. On the goal orientation variables it showed linear
development over time and significant less decline than the control group,
or in the case of ego-defeating orientation an incline. The development of the
goal orientation variables differed significantly from the other conditions,
however, due to the linear development of the goal orientation scores of the
BC and SRSD combined condition as opposed to the quadratic development
of the scores of the other conditions, the magnitude of these effects becomes
dramatic on the long term. On self-efficacy and self-regulation, the scores of
the SRSD combined with BC group did not differ significantly from the control
group. For self-regulation, however, the effects both on the long term and on
the short term approached significance. This shows at least less stability in
the development of the scores over time compared to the control condition,
suggesting some influence of the intervention.
Concluding, the expectations on the effect of the BC and SRSD
combined intervention on task orientation have been confirmed. Regarding
both ego-enhancing and ego-defeating orientation, clear effects have been
found for the BC and SRSD combined condition, but not in the direction that
was expected. Furthermore, the expected effect of the interventions on self-
regulation was not found.
The results revealed some differences between boys and girls. On
ego-enhancing orientation, self-efficacy and self-regulation the boys scored
higher than the girls. On task orientation, this effect was also found for the
control group. The SRSD intervention group did not show this effect, and
the BC and SRSD combined group also differed nearly significantly from the
control group concerning the gender effect. No further interaction effects of
gender and time or gender and intervention was found.
Chapter 4
119
Discussion
The SRSD and BC combined intervention did deliver an effect on motivation.
Not only did the students show less decline over time in motivation, also was
it a long term effect. Effects of educational interventions noticeable after more
than one year are hard to achieve. The addition of behavioral consultation
seems to be the determining factor for long term effect in this case, since the
SRSD only condition shows a strong drop on the motivation scores on the long
term. The construction of a coherent vision and a system that helps a school
to work independently on quality of teaching seems to be the ingredients for
long term effect on student motivation. Vision and a stimulating environment
were shown to be productive for the teacher professionalization (Geijsel,
Seegers, Stoel, & Krüger, 2009).
The SRSD only condition, on the other hand, did not lead to an effect
on motivation, especially not on the long term. The strong effects on writing
skills and outcomes, as reported in literature, apparently do not show transfer
to motivation outcomes. Some short term effects on the ego orientations were
noticeable. Ego orientation, however, has been shown to be detrimental to
academic performance when it is not combined with task orientation (Pintrich,
2000b). Furthermore, on the long term, the students in this condition show an
alarming drop in the motivation and self-regulation scores, suggesting a trend
towards a-motivation. One explanation for this developmental pattern could
be that the students were made more conscious of their performance due to
the intervention, which leads to some effects on ego involvement in the short
run, but to detrimental effects on the long run. The same explanation can be
given from a teacher’s perspective. The teachers can be made more conscious
of the students’ self-regulation, focusing more on the students than on the
task. Remarkable, however, is that the students in the SRSD condition, did
not show an effect on self-regulation, even though this was the main focus
of this intervention. A trend on the short term was visible however. This is
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
120
in line with the conclusion of Campione (1987), that maintaining effects on
metacognitive self-regulation is hard to achieve. Apparently, the strategy
instruction has not led to the students durably perceiving themselves as self-
regulated learners.
The fact that the scores on self-efficacy remain stable over time
and over the conditions is remarkable, since self-efficacy is often reported
as changing over time and dependable on the environment and academic
success. One explanation for this stable pattern is the fact that in this study
general self-efficacy was measured. It appears to be that the students have
reported a general sense of efficacy. The measurement of self-efficacy was
intended to be answered as a snapshot of their current perception of efficacy,
albeit over all subjects. Possibly, either the students have not recognized the
questions as concerning their perception of efficacy at that time, or was it too
difficult for the students to make an assessment of their current efficacy.
This study has shown that only teaching self-regulation strategies is
not sufficient to achieve a durable change in students’ motivation. In order
to achieve both a stop in the declining trend of motivation, and make this
effect durable, changes should be made not only in the teacher-student
interaction and teaching of strategies, but also in the learning environment
in a more broad scope (Wang & Eccles, 2013). The same has been shown in
the review study on interventions aiming at a change in students’ motivation
in chapter three. The school organization should collaboratively change their
vision on problem-solving and offering tailor-made teachings. By actively
communicating and consulting each-other, the teachers can create a learning
environment to offers room for both explicit and constructive teaching, but
also enables the teacher to professionalize constantly (Lam et al, 2010). This
school environment can be a match for challenges in the area of student
motivation or other areas.
Chapter 4
121
Limitations and future researchSome limitations can be noted in the research design. A random assignment
of schools to conditions was not performed, hence the requirements of an
experimental design were not fully met. Since participation by schools could
not be top down regulated in the Netherlands, a convenience sampling design
was used. This raises the chance of school variables being accountable for
the found effect instead of the intervention (Shadish, Cook & Campbell,
2002). However, research in naturalistic settings cannot completely rule out
facilitating factors in the, in this case, participating schools (Togerson &
Togerson, 2007). Moreover, since especially in the SRSD and BC combination
condition a school-wide involvement was demanded, here the presence of
possible facilitating factors within a school will not so much have led to a false
effect, but rather to faster implementation (Brophy, 1977). Therefore it may
limit the generalizability of the findings on speed or quality of implementation,
but an effect on motivation can still be noticed. Another limitation was the
limited number of schools per condition and limited number of participants
per condition. Although the numbers were sufficient to do statistical testing,
the small effect sizes demanded for larger samples. This was anticipated by
enlarging the alpha to .10. However, for future research, more schools and
participants per condition and random assignment would be preferable.
Longitudinal studies of motivation in secondary school are growing
but still relatively scarce (Wigfield et al., 2006), making it hard to formulate
precise hypotheses about the developmental patterns of student motivation
over time. This, additionally, still leads to questions about especially the
drop in motivation and self-regulation observed on the long term. Additional
longitudinal studies are needed to gather knowledge on the trajectories of
student motivation and self-regulation over a long time. Additionally, the
literature did not provide clear expectations concerning the influence of
gender on motivation and self-regulation. In this study, however, gender
effects were found on ego-enhancing orientation, self-efficacy and self-
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
122
regulation. In all these cases, girls scored lower than boys. Especially in the
case of self-efficacy, this can be alarming, since self-efficacy has been shown
to influence other motivation variables as well as self-regulation. On the
other hand, Gjesme (1973, 1983) has stated that girls tend to systematically
underestimate their subjective probability of success. In other words, girls are
harsher on themselves then boys when it comes to expectancies of success.
Even though literature suggested that the interventions could remediate
this underestimation, the results do not show they do. Nor was any other
interaction between gender and time found. It would be useful if the effects of
gender on different aspects of motivation, as well as the consequences of these
effects over time were further explored in research.
This study has shown that, even among students with a higher risk
of learning and behavioral difficulties, measures can be taken that affect
their motivation over a long time. Training of teachers to teach strategies, to
consult each other, to stimulate constructive vision on students with learning
difficulties, and to professionalize themselves has shown to be productive for
student motivation.
Chapter 4
123
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
App
endi
x A
Tabl
e A
.1
Det
aile
d de
scri
ptio
n of
the
SRSD
trai
ning
ses
sion
s
SRSD
Tra
inin
g Se
ssio
n 1:
Sel
f-re
gula
tion
beha
vior
ana
lysi
s
Con
tent
sFo
rmat
Exer
cise
1:
“Wha
t is
self-
regu
latio
n?”
- The
ory
self-
regu
latio
n - E
xam
ples
of s
elf-r
egul
atin
g be
havi
or- H
ow to
teac
h se
lf-re
gula
tion
-Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n -G
roup
dis
cuss
ion
Exer
cise
2:
“The
SRS
D m
odel
”- S
RSD
six
sta
ge m
odel
- S
RSD
key
cha
ract
eris
tics
-Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n
Exer
cise
3:
“Tal
king
to s
tude
nts
abou
t use
d st
rate
gies
”- I
nter
view
ing
skill
s fo
r int
erac
tion
with
stu
dent
- I
dent
ifica
tion
of n
eede
d in
form
atio
n fo
r ana
lysi
s-S
mal
l gro
up ro
le-p
layi
ng e
xerc
ise
Hom
ewor
k:
“The
Cas
e of
an
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt -
part
1.”
- Ana
lysi
s of
sel
f-reg
ulat
ing
beha
vior
of a
n in
divi
dual
stu
dent
usi
ng th
ree
cate
gory
form
: de
sire
d se
lf-re
gula
tion
(str
ateg
y), c
urre
nt
beha
vior
, how
to te
ach
-Fill
in fo
rm
124
Chapter 4
Tabl
e A
.1 (c
ontin
ued)
SRSD
Tra
inin
g Se
ssio
n 2:
The
stu
dent
Con
tent
sFo
rmat
Exer
cise
1:
“Fro
m a
naly
sis
to p
roce
dure
”- T
heor
y se
lf-re
gula
tion
proc
edur
e - T
rans
latio
n of
ana
lysi
s ou
tcom
es to
pro
cedu
re
usin
g th
ree
char
acte
rist
ics:
str
uctu
re, t
ailo
r-m
ade,
st
ep-w
ise.
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - S
mal
l gro
up e
xerc
ise
Exer
cise
2:
“Tea
chin
g a
self-
regu
latio
n st
rate
gy”
- The
ory
teac
hing
a s
elf-r
egul
atio
n st
rate
gy- T
rans
latio
n pr
oced
ure
to te
achi
ng b
ehav
ior
usin
g fo
ur c
ateg
ory
form
: dis
cuss
, mod
el,
mem
oriz
e, p
ract
ice
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - S
mal
l gro
up e
xerc
ise
Hom
ewor
k:“T
he C
ase
of a
n in
divi
dual
stu
dent
- pa
rt 2
.”- E
labo
ratio
n of
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt c
ase
proc
edur
e us
ing
four
cat
egor
y fo
rm: d
iscu
ss,
mod
el, m
emor
ize,
pra
ctic
e- C
onte
mpl
ate
teac
her r
ole
in th
e pr
oces
s
- Fill
in fo
rm
125
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
Tabl
e A
.1 (c
ontin
ued)
SRSD
Tra
inin
g Se
ssio
n 3:
The
teac
her
Con
tent
sFo
rmat
Exer
cise
1:
“Thr
ee c
ases
of s
tude
nts”
- Thr
ee fi
ctio
nal c
ases
of s
tude
nts
are
disc
usse
d- F
our s
teps
: ana
lysi
s, p
roce
dure
, how
to te
ach,
ho
w to
impl
emen
t in
clas
sroo
m te
achi
ng
- Gro
up e
xerc
ise
SRSD
Tra
inin
g Se
ssio
n 4:
Coa
chin
g
Con
tent
sFo
rmat
Exer
cise
1:
“Q&
A”
- Exp
erie
nces
- Str
engt
hs a
nd w
eakn
esse
s of
the
appr
oach
- Que
stio
ns
- Int
erac
tive
grou
p co
nver
satio
n- Q
uest
ions
and
ans
wer
s
126
Chapter 4
App
endi
x B
Tabl
e B.
1
Det
aile
d de
scri
ptio
n of
the
BC a
nd S
RSD
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng s
essi
ons
BC a
nd S
RSD
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng S
essi
on 1
: Stu
dent
pro
blem
ana
lysi
s
Con
tent
sFo
rmat
Exer
cise
1:
“Mod
el a
nd v
isio
n”- B
C m
odel
: goa
ls, f
our s
tage
s, m
ain
char
acte
rist
ics
- Int
ervi
ewin
g te
chni
ques
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - V
ideo
mod
elin
g th
e co
nsul
tatio
n in
terv
iew
- Gro
up d
iscu
ssio
n
Exer
cise
2:
“Pro
blem
iden
tifica
tion”
- Fir
st tw
o st
eps
of th
e m
odel
: Pro
blem
id
entifi
catio
n an
d pr
oble
m a
naly
sis
- Ide
ntifi
catio
n m
ism
atch
con
sulte
e an
d cl
ient
- Con
stru
ctio
n of
ideo
grap
hica
l the
ory
of c
lient
pr
oble
m
- Sm
all g
roup
role
-pla
ying
exe
rcis
e
Hom
ewor
k:
“The
Cas
e of
an
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt -
part
1.”
- A
naly
sis
of p
robl
em o
f an
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt
usin
g se
ven
cate
gory
form
: pro
blem
des
crip
tion;
go
als
not a
ccom
plis
hed
(bot
h pr
oble
m
iden
tifica
tion)
; tas
k; c
urre
nt ta
sk b
ehav
ior;
inst
ruct
ion;
des
ired
str
ateg
y (a
ll fo
ur p
robl
em
anal
ysis
); m
ism
atch
and
ideo
grap
hica
l the
ory
- Fill
in fo
rm
127
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
Tabl
e B.
1 (c
ontin
ued)
BC a
nd S
RSD
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng S
essi
on 2
: The
stu
dent
Con
tent
sFo
rmat
Exer
cise
1:
“Fro
m a
naly
sis
to p
roce
dure
”- T
heor
y se
lf-re
gula
tion
- SRS
D k
ey c
hara
cter
istic
s- T
rans
latio
n of
ana
lysi
s ou
tcom
es to
pro
cedu
re
usin
g th
ree
char
acte
rist
ics:
str
uctu
re, t
ailo
r-m
ade,
st
ep-w
ise.
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - S
mal
l gro
up e
xerc
ise
Exer
cise
2:
“Tea
chin
g a
self-
regu
latio
n st
rate
gy”
- The
ory
teac
hing
a s
elf-r
egul
atio
n st
rate
gy- S
RSD
six
sta
ge m
odel
- T
rans
latio
n pr
oced
ure
to te
achi
ng b
ehav
ior
usin
g fo
ur c
ateg
ory
form
: dis
cuss
, mod
el,
mem
oriz
e, p
ract
ice
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - S
mal
l gro
up e
xerc
ise
Hom
ewor
k:
“The
Cas
e of
an
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt -
part
2.”
- E
labo
ratio
n of
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt c
ase
proc
edur
e us
ing
four
cat
egor
y fo
rm: d
iscu
ss,
mod
el, m
emor
ize,
pra
ctic
e- C
onte
mpl
ate
teac
her r
ole
in th
e pr
oces
s
- Fill
in fo
rm
128
Chapter 4
Tabl
e B.
1 (c
ontin
ued)
BC a
nd S
RSD
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng s
essi
on 3
: The
teac
her
Con
tent
sFo
rmat
Exer
cise
1:
“Cas
e of
a s
tude
nt”
- The
who
le p
roce
ss o
f pro
blem
iden
tifica
tion,
pr
oble
m a
naly
sis,
des
ign
of p
roce
dure
, tea
chin
g th
e st
rate
gy
- Vid
eo- G
roup
dis
cuss
ion
Exer
cise
2:
“Lon
g te
rm &
cla
ss-w
ide”
- Tea
chin
g st
rate
gies
for t
he lo
ng te
rm a
nd c
lass
-w
ide
use
of th
e ap
proa
ch- T
rain
er p
rovi
ding
info
rmat
ion
- Gro
up d
iscu
ssio
n
BC a
nd S
RSD
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng s
essi
on 4
: Tow
ards
ow
ners
hip
Con
tent
sFo
rmat
Mee
ting
with
the
scho
ol a
dmin
istr
ator
- Eva
luat
ion
of th
e tr
aini
ng: i
dent
ifica
tion
of
stre
ngth
s of
the
appr
oach
for t
he s
choo
l- I
dent
ifica
tion
of fi
eld
situ
atio
ns in
whi
ch th
e ap
proa
ch c
ould
be
used
and
ela
bora
ted
tow
ards
sc
hool
ow
ners
hip
- Pla
nnin
g fo
r fut
ure
actio
ns
- Mee
ting
of tr
aine
r with
sch
ool a
dmin
istr
ator
129
The effect of school-based interventions on motivation and self-regulation
Appendix C
Table C.1
The scales used in the study
Example Item No. of Items
Source Original Scale Reliability (α)
This Study Scale Reliability (α)
Task Orientation “I like it when I have learned something new at school”
5 Seegers et al. (2002)
.77 .83
Ego Enhancing Orientation
“I enjoy getting a better grade than my classmates.”
6 Seegers et al. (2002)
.81 .85
Ego Defeating Orientation
“During classroom tasks, I am afraid that the other children will notice that I make mistakes”
6 Seegers et al. (2002)
.76 .87
Self-Efficacy “I'm certain I can master the skills taught in class this year.”
6 Midgley et al. (2000)
.78 .83
Self-Regulation “Before I begin studying I think about the things I will need to do to learn.”“When I feel stressed, I just think about something else.”
8 Pintrich and de Groot (1990)Gross and John (2003)
.74 .78
130
Chapter 4
Appendix D
3,2
3,4
3,6
3,8
4
4,2
0 5 10 15
task
ori
enta
tion
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
2,4
2,6
2,8
3
3,2
3,4
0 5 10 15
ego-
enha
ncin
g or
ient
atio
n
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
1,4
1,6
1,8
2
2,2
2,4
0 5 10 15
ego-
defe
atin
g or
ient
atio
n
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
3,4
3,6
3,8
4
4,2
4,4
0 5 10 15
self
-eff
icac
y
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
2,6
2,8
3
3,2
3,4
3,6
0 5 10 15
self
-reg
ulat
ion
time
SRSD
BC and SRSD
Control
Fig. D.1-5. Graphs of the mean scores of the variables for the different conditions. Time is displayed in months since the start of the intervention. Measurement moments were at the start (pre-test), 3 months (post-test) and 15 months (one-year follow-up).
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation: The surplus value of behavioral consultation on top of strategy instruction
CHAPTER 5
This chapter is based on:
Prince, A., Opdenakker, M.-C., & Minnaert, A. (2013). Short and long term effects on motivation and self-
regulation: The surplus value of behavioral consultation on top of strategy instruction. Manuscript submitted
for publication.
134
Abstract
Students’ motivation and self-regulated learning has been shown to decrease
in secondary education. In this study, the effects of two interventions on the
longitudinal development of motivation and self-regulation of students in
pre-vocational secondary education were explored using a planned variation
design. Teachers were trained to solve students’ learning problems with
either self-regulated strategy development only, or self-regulated strategy
development combined with behavioral consultation. Student outcomes for
both conditions were contrasted in order to scrutinize the surplus value of
behavioral consultation. Results of the multi-level growth curve analysis
showed a short term effect of both interventions on task orientation, ego
orientation and self-regulation. On the long term, however, only the combined
condition showed maintenance effects on motivation while the strategy
development only condition showed a strong decrease. The outcomes suggest
that the self-regulated strategy development approach to problem solving is
effective to trigger short term effects on motivation and self-regulated learning.
To achieve durable effects, however, this approach has to be combined with
a focus on both teacher level (teacher professionalization) and organizational
level (school-wide vision, coordination and communication).
Chapter 5
135
Introduction
Students’ motivation for school influences students’ performance,
learning enjoyment, attendance, and their change of staying on track.
However, studies have shown that from the start of secondary education,
student motivation decreases (e.g., Gottfried, Fleming & Gottfried, 2001;
Opdenakker, Maulana, & Den Brok, 2012; Van der Veen & Peetsma, 2009).
This has immediate consequences for the effort students invest, the enjoyment
of academic tasks and classroom participation. The long term consequences
can be far graver, however. Students with problems with motivation have
an increased chance of feelings of anxiety, generally have lower perceptions
of their ability, and are in risk of losing interest and stop investing effort.
When the students are not able to counter these problems, these negative
effects can last for a long time and lead to downward spirals (Dickhäuser,
Buch, & Dickhäuser, 2011), a-motivation and eventually dropout (Alexander,
Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997). A decline in motivation is found to be a good
predictor for school drop-out (Luyten, Bosker, Dekkers, & Derks, 2010).The
desired situation is that students themselves are able to keep themselves on
track. Self-regulating students plan and monitor their learning, and alter their
motivation and behavior when needed to stay on track. However, not all
students are able to do so. Especially students with learning problems are a
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
136
vulnerable group. Students in the lower tracks in regular education, such as
pre-vocational education, show a high incidence of learning problems and
co-occurring behavioral problems, and higher drop-out levels than other
educational tracks (Peetsma & Van der Veen, 2013). Students with learning
difficulties often have a history of academic failure. Since these students often
lack skills in regulating themselves (Graham & Harris, 2003) and display less
help-seeking behavior (Karabenick & Knapp, 1988), they are not able to get
themselves on track (Finn & Rock, 1997). This makes students’ motivation as
well as self-regulated learning an important factor to monitor and influence,
especially in the case of students with learning problems.
Decreasing motivation and self-regulated learning in students also has
immediate consequences for the teacher, whose teaching possibilities depend,
among others, on student learning behavior. When students lose interest
and stop investing effort this has its consequences for the teaching process.
Furthermore, students who are not able to regulate their own learning demand
more teacher attention. Since teachers are increasingly made accountable
for the students’ performance, the responsibility for keeping the students
motivated is also being placed with the teachers (Lauermann & Karabenick,
2011). Teachers have to develop the expertise to deal with the problems
they encounter in the classroom. Motivation and self-regulated learning are
strongly related to learning as well as behavior. Therefore, the diagnosis and
remediation of problems of motivation and self-regulated learning demands
expertise in all of these areas. This complex interaction of factors makes
that solutions for these problems are not straightforwardly found, let alone
implemented. Knowledge in teaching strategies does not offer heuristics for
every situation (Kennedy, 2006). Teacher-centered solutions, such as class
management approaches, can be very effective but are in thread of lacking
individual differentiation (Emmer & Stough, 2001; Hutchings, Martin-Forbes,
Daley, & Williams, 2013). Simply creating an environment in which students
should regulate their own learning does not lead to improvements in students’
Chapter 5
137
motivation (Rozendaal, Minnaert, & Boekaerts, 2005). Problems with student
motivation or self-regulated learning demand for a tailor made approach for
individual students and emphasis on teacher-student interaction.
As illustrated above, problems with motivation and self-regulated
learning manifest at student level, or teacher level, and additionally at school
level. It has become a challenge for the school and for (school) educational policy
(Skrtic, 1991). A school cannot expect that these students improve themselves.
Even rigorous change in student behavior in a specific problem area will not
automatically lead to transfer and long term solutions in all areas (Campione,
1987). Schools should create an environment that fosters motivation and
self-regulated learning, and they should support and professionalize their
teachers in order to be prepared for challenges. When schools become learning
organizations, they, and their teachers, can be self-sufficient in dealing with the
different challenges of student learning, motivation, behavior, and remedial
care (Nevin, Thousand, Paolucci-Whitcomb, & Villa, 1990).
In this study, two interventions aiming at change in student
motivation and self-regulated learning were implemented amongst students
of pre-vocational secondary education using a planned variation design.
Both approaches are considered to be particularly promising for populations
with high incidence of learning problems. In one intervention, teachers
were trained to teach self-regulation strategies to the students. In the other
intervention, the teachers were also trained to teach self-regulation strategies,
but additionally, as a contrast, they were trained to consult each other in order
to create a problem-solving environment. It was explored what the surplus
value of behavioral consultation was over strategy teaching on the long term
development of students’ motivation and self-regulated learning.
MotivationProblems in students motivation manifest most plainly in decreased focus on
academic tasks, decrease effort investment in academic tasks, and decreased
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feelings of competence. A predominant motivational theory describing the
relations between tasks, effort, competence and behavior is achievement goal
theory. This theory states that students have goals that determine how they
see the relationship between their own ability and a task. This has its effects
on the task students choose and the effort they invest in that task. A classic
division is between task orientation and ego orientation (Nichols, 1984).
Students who are task oriented have the task as point of focus. They want
to master the task, have interest in the task, want to learn new things, or be
challenged. Students who are ego oriented have their own ability as point of
focus. They want to show their ability to others and want to outperform others
on the task. This has its consequences for the amount of effort invested in the
task performance as well as for the choice of tasks. Task-oriented students
believe that the effort they invest in a task is correlated to the outcome they
achieve on that task. Additionally, they believe that their ability is malleable
(Dweck & Legget, 1988). With practice and task performance they will gain
ability. Task-oriented students prefer moderately difficult tasks, since these
tasks offer a good chance of mastery while still being interesting.
Ego-oriented students believe that they have a certain ability to
perform a task. They make an assessment of how their ability is compared to
the ability of others. Additionally, they use strategic behavior to manipulate
this comparison in their favor. When ego-oriented students believe their
ability is high compared to others, they want to outperform others, also called
ego-enhancing orientation (Skaalvik, 1997). For this they choose moderately
difficult tasks and medium investment of effort, since this approach will
give them the biggest chance of outperforming others. When ego-oriented
students believe their ability is low compared to others, they avoid showing
failure to others, also called ego-defeating orientation (Skaalvik, 1997). For
this they choose easy tasks or hard tasks and minimal investment of effort,
since this way they have the smallest chance of failing, or when they fail they
can attribute this failure to either task difficulty or not enough effort invested.
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Students with learning difficulties often have a negative perception of own
ability, and by showing avoidance behavior deny themselves the possibility
to experience positive feelings accompanying task mastery (Dickhäuser et al.,
2011). Moreover, since students with learning difficulties often have negative
experiences with academic tasks, they are not very prone to be task oriented
(Roeser, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2000).
Besides the students’ behavior, the students’ perceived competence is
an important factor to consider. It was already mentioned before that students
make use of perceptions of their ability to judge their expected behavior
on a task. A construct that has been shown to give a good picture of these
perceptions of ability is self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997). Self-efficacy means the
expected performance on a specific task. It is based on feedback from past
performance and vicarious performance by others. Although it is based on
learning processes, it has a basis of cognitive processing of the information
and therefore is prone to interact with other cognitive processes such as
goal orientations. Students with learning difficulties often have a history
of negative academic performance, and are therefore in threat of entering a
downward spiral of negative perceptions and negative performance feedback
(Finn & Rock, 1997).
In their treatment on development in adolescence, Wigfield, Byrnes,
and Eccles (2006) state that competence beliefs decline during the secondary
school period. Furthermore, they report that task orientation declines and
ego orientation inclines during secondary school years. According to them,
this negative development is caused by to a decline in perception value of
the academic task, as well as a greater focus on performance by the teachers.
Furthermore, studies including the influence of gender on motivation do
not show a univocal outcome of these gender effects. In the case of goal
orientations, the effects of gender that are reported in the few studies that
are available, appeared to be moderated by variables closely related to goal
orientations, such as perceived ability, task value and effort investment,
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
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which are influenced by gender (Meece, Bower Glienke, & Burg, 2006). In the
case of self-efficacy, however, the gender differences found were in specific
subject domains. Boys were reported to score higher on science and math self-
efficacy, while girls scored higher on reading and writing self-efficacy (Meece
et al., 2006; Wigfield et al. 2006).
The elaborate research on motivation has led to formulation of
several theories on motivation over the years (Stipek, 2002). These different
theories emphasize different parts of the concept of motivation, leading
to interventions aiming at change in different areas. In their review on
educational interventions on motivation, Perry, Turner, and Meyer (2006)
stated that interventions are either on academic tasks, or on instruction, or
on social interaction. The study in chapter 3 showed that these grounds of
interventions indeed deliver effective interventions, but that their influence
remained limited to the part of motivation that the intervention was aiming
for. Only limited transfer to other factors of motivation was noticeable. In
chapter 3, interventions were identified aiming at a change in the perceptions
of the student self to match the task, and interventions aiming at change in
the perceptions of the task to match the student. A structured approach and
explicit teaching was effective to change the student to match the task, and
a social approach was effective to change the student perception of the task.
Moreover, a constructivist approach giving agency to the student was effective
to trigger change in both perceptions of self and task. When translating the
perception of self and perception of the task to motivation constructs, ego
orientation and self-efficacy would belong to the former category, and task
orientation, interest or enjoyment would belong to the latter category.
The relationship between the more self-oriented forms of motivation
and the more task-oriented forms of motivation is the subject of multiple
motivational theories. Social learning theory states that students’ motivation
is influenced by the student self-perceptions of ability, by the perceptions
of the task, and by the environment (Bandura, 1977). By developing a sense
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of self-efficacy, students over time develop a sense of agency. They have
the feeling they have, to a certain degree, control over their environment.
The self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) states that a student can
internalize motivation. Students can be extrinsically motivated, meaning
that they are motivated by external pressures and rewards. This is controlled
motivation. Extrinsic motivation can evolve to intrinsic motivation, meaning
that the student is autonomously motivated by internal reasons, such as
interest or liking. For this development to happen, the students need to
feel related to other persons, competent in the tasks and autonomous.
Goal orientations theory states that the environment can play a role in the
development of task orientation and ego orientation by students. Competitive
environments facilitate performance orientation, while mastery focused
environments facilitate task orientation (Ames, 1992). In educational settings,
task orientation is preferred over ego orientation (Eccles & Roeser, 2011), as
is autonomous motivation over controlled motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000),
since it directs effort and behavior towards the task and decreases negative
emotions such as anxiety or fear of failure. The above mentioned processes,
such as self-perceptions, internalization, and influence of classroom structure,
are, however, strongly dependent on cognitive appreciation of environmental
factors. Since cognitive processes are often problematic for students with
learning problems these processes demand for more time and resources
(Campione, 1987). These students will need more support during the early
steps in the process, and more affirmation of competence. Thus, theory on
motivation suggests that students first should have positive self-efficacy and
develop feelings of competence over the task. For this, the students need skills in
task performance and self-regulated learning. Additionally, the environment
should foster a task-oriented approach. Research has shown that features of
the environment influence students’ motivation (Opdenakker & Minnaert,
2011; Stroet, Opdenakker, & Minnaert, 2013; Urdan & Schoenfelder, 2006;
Wang & Eccles, 2013). Therefore, the environment should facilitate student
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task mastery, and perceptions of competence and support self-regulated
learning behavior.
Self-regulated learning In order to keep their learning on track, students make use of self-regulation.
Self-regulated learning means the conscious planning, monitoring, when
needed correcting the own learning behavior, and evaluating the process
(Zimmerman, 1990). Students gain and keep control over their learning process
by performing self-regulating activities. Three components are considered
to be important for the students’ ability to self-regulate, being motivation,
(meta-)cognition, and behavior (Pintrich, 2000c; Zimmerman, 2000). Student
motivation contributes to self-regulated learning, since the learner’s goals
and the amount of effort invested are determined by motivational processes.
Motivation determines the goals of behavior and the tasks chosen. Also it forms
a basis of interpretation of feedback coming from the environment. (Meta-)
cognitive knowledge on strategies and skills is needed to regulate behavior.
Without knowing what and how to regulate, no regulation is possible. This
is apparent amongst students with learning difficulties. They often lack both
knowledge and skills on how to regulate their learning (Campione, 1987).
This makes it hard for them to identify the problem, and to decide how to
solve or work around the problem. Explicit knowledge should be at hand
when encountering a problem situation. Since most knowledge is situational,
it often consists out of “if..then..”-axioms, which has been proven to be
difficult for students with learning problems (Tiekstra, Hessels, & Minnaert,
2009). Additionally, the students must learn self-regulation skills and have
the opportunity to practice and display them. This encompasses study skills
such as memorizing, summarizing, and information structuring (Hattie,
Biggs & Purdie, 1996), as well as metacognitive, motivational and emotion
regulation skills, such as goal setting, planning, anxiety control, and self-
discipline (Dignath & Buttner, 2008). Students with learning difficulties often
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lack these skills or have problems with developing themselves. Activities in
all of these areas contribute to self-regulated learning, making them highly
interdependent.
An intervention with the potential to improve the self-regulated
learning of students with learning problems is Self-Regulated Strategy
Development (SRSD) (Harris & Graham, 1996). SRSD has as basic component
that the teacher teaches self-regulation strategies to the students. Students
are taught strategic knowledge on academic task completion and problem
solving, content knowledge on self-regulation strategies, self-regulation skills
and motivational knowledge and skills. The instruction of the contents is
structured following a six stage framework. This framework combines explicit
teaching with social learning and constructivist teacher-student interaction.
All the knowledge and skills are tailored to the needs of the students.
Although the basis of the contents is a to a great degree pre-determined set of
knowledge, strategies and skills, the actually taught contents are fitted to the
individual needs of the student and the situational demands.
SRSD has been empirically shown to be effective to improve students'
self-regulated learning behavior in writing. Especially for students with
problems, the structured approach and the stages containing explicit teaching
and memorizing are important in order to deal with problems of attention,
memory and information processing. The results of this approach with
students with learning problems have been shown to be impressive, with effect
sizes ranging from 1.1 to 2 and above (Graham & Harris, 2003). By explicitly
showing the progress using, for example, charts, the sense of competence is
systematically increased and the influence of effort on progress is made explicit.
Additionally, adapting the learning contents to the individual students needs
and having a mastery-based approach instead of a time-based, is beneficial to
students' task interest and sense of mastery. The eventual fading out by the
teacher is important to achieve students' internalization in order to stimulate
long lasting effect and students' sense of agency. Maintenance effects were
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
144
found in follow-up measurements, albeit that the effects were less strong than
in the post-test (Graham & Harris, 2003).
An environment conducive for motivation and self-regulated learningSelf-regulated learning strategies and skills are needed as a basic starting
point for the students (Hattie et al., 1996), especially when they experience
problems with learning (Campione, 1987). However, as was shown in the
review study in chapter 3, only changing the characteristics the students’ task
approach or teacher instruction strategies does not lead to a durable effect on
all areas of motivation. The major motivational theories name the quality of
the relationship between the students and their environment as the source of
durable motivation. Several teaching practices aiming directly at motivational
outcomes have been proposed, such as need-supportive teaching (Reeve,
Jang, Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004; Stroet et al., 2013) mastery-oriented teaching
(Ames, 1992). However, the quality of the relationship of the students with
their environment exceeds motivation stimulating teaching practices. An
approach fostering motivation and self-regulated learning should not only
have influence at student level, but also at teacher level and school level in order
to create a learning environment that continuously fosters students’ agency,
competence, autonomy, mastery, and self-regulated learning. Students with
learning problems must be supported in order to cope with their problems,
teachers must be able to handle challenging situations, and the school should
support the teacher collaboration and vision building (Skrtic, 1991). Research
has shown that when teachers feel more efficacious and feel more supported
by their environment, they show less controlling teaching practices (Leroy,
2007; Pelletier, 2002), display more mastery-oriented teaching (Deemer, 2004)
and are more likely to professionalize (Geijsel, Sleegers, Stoel, & Krüger, 2009;
Posnanski, 2002; Van den Berg, Vandenberghe, & Sleegers, 1999). Additionally,
significant effects have been found of shared vision and increased teacher
communication on both student achievement (Lomos, Hofman, & Bosker,
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2011), and student motivation (Opdenakker & Van Damme, 2007).
An intervention that has shown potential to influence students’ behavior,
teachers’ efficacy and school potential to stimulate teacher professionalization
is Behavioral Consultation (BC) (Bergan, 1977). BC is an indirect approach
that aims at problem-solving and focusses on students’ behavior. Students’
behavior is regarded as influenced by the whole of the environment. In
case of a student with learning difficulties, this leads to an analysis of the
whole learning environment additional to analysis of the student behavior.
This includes teacher behavior, peer behavior and characteristics of the
tasks. The approach offers a framework for consultation. A consultee, for
example a teacher, has a client with a problem that has to be solved, for
example a student with learning problems. A consultant helps the consultee
through the process of identifying and analyzing the problem, and devising,
implementing and evaluating a plan to solve the problem, by asking questions
and making suggestions. The plan should be structured, should aims at step
by step problem solving, and all people involved should show adherence to
the initial plan. Progress should be structurally monitored based on facts by
comparing the starting behavior with the outcome behavior in the evaluation
phase (MacLeod, Jones, Somers and Havey, 2001).
At student level, an important feature of BC is that the problem
analysis focusses on behavior instead of speculating about underlying
pathology or labeling of the problem, a more medical approach. Indeed, BC
has been shown to be an effective approach to improve student performance an
attendance, and to reduce disruptive behavior (Shapiro & Kratochwill, 2000).
It extends the options to teach students with learning problems (West & Idol,
1990). A better fit of the offered approach with the students’ personal needs
is expected, which will have its positive effects on perceptions of competence
and task enjoyment (Roeser et al., 2000). Additionally, this can have beneficial
consequences for peers when a teacher improves the classroom climate. At
teacher level, BC has been shown to increase innovative teaching (Alinder,
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
146
1994), to increase both teacher skills and satisfaction (Kaiser, Rosenfield,
& Gravois, 2009), to have a positive effect on the stress teachers perceive
(Tunnecliffe, Leach, & Tunnecliffe, 1986), and to increase the teachers’ ability
to meet the needs of special needs of students (Seppälä & Leskelä-Ranta,
2006). At school or organizational level, BC has been said to be facilitive to
developing a learning organization that is able to cope with the challenges of
inclusive education through teacher collaboration and vision building (Nevin
et al., 1990). The positive effects at one level contribute to effects at another
level. For example, effective solving of students’ problems contributes to
teacher creativity, as do collaboration and shared vision contribute to effective
problem solving. The school as a learning and problem-solving organization
makes the learning environment more adaptive to the students’ individual
needs and more able to offer tailor-made solutions. This gives the students a
greater feeling of competence in dealing with the academic tasks and a less
competitive atmosphere is created.
The aim of this studyIn this study, a planned variation design was used to explore what the surplus
value of adding BC to SRSD was in terms of short and long term outcomes in
student motivation and self-regulated learning. The advantage of a planned
variation design is that, besides information on the effects of the interventions,
additionally knowledge is generated on what works in the specific approach
(Yeh, 2000). The interventions were implemented in pre-vocational education.
SRSD was implemented as a minimal treatment to target the students’ learning
problems. The combination of SRSD and BC was implemented as maximal
treatment to target the students’ learning problems. By contrasting the two
treatments, the surplus value of BC on the outcomes students’ motivation and
self-regulated learning could be explored.
The SRSD only approach was implemented as a baseline approach to
improve the teachers’ ability to teaching self-regulation strategies to students.
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This approach was expected to have a positive effect on students’ goal
orientations, self-efficacy, and self-regulation, and therefore was believed,
especially on the short term, to stop the decline in motivation and self-
regulated learning observed in research among secondary school students.
Since the intervention should relieve the academic problems of the students,
it should lead to increased perceptions of competence, improved interest and
enjoyment of academic tasks among the students. Thus, the development
of task orientation, self-efficacy, and self-regulation of the students were
expected to show stabilization or an increase. The development of the ego
orientations, which have been shown to increase during adolescence, were
expected to show stabilization or decline. The SRSD approach was, however,
not expected to show strong maintenance effects on the long term.
The SRSD and BC combined approach was implemented to, besides
improving the teachers’ ability to teaching self-regulation strategies to
students, create a learning organization that facilitates student problem
solving, teacher professionalization, and organizational collaboration. The BC
component expands the SRSD approach at student level, teacher level, and
organizational level. No explicit differences in students’ motivation or self-
regulated learning were expected on the short term between the conditions,
since the SRSD component was expected to trigger a positive short term effect
in both conditions. On the long term, however, it was expected that the effects
on motivation and self-regulated learning would be maintained in the SRSD
and BC combined condition, in contrast to the SRSD only condition. Thus,
for SRSD and BC combined condition, the development of task orientation,
self-efficacy, and self-regulation of the students were expected to show
stabilization or an increase. The development of the ego orientations, which
has been shown to increase during adolescence, was expected to show
stabilization or decline. All these effects were expected to maintain in the long
term. The surplus value of adding BC to SRSD, therefore, was expected to be
a durable change in the learning environment leading to maintenance of the
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positive effects on the students’ motivation and self-regulated learning.
Method
ParticipantsThe participants were 238 first grade students and their teachers of two schools
of secondary education in two distinct medium sized towns in the north of the
Netherlands. They all attended pre-vocational secondary education. In total,
10 classes were comprised in this study. The distribution boy-girl was 51%
boys, 49% girls.
ProcedureA baseline-pre-post-follow up planned variation design was used, including
two treatment groups. A schematic representation of the research design can
be found in Table 1. Each treatment was implemented at a separate school and
the participants were all the first grade students of the pre-vocational track of
that school. The student outcomes were measured at four time points: a baseline
measurement, a before-implementation pre-test, an after-implementation
post-test, and a one year later follow-up test. Not all participants completed
the tests at every moment, only participants completing the tests at two or
more moments were included in the study. The numbers of participants per
condition per measurement are represented in Table 2.
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Table 1
Design of the study
Time Start 4 5 7 19
Students Baseline test
Pre-test Post-test
Follow-up test
Activity
Teachers Training Classroom Imple-mentation
Coaching Classroom Imple-mentation
Note. Time is in months from the start of the study.
Table 2
Number of participants per measurement
Condition Baseline Pre-test Post-test Follow-up test
Unique Participants*
SRSD 52 81 56 74 116
SRSD and BC 102 105 38 60 122
Note. *Participants that completed the test at at least two measurement moments.
The interventions were implemented between the pre-test and the post-test.
Both interventions were implemented using three two-hour training sessions
and a follow-up session. All training sessions contained a combination of
the trainers giving information and exercises that were performed by the
participants and evaluated group wise. Trainers were the first author assisted
by a colleague. Participation of training sessions was mandatory. This was
in both conditions communicated by the school administrators. Classroom
implementation was left to the participating teachers. During the follow-up
coaching session, the teachers’ change of teacher vision and appraisals of the
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
150
interventions applicability was assessed as a check of implementation fidelity.
SRSD The participants of the SRSD intervention training sessions were the Dutch
and English language teachers of the students participating in the study.
The strategies included in the adapted version of SRSD were all general self-
regulated learning strategies, instead of domain specific writing strategies of
the original SRSD intervention. During the training sessions three subjects
were covered: the theory of self-regulated learning, characteristics of a
procedure for teaching a self-regulation strategy, and the six-phase model
to teaching self-regulation strategies. Problems with self-regulated behavior
were discussed. The participants were asked to devise a strategy for a learning
problem they observed with students. The three main characteristics of a
procedure to teaching self-regulation strategies were: the use of a structured
model and explicit teaching, offering tailor made strategies, and mastery-
based proceeding through the six phase teaching model. The six phases of
the teaching model were: the teacher activating the student's knowledge and
skills that are needed for the strategy, the teacher discussing the strategy
with the student, the teacher modeling the strategy, the student memorizing
the strategy, the student practicing the strategy with assistance of teacher
or peers, and the teacher fading out and the students using the strategies
independently (Harris & Graham, 1996). The follow-up session created the
opportunity for the teachers to ask questions and for the researcher to guard
treatment fidelity. For a complete overview of the SRSD training and coaching
sessions the reader is referred to Appendix A.
SRSD and BC combined The participants of the combined intervention training sessions were all
teachers of the students participating in the study as well as the school
administrators, since the behavioral consultation intervention demanded
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school-wide implementation. The intervention contents were general self-
regulated learning strategies and behavioral consultation aiming at optimizing
student remedial care. During the training sessions five subjects were covered:
the four-phase consultation model, consultation techniques, characteristics of a
procedure for teaching a self-regulation strategy, the six-phase self-regulation
strategies teaching model, and school-wide communication, consultation and
coordination of problem-solving. The four phases of the consultation model
were: problem identification, problem analysis, plan implementation, plan
evaluation. Trained consultation techniques were: interviewing, stimulating
the consultee to define the problem in observable behavior, stimulating the
consultee to selects relevant information to devise a solution, and sharing
expert knowledge (Bergan, 1977), thereby stimulating the teachers to approach
the identification and analysis of the student problem is done more elaborately
and the whole learning environment is taken into consideration. The parts on
characteristics of a procedure for teaching a self-regulation strategy and the six-
phase self-regulation strategies teaching model were comparable to the SRSD
training sessions both in contents and in format. School-wide communication,
consultation and coordination of problem-solving was trained by: reflect on
each other’s behavior so that teacher self-reflection and professionalization
is not left to the teachers’ own responsibility, but facilitated; stimulating
the teachers to consult each other during exercises; and by emphasizing the
role of communication and coordination of behavior towards students. The
follow-up session was held with only the school administrator and dealt
with independent implementation of the SRSD and BC combined approach
in order to work towards ownership by the school. Here the importance
and rationale were emphasized of the components of the approach at an
organizational level, being communication between teachers, vision building,
and coordination of policy on learning problems. Additionally, it created the
opportunity for the researcher to guard treatment fidelity. For a complete
overview of the SRSD and BC combined training and coaching sessions the
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
152
reader is referred to Appendix B.
InstrumentsThe used instruments were self-report questionnaires scored on a 5-point
Likert scale ranging from “totally disagree” to “totally agree”. The questionnaires
were filled in either electronically or paper-pencil, depending on the schools’
facilities. For example items and scale reliabilities, see Appendix C.
Goal Orientations – The students’ goal orientations were measured with
the Goal Orientation Questionnaire (Seegers, Van Putten, & De Brabander,
2002). The task orientation subscale contained of five items and reflected
the students’ enjoyment of new and challenging tasks. The ego-enhancing
orientation subscale contained six items and reflected the students’ enjoyment
of outperforming their classmates. The ego-defeating orientation subscales
contained six items and reflected the students’ fear of showing failure. In
this study, the reliabilities were α=.79 for the task orientation subscale, α=.84
for the ego-enhancing orientation subscale, and α=.87 for the ego-defeating
orientation subscale across the four measurement moments.
Self-Efficacy - The students’ self-efficacy was measured with The
Academic Self-Efficacy scale of Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales
(Midgley et al., 2000). The scale contained six items and reflected the students’
expectations to perform well on their school work. This study, the reliability
of the self-efficacy scale was α=.82 across the four measurement moments.
Self-Regulation - The students’ self-regulation was measured with
The Self-Regulation scale of the MSLQ (Pintrich & de Groot, 1990), expanded
by two items from the Reappraisal factor of the Emotion Regulation
Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003). The self-regulation scale contained six
items after one item was left out after the reliability analysis and reflected
the students’ metacognitive regulation of study tasks. The emotion regulation
items reflected the students’ reappraisal of negative emotions and stress. The
self-regulation scale contained eight items. In this study, the reliability of the
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self-regulation scale was α=.79 across the four measurement moments.
AnalysisMultilevel longitudinal (growth curve) analysis was used to analyze the
data. In order to do justice to the multilevel structure of the data, three levels
were entered into the model. The measurements were entered at level one,
the students at level two, and the classes at level three. Besides being able
to take the level structure of the data into account, multilevel analysis holds
the advantage of being capable of handling missing data. In order to control
for gender differences, gender was entered as a dummy variable, with boys
being assigned the score “0” and girls being assigned the score”1”. The SRSD
condition was taken as the reference group, and The SRSD and BC condition
was entered as a dummy variable in order to compare the developments of
the variables for the two conditions. For each variable, models with linear,
quadratic, and cubic effects were tested in a step-wise manner, and models
with gender were tested against models without gender. The models were
tested against each other using likelihood ratio tests (Snijders & Bosker, 2012).
The models showing the best fit as well as the best approximation of the raw
scores were selected as the best model for the data.
Subsequently, the differences between the growth curves of two
conditions were assessed using Wald’s t-test to test the significance of the
parameters of the models. Next to an alpha of .05, an alpha of .10 was used,
since educational interventions are known to have on average small to
medium effect sizes (.40; Hattie, 2012), and the rather small sample sizes of
the experimental conditions might have hindered the power to detect relevant
effects (Cohen, 1988). Since no clearly defined hypotheses could be formulated
concerning the exact growth curve characteristics of the developments in both
conditions, the tests were performed two-sided.
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
154
Results
Treatment fidelityIn the case of the SRSD-only condition, treatment fidelity was affirmed by
the fact that during the follow-up coaching session the teachers could offer
multiple examples of how they had implemented the intervention and how it
had worked out. The teachers indicated that they had successfully used the
intervention in the classroom, and they called the intervention “useful” and
“applicable”.
In the case of the BC and SRSD combined condition, treatment
fidelity was affirmed by the fact that during the follow-up coaching session
the school administrator showed thorough understanding and ownership of
the approach. The school administrator indicated that the school judged the
approach to be a good framework for group-wise evaluating the students and
solving student problems during group-wise evaluations by the teachers of
student performance, which is in line with the core ideas behind the approach.
The school had developed ownership of the approach as was made clear by
the fact that the school had planned to further develop the approach to fit it
even more into their daily practice.
DescriptivesThe means of the variables at the different measurement moments can be
found in Table 3. The multilevel growth models are represented in Table 4 and
in Figure 1. No significant differences between the conditions were found at
the baseline measurement on any of the variables. A general effect of gender
was found for ego-enhancing orientation and self-efficacy. On both variables
the boys scored higher than the girls. No interaction of gender with time or
with condition was found.
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Table 3
The means of the variables
Variable Condition Baseline Pre-test Post-test Follow-up
M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)
Task OrientationSRSD 3.84 (.58) 3.89 (.72) 3.88 (.74) 3.48 (.64)
SRSD and BC 3.82 (.63) 3.77 (.77) 3.76 (.74) 3.62 (.59)
Ego-EnhancingSRSD 3.16 (.83) 3.02 (1.01) 3.11 (.80) 2.88 (.86)
SRSD and BC 3.11 (.86) 3.04 (.93) 3.06 (1.08) 3.08 (.82)
Ego-DefeatingSRSD 1.94 (.64) 1.92 (.86) 2.22 (1.05) 1.68 (.80)
SRSD and BC 2.04 (.83) 1.93 (.78) 2.04 (.86) 2.18 (.78)
Self-EfficacySRSD 3.88 (.59) 3.80 (.69) 3.78 (.71) 3.73 (.65)
SRSD and BC 3.80 (.77) 3.88 (.75) 3.90 (.71) 3.78 (.59)
Self-RegulationSRSD 3.44 (.80) 3.33 (.65) 3.42 (.77) 2.56 (.71)
SRSD and BC 3.31 (.82) 3.25 (.85) 3.20 (.72) 2.76 (.62)
The SRSD only conditionOn the short term, at the post-test measurement, the students in the SRSD
only condition showed more or less stable developments for the variables
task orientation, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. No significant increase or
decrease was found for these variables in the short term. On ego-defeating
orientation, the students showed a significant increase (p<.05). On ego-
enhancing orientation, the scores in the SRSD only condition show instability
on the short term, with a significant decrease (p<.05) followed by a marginally
significant increase.
On the long term, at the follow-up measurement, the students in the
SRSD only condition showed a decrease in the developments of all of the
variables except for self-efficacy, which remained relatively stable on the long
term. The decrease of the developments was significant for task orientation,
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
156
ego-enhancing orientation, ego-defeating orientation, and self-regulation
(p<.05).
The SRSD and BC combined conditionOn the short term, the students in the SRSD and BC combined condition
showed more or less stable developments for the scores on task orientation,
self-efficacy, and self-regulation comparable to the students in the SRSD only
condition. The development of task orientation displays a small decrease
in the beginning that approaches significance (p<.15). Additionally, the
students showed a rather stable development on ego-enhancing orientation
that significantly deviates from the development observed in the SRSD only
condition (p<.10). On ego-defeating orientation, the students in the SRSD and
BC combined condition show a significant decline on the short term.
On the long term, the students still show relatively stable developments
of task orientation and ego enhancing orientation, in which they significantly
deviate from the decrease in task orientation (p<.05) and ego enhancing
(p<.10) observed for the students in the SRSD condition. For ego-defeating
orientation, the students showed an increase on the long term (p<.05). For
self-efficacy and self-regulation, no differences were found between the two
conditions on the long term, just as on the short term. For self-regulation, the
students in the SRSD and BC combined condition showed a decrease on the
long term that was similar to the decrease in self-regulation observed for the
students in the SRSD only condition. For self-efficacy, the students showed
rather stable scores over time and between the conditions.
Chapter 5
157
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
3,2
3,4
3,6
3,8
4
4,2
0 5 10 15 20
task
ori
enta
tion
time
SRSD
SRSD and BC
2,8
3
3,2
3,4
3,6
3,8
0 5 10 15 20
ego-
enha
ncin
g or
ient
atio
n
time
SRSD
SRSD and BC
1,4
1,6
1,8
2
2,2
2,4
0 5 10 15 20
ego-
defe
atin
g or
ient
atio
n
Time
SRSD
SRSD and BC
3,4
3,6
3,8
4
4,2
4,4
0 5 10 15 20
self
-eff
icac
y
time
SRSD
SRSD and BC
2,4
2,6
2,8
3
3,2
3,4
0 5 10 15 20
self
-reg
ulat
ion
time
SRSD
SRSD and BC
Fig. D.1-5. Graphs of the mean scores of the variables for the different conditions. Time is displayed in months since the start of the intervention. Measurement moments were at the start (pre-test), 3 months (post-test) and 15 months (one-year follow-up).
158
Tabl
e 4
Mul
tilev
el m
odel
s
Task
Ori
enta
tion
Ego
Enha
ncin
gEg
o D
efea
ting
Self
-Effi
cacy
Self
-Reg
ulat
ion
(N=5
68)
(N=5
68)
(N=5
68)
(N=5
66)
(N=5
54)
Coe
ffici
ent
SEC
oeffi
cien
tSE
Coe
ffici
ent
SEC
oeffi
cien
tSE
Coe
ffici
ent
SE
Fixe
d Eff
ects
Inte
rcep
t3.
8363
8**
.084
213.
3927
3**
.132
961.
8161
8**
.131
343.
9070
4**
.088
253.
3150
5**
.114
74
Tim
e.0
1860
.020
54-.0
7206
**.0
4072
.050
91**
.025
05-.0
0483
.005
44.0
1402
.024
56
Tim
e2-.0
0204
**.0
0097
.011
27.0
0835
-.002
89**
.001
22-.0
0283
**.0
0116
Tim
e3-.0
0044
.000
34
SRSD
and
BC
.005
85.1
0644
-.069
90.1
5053
.237
05.1
6612
.050
82.1
0184
-.008
71.1
4531
SRSD
and
BC
*tim
e-.0
4083
.027
63.0
1489
*.0
0905
-.071
87**
.033
10.0
0075
.007
29-.0
1616
.032
56
SRSD
and
BC
*tim
e2.0
0257
**.0
0134
.004
17**
.001
64.0
0129
.001
57
Gen
der
-.357
34**
.096
27-.1
7400
**.0
7579
Not
e. *p
<.10
**p<
.05
Chapter 5
159
Tabl
e 4
(con
tinue
d)
Task
Ori
enta
tion
Ego
Enha
ncin
gEg
o D
efea
ting
Self
-Effi
cacy
Self
-Reg
ulat
ion
Coe
ffici
ent
SEC
oeffi
cien
tSE
Coe
ffici
ent
SEC
oeffi
cien
tSE
Coe
ffici
ent
SE
Rand
om E
ffect
s
Leve
l 3 v
aria
nce
Inte
rcep
t.0
0000
.000
00.0
1650
.017
92.3
008
.022
38.0
0000
.000
00.0
1081
.011
97
Tim
e.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0002
.000
04.0
0000
.000
00
Tim
e2.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00
Tim
e3.0
0000
.000
00
Inte
rcep
t*Ti
me
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
Inte
rcep
t*Ti
me2
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
Inte
rcep
t*Ti
me3
.000
00.0
0000
Tim
e*Ti
me2
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
.000
00.0
0000
Tim
e*Ti
me3
.000
00.0
0000
Tim
e2 *Ti
me3
.000
00.0
0000
Not
e. *p
<.10
**p<
.05
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
160
Discussion
The aim of the study was to explore what the surplus value of adding BC
to SRSD was in terms of short term and long term outcomes in student
motivation and self-regulated learning. Since previous studies had shown a
decline in students’ motivation and self-regulated learning from the start of
secondary education, every development of motivation and self-regulated
learning deviating from a declining trend was considered a positive effect.
The added value of BC was given special attention, since it was expected to
prolong the positive effects that the SRSD intervention would have on the
short term on students’ motivation and self-regulated learning. Previous
research only showed moderate maintenance effects (Graham & Harris, 2003).
By using interventions that did not directly aim at motivating students, and by
implementing a minimal version of the intervention, aiming only at teaching
self-regulation strategies and contrasting it with a maximal version of the
intervention, including large scale changes in the learning environments,
light could be shed on what fosters motivation, both on the short term, and
on the long term.
In terms of importance for education, the observed development of
the interventions on task orientation is really interesting. Both conditions
initially showed more or less stable developments of task orientation. The
interventions have had their effect on task orientation. In the follow-up
measurement moment, after one year, this effect is only observed in the
SRSD and BC combination condition. Apparently, the SRSD condition has
not brought a durable change. Teaching self-regulation strategies to students
and using tailor-made problem solving solutions raises the students’ task
orientation, but only for short time. Internalization of the positive effects
leading to durable task orientation was not observed. By expanding the
SRSD approach with the BC approach, which evokes the teacher to adapt the
environment, professionalize and communicate, the effect on task motivation
Chapter 5
161
has become durable.
The development of both ego-enhancing and ego-defeating
orientation for both conditions is remarkable considering that the observed
trends are the opposite of the expected trends. The developments of the ego-
orientations can, however, be better interpreted from a patterns approach to
goal orientations (Pintrich, 2000b). In this approach, task and ego orientation
are not assumed to be antithetically related, but rather the combination of the
two forms more or less productive patterns. For the SRSD condition, a decline
over time in all orientations was observed, suggesting a trend of a-motivation.
A small effect of the intervention can be spotted at the post-test but in the
follow-up measurement, the results are catastrophic. In the SRSD and BC
combined conditions, a different pattern was observed. Over time, both task
orientation and ego orientation remain relatively stable after the start of the
intervention. This suggests a trend of the students focusing both on task
mastery as well as performance. This has been shown to be the most productive
pattern. These results contribute to the discussion around the relationship
of task orientation and ego orientations, and the positive contribution of
ego orientation to academic performance (Harackiewicz, Barron, Pintrich,
Elliot, & Trash, 2002; Midgley, Kaplan, & Middleton, 2001; Wosnitza & Volet,
2012). It does show, however, that ego orientation does not hinder an incline
in task-orientation per se, in this case not even ego-defeating orientation.
Minnaert (1999) also showed that the combination of high approach and high
avoidance was beneficial for students’ metacognitive activities. This suggests
that ego-orientation is used as a form of self-regulating behavior (Elliot &
Moller, 2003). Interestingly, on the self-regulation variable, no differences
were observed between the developments of the two conditions. For both
conditions, stabilization in the development on the short term was observed,
as well as a decline on the long term. Contrary to expectations, not only no
increase in self-regulations developments was observed for both conditions
on the short term, but also no long term effects were observed for the SRSD
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
162
and BC combined condition. Apparently, there is room for improvement in
the effect on self-regulation.
Besides shedding a light on the development of motivation over
time, this study also reveals valuable information on the way motivation can
be fostered in the classroom. The outcomes of the interventions show that
motivation indeed is related to self-regulation. The results show teaching
strategies that can help students to overcome problems is a first step to
promoting a sense of competence and interest in the task. However, motivation
to remain stable over time needs more. In order to remain motivated the
students need a durable school-wide environment where teaching is tailor-
made and mastery-based and the students can develop a sense of mastery
by interacting with their environment. Not only should the teacher teach this
way, they should think this way and the school should be organized this way.
The school environment can stimulate teachers to be effective in problem
solving, to feel efficacious, and to continuously professionalize themselves, as
well as consult and support each other. This study has shown that especially
this addition of school-wide environmental change is effective to keep the
students motivated over time. This durable change in organization in a school
changes the teacher-student interaction over time and makes the teachers
prepared for all kinds of challenges, whether it is teaching students with
learning problems or motivating all students. However, this is a hard thing to
achieve, especially with demands from the government implicitly demanding
a formalized instead of adaptive approach to every student and a standards-
based of education and testing (Skrtic, 1991). In order to respond to the
external demands and stimulate adaptive and interactive teaching, a school
administration should have a clear vision and aim at creating a learning
organization.
Chapter 5
163
Limitations and future researchSome limitations can be noted of this research. First, no random assignment
was performed of participants to conditions. This limits the generalizability of
the findings (Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002). However, no pre-experimental
differences were encountered between both groups. Besides, by matching
schools with treatments, misfits of schools ecological factors with treatment
factors was minimized (Kennedy, 1978), thereby facilitating implementation.
This is one of the advantages of a planned variation design. Second, limited
number of school per condition and limited number of participants per
condition were used. More schools would have improved internal as well as
external validity of the study. More participants would have allowed more
fine-grained analysis of developmental curves of the variables. For future
research, it would be preferable to include more schools and participants per
condition, and to find a balance between random assignment and ecological
validity. Third, some issues with the measurement of self-efficacy and self-
regulation were noticeable. For self-efficacy, the questionnaire used did not
show any differences between the interventions or over time between the
students. Apparently, the measurement was not formulated specific enough.
The students might not have recognized the questions on self-efficacy as
concerning a snapshot of their current perception of efficacy, as it was intended.
It has been stated that the measurement self-efficacy has to be specific enough
to deliver valid results (Bandura, 2006a). This made it impossible to assess the
moderating role of self-efficacy as described in literature on goal-orientations
and self-regulation. For self-regulation, an influence of time was observed.
However, no differentiation between conditions was observed, suggesting
that the measurement might not have covered the complete concept of self-
regulation. Measurement of abstract variables is an issue with students of
this age and especially the lower educational tracks. Further attention should
be given to the measurement of self-efficacy and self-regulation with this
population.
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
164
Some gender differences were found on ego-enhancing orientation
and self-efficacy. These were general gender effects that did not interact
with the interventions or with time. An explanation offered by literature
is that girls systematically underestimate their ability (Gjesme 1973, 1983;
Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1990). The influence of gender on students’
motivation and self-regulated learning needs further exploration, especially
when interventions combine these variables in their approach. Additionally,
from this research a plea emerges for future research to take the long term
effect of interventions into account, and not only the short term.
This study has shown that students’ motivation and self-regulated
learning can be influenced by changing the approach to learning problems and
the school environment, even on a long term. Future research can investigate
the change of the learning environment into more detail, and test the effects
of the intervention in larger scale experiments. This research contributes
to the development of future research with the finding that an educational
intervention should have its influence on student level, on teacher level, and
on organizational level in order to bring durable improvement in students’
motivation.
Chapter 5
165
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
App
endi
x A
Tabl
e A
.1
Det
aile
d de
scri
ptio
n of
the
SRSD
trai
ning
ses
sion
s
SRSD
Tra
inin
g Se
ssio
n 1:
Sel
f-re
gula
tion
beha
vior
ana
lysi
s
Goa
ls:
- Pro
vidi
ng k
now
ledg
e on
sel
f-reg
ulat
ed le
arni
ng- A
ctiv
atin
g al
read
y pr
esen
t kno
wle
dge
on le
arni
ng p
robl
ems
and
prob
lem
s w
ith s
elf-r
egul
ated
lear
ning
- Stim
ulat
ing
conn
ectio
ns b
etw
een
theo
ry a
nd te
ache
rs’ p
erso
nal k
now
ledg
e an
d ex
peri
ence
s
Exce
rcis
eC
onte
nts
Form
at
Exer
cise
1:
“Wha
t is
self-
regu
latio
n?”
- The
ory
self-
regu
latio
n - E
xam
ples
of s
elf-r
egul
atin
g be
havi
or- H
ow to
teac
h se
lf-re
gula
tion
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - G
roup
dis
cuss
ion
Exer
cise
2:
“The
SRS
D m
odel
”- S
RSD
six
sta
ge m
odel
- S
RSD
key
cha
ract
eris
tics
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n
Exer
cise
3:
“Tal
king
to s
tude
nts
abou
t use
d st
rate
gies
”- I
nter
view
ing
skill
s fo
r int
erac
tion
with
stu
dent
- I
dent
ifica
tion
of n
eede
d in
form
atio
n fo
r ana
lysi
s- S
mal
l gro
up ro
le-p
layi
ng e
xerc
ise
Hom
ewor
k:
“The
Cas
e of
an
indi
vidu
al st
uden
t - p
art 1
.”- A
naly
sis
of s
elf-r
egul
atin
g be
havi
or o
f an
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt u
sing
thre
e ca
tego
ry fo
rm:
desi
red
self-
regu
latio
n (s
trat
egy)
, cur
rent
be
havi
or, h
ow to
teac
h
- Fill
in fo
rm
166
Chapter 5
Tabl
e A
.1 (c
ontin
ued)
SRSD
trai
ning
Ses
sion
2: T
he s
tude
nt
Goa
ls:
- Pro
vidi
ng k
now
ledg
e on
sel
f-reg
ulat
ed le
arni
ng- A
ctiv
atin
g al
read
y pr
esen
t kno
wle
dge
on le
arni
ng p
robl
ems
and
prob
lem
s w
ith s
elf-r
egul
ated
lear
ning
- Stim
ulat
ing
conn
ectio
ns b
etw
een
theo
ry a
nd te
ache
rs’ p
erso
nal k
now
ledg
e an
d ex
peri
ence
s
Exce
rcis
eC
onte
nts
Form
at
Exer
cise
1:
“Wha
t is
self-
regu
latio
n?”
- The
ory
self-
regu
latio
n pr
oced
ure
- Tra
nsla
tion
of a
naly
sis
outc
omes
to p
roce
dure
us
ing
thre
e ch
arac
teri
stic
s: s
truc
ture
, tai
lor-
mad
e,
step
-wis
e.
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - S
mal
l gro
up e
xerc
ise
Exer
cise
2:
“Tea
chin
g a
self-
regu
latio
n st
rate
gy”
- The
ory
teac
hing
a s
elf-r
egul
atio
n st
rate
gy- T
rans
latio
n pr
oced
ure
to te
achi
ng b
ehav
ior
usin
g fo
ur c
ateg
ory
form
: dis
cuss
, mod
el,
mem
oriz
e, p
ract
ice
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - S
mal
l gro
up e
xerc
ise
Hom
ewor
k:“T
he C
ase
of a
n in
divi
dual
stud
ent -
par
t 2.”
- Ela
bora
tion
of in
divi
dual
stu
dent
cas
e pr
oced
ure
usin
g fo
ur c
ateg
ory
form
: dis
cuss
, m
odel
, mem
oriz
e, p
ract
ice
- Con
tem
plat
e te
ache
r rol
e in
the
proc
ess
- Fill
in fo
rm
167
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
Tabl
e A
.1 (c
ontin
ued)
SRSD
trai
ning
Ses
sion
3: T
he te
ache
r
Goa
ls:
- Int
egra
tion
of in
form
atio
n- C
ombi
ning
theo
ry w
ith p
ract
ical
cas
es- C
ontr
ol o
f tea
cher
s’ u
nder
stan
ding
of t
he tr
eatm
ent
Exce
rcis
eC
onte
nts
Form
at
Exer
cise
1:
“Thr
ee c
ases
of s
tude
nts”
- Thr
ee fi
ctio
nal c
ases
of s
tude
nts
are
disc
usse
d- F
our s
teps
: ana
lysi
s, p
roce
dure
, how
to te
ach,
ho
w to
impl
emen
t in
clas
sroo
m te
achi
ng
- Gro
up e
xerc
ise
SRSD
trai
ning
Ses
sion
4: C
oach
ing
Goa
ls:
- Offe
ring
the
teac
hers
an
oppo
rtun
ity to
ask
que
stio
ns- R
eact
ivat
ing
inte
rven
tion
beha
vior
- Gua
rdin
g tr
eatm
ent fi
delit
y
Exce
rcis
eC
onte
nts
Form
at
Exer
cise
: “Q
&A
”- E
xper
ienc
es- S
tren
gths
and
wea
knes
ses
of th
e ap
proa
ch- Q
uest
ions
- Int
erac
tive
grou
p co
nver
satio
n- Q
uest
ions
and
ans
wer
s
168
Chapter 5
App
endi
x B
Tabl
e B.
1
Det
aile
d de
scri
ptio
n of
the
SRSD
and
BC
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng s
essi
ons
SRSD
and
BC
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng S
essi
on 1
: Stu
dent
pro
blem
ana
lysi
s
Goa
ls:
- Pro
vidi
ng k
now
ledg
e on
lear
ning
pro
blem
s, th
e BC
mod
el, c
onsu
ltatio
n te
chni
ques
- Pro
vidi
ng a
vid
eo e
xam
ple
of a
con
sulta
tion
inte
rvie
w- P
ract
icin
g co
nsul
tatio
n an
d co
mm
unic
atio
n te
chni
ques
- Co-
cons
truc
ting
a sh
ared
vis
ion
on le
arni
ng p
robl
ems
and
prob
lem
-sol
ving
Exce
rcis
eC
onte
nts
Form
at
Exer
cise
1:
“Mod
el a
nd v
isio
n”- B
C m
odel
: goa
ls, f
our s
tage
s, m
ain
char
acte
rist
ics
- Int
ervi
ewin
g te
chni
ques
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - V
ideo
mod
elin
g th
e co
nsul
tatio
n in
terv
iew
- Gro
up d
iscu
ssio
n
Exer
cise
2:
“Pro
blem
iden
tifica
tion”
- Fir
st tw
o st
eps
of th
e m
odel
: Pro
blem
id
entifi
catio
n an
d pr
oble
m a
naly
sis
- Ide
ntifi
catio
n m
ism
atch
con
sulte
e an
d cl
ient
- Con
stru
ctio
n of
ideo
grap
hica
l the
ory
of c
lient
pr
oble
m
- Sm
all g
roup
role
-pla
ying
exe
rcis
e
Hom
ewor
k:
“The
Cas
e of
an
indi
vidu
al st
uden
t - p
art 1
.”
- A
naly
sis
of p
robl
em o
f an
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt
usin
g se
ven
cate
gory
form
: pro
blem
des
crip
tion;
go
als
not a
ccom
plis
hed
(bot
h pr
oble
m
iden
tifica
tion)
; tas
k; c
urre
nt ta
sk b
ehav
ior;
inst
ruct
ion;
des
ired
str
ateg
y (a
ll fo
ur p
robl
em
anal
ysis
); m
ism
atch
and
ideo
grap
hica
l the
ory
- Fill
in fo
rm
169
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
Tabl
e B.
1 (c
ontin
ued)
SRSD
and
BC
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng S
essi
on 2
: The
stu
dent
Goa
ls:
-Pro
vidi
ng k
now
ledg
e on
sel
f-reg
ulat
ion
stra
tegi
es-P
rovi
ding
kno
wle
dge
on th
e SR
SD m
odel
of t
each
ing
self-
regu
latio
n st
rate
gies
-Stim
ulat
ing
inte
grat
ion
of th
e SR
SD m
odel
with
teac
hers
’ per
sona
l kno
wle
dge
and
expe
rien
ces
-Co-
cons
truc
ting
a sh
ared
vis
ion
on th
e te
ache
r-st
uden
t rel
atio
nshi
p re
gard
ing
self-
regu
late
d le
arni
ng
Exce
rcis
eC
onte
nts
Form
at
Exer
cise
1:
“Fro
m a
naly
sis
to p
roce
dure
”- T
heor
y se
lf-re
gula
ted
lear
ning
- SRS
D k
ey c
hara
cter
istic
s- T
rans
latio
n of
ana
lysi
s ou
tcom
es to
pro
cedu
re
usin
g th
ree
char
acte
rist
ics:
str
uctu
re, t
ailo
r-m
ade,
st
ep-w
ise.
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - S
mal
l gro
up e
xerc
ise
Exer
cise
2:
“Tea
chin
g a
self-
regu
latio
n st
rate
gy”
- The
ory
teac
hing
a s
elf-r
egul
atio
n st
rate
gy- S
RSD
six
sta
ge m
odel
- T
rans
latio
n pr
oced
ure
to te
achi
ng b
ehav
ior
usin
g fo
ur c
ateg
ory
form
: dis
cuss
, mod
el,
mem
oriz
e, p
ract
ice
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n - S
mal
l gro
up e
xerc
ise
Hom
ewor
k:
“The
Cas
e of
an
indi
vidu
al st
uden
t - p
art 2
.”- E
labo
ratio
n of
indi
vidu
al s
tude
nt c
ase
proc
edur
e us
ing
four
cat
egor
y fo
rm: d
iscu
ss,
mod
el, m
emor
ize,
pra
ctic
e- C
onte
mpl
ate
teac
her r
ole
in th
e pr
oces
s
- Fill
in fo
rm
170
Chapter 5
Tabl
e B.
1 (c
ontin
ued)
SRSD
and
BC
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng S
essi
on 3
: The
who
le c
lass
Goa
ls:
- Int
egra
tion
of in
form
atio
n- C
ombi
ning
theo
ry w
ith p
ract
ical
cas
es- S
timul
atin
g co
nnec
tions
bet
wee
n th
eory
and
teac
hers
’ per
sona
l kno
wle
dge
and
expe
rien
ces
- Con
trol
of t
each
ers’
und
erst
andi
ng o
f the
trea
tmen
t
Exce
rcis
eC
onte
nts
Form
at
Exer
cise
1:
“Cas
e of
a s
tude
nt”
- The
who
le p
roce
ss o
f pro
blem
iden
tifica
tion,
pr
oble
m a
naly
sis,
des
ign
of p
roce
dure
, tea
chin
g th
e st
rate
gy
- Vid
eo- G
roup
dis
cuss
ion
Exer
cise
2:
“Lon
g te
rm &
cla
ss-w
ide”
- Tea
chin
g st
rate
gies
for t
he lo
ng te
rm a
nd c
lass
-w
ide
use
of th
e ap
proa
ch.
- Tra
iner
pro
vidi
ng in
form
atio
n- G
roup
dis
cuss
ion
171
Short and long term effects on motivation and self-regulation
Tabl
e B.
1 (c
ontin
ued)
SRSD
and
BC
com
bine
d tr
aini
ng S
essi
on 4
: Tow
ards
ow
ners
hip
Goa
ls:
- Pr
ovid
ing
know
ledg
e on
and
stim
ulat
ing
orga
niza
tiona
l fa
ctor
s fo
ster
ing
a sc
hool
-wid
e ap
proa
ch t
o pr
oble
m-s
olvi
ng- P
rovi
ding
kno
wle
dge
on a
nd s
timul
atin
g sc
hool
ow
ners
hip
a sc
hool
-wid
e ap
proa
ch to
pro
blem
-sol
ving
- Gua
rdin
g tr
eatm
ent fi
delit
y
Exce
rcis
eC
onte
nts
Form
at
Mee
ting
with
the
scho
ol a
dmin
istr
ator
- Eva
luat
ion
of th
e tr
aini
ng: i
dent
ifica
tion
of
stre
ngth
s of
the
appr
oach
for t
he s
choo
l- I
dent
ifica
tion
of fi
eld
situ
atio
ns in
whi
ch th
e ap
proa
ch c
ould
be
used
and
ela
bora
ted
tow
ards
sc
hool
ow
ners
hip
- Pla
nnin
g fo
r fut
ure
actio
ns
- Mee
ting
of tr
aine
r with
sch
ool a
dmin
istr
ator
172
Chapter 5
Appendix C
Table C.1
The scales used in the study.
Example item No. of Items
Source Original scale Reliability (α)
This Study Scale Reliability (α)
Task Orientation “I like it when I have learned something new at school”
5 Seegers et al. (2002)
.77 .79
Ego Enhancing Orientation
“I enjoy getting a better grade than my classmates.”
6 Seegers et al. (2002)
.81 .84
Ego Defeating Orientation
“During classroom tasks, I am afraid that the other children will notice that I make mistakes”
6 Seegers et al. (2002)
.76 .87
Self-Efficacy “I'm certain I can master the skills taught in class this year.”
6 Midgley et al. (2000)
.78 .82
Self-Regulation “Before I begin studying I think about the things I will need to do to learn.”“When I feel stressed, I just think about something else.”
8 Pintrich and de Groot (1990)Gross and John (2003)
.74 .79
Conclusion and discussion
CHAPTER 6
177
Introduction
In this thesis two main goals were pursued. The first goal was to contribute to
the understanding of motivation and of how to influence motivation. In order
to make it a rigorous attempt, in the second chapter literature was explored
on the environment in which the change in motivation must be achieved, the
educational environment, and in the third chapter literature was reviewed on
interventions aiming at a change in student motivation. The second goal was
to explore approaches to influencing students’ motivation in a specific target
group, being pre-vocational education. Using the findings of the explorations
in the second and the third chapter, two interventions were developed,
implemented, and tested in the fourth and the fifth chapter, one being a
minimal version, and one being a maximal version, in order to identify the
effective components of the interventions. In this final chapter, the findings
of the four studies represented in chapter two to five will be summarized
and transcending conclusions and implications, both for theory and practice,
will be made. Finally, the methodological approach of the studies will be
discussed and the recommendations for future research will be elaborated on.
The general aim of this chapter will be to review to what extent the question
What can be done to stop the decline of students’ motivation during secondary
education? can be answered based on the findings of this research.
Conclusion and discussion
178
Summary of findings
In the first chapter, based on motivational literature, motivation was
concluded to be an abstract and multifaceted and not clear cut concept
involving the interaction of the person, the task, and the environment. A
summary of the theories on motivation shows a dialectic between a form
of motivation regarding the self, and a form of motivation regarding the
task, or in a broader sense, the environment. Multiple micro-theories have
been constructed that explain mechanisms within either of these forms of
motivation. Three major theories on motivation, being the expectancy-value
theory (Eccles et al., 1983), the achievement goal theory (e.g. Nicholls, 1984),
and the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), incorporate both forms
of motivation. These theories do, however, differ in their conceptualizations
of how the specific form of motivation works, how it can be influenced, and
what the relationship with the other form of motivation is. Of the three major
theories, achievement goal theory was concluded to offer the most clues on
how motivation could be translated to classroom behavior. Therefore it was
decided that this theory was most suitable as a framework for measuring
student motivational outcomes in this study. With regard to influencing
motivation and the possible contents of an intervention aiming at a change in
students’ motivation, the major motivational theories did not produce clear-
cut recommendations. Literature on more behavioral or more educational
approaches to finding a balance between the self and the environment, the
two forms of motivation, suggested that the relationship between the self
and the environment could be influenced by 1) control mechanisms and self-
regulation, 2) knowledge construction and democratic interaction, and 3)
environments fostering autonomy or agency. However, the suggestions on
how to influence motivation produced by the theoretical exploration were
judged to be abstract and multiform. Therefore, two goals were formulated
for this thesis: to develop a greater understanding of motivation and of how
Chapter 6
179
to influence motivation, and to explore approaches to influencing students’
motivation in a specific target group, being pre-vocational education. In
order to do so, 1) literature on the educational environment to understand
the influences of the multilevel structure of education would be explored,
2) literature on interventions aiming at a change in motivation would be
reviewed, and 3) the findings of the exploration of motivation, how it can be
influenced, and what the possible influences of the educational environment
on interventions were, would be used to construct, implement, and evaluate
interventions with an aim at changing the motivation of pre-vocational
secondary education students.
In the second chapter, the process of implementation of educational
interventions was explored in a theoretical treatise. Literature on the
implementation of educational interventions was explored. Since several
sources had reported issues of bringing together scientific demands and
demands of the field (e.g. Boekaerts & Minnaert, 2003; De Corte, 2000), the
roles of both the scientific field and the educational field in the implementation
of educational interventions were scrutinized. A synthesis of the rich body of
literature on the goals, demands, and players involved of both fields yielded
some interesting new conclusions that not only shed some light on the origin of
problems of combining scientific demands and field demands, but also brought
forth several practical implications for the construction, implementation, and
evaluation of educational interventions. The most important findings were
that the scientific field has rather strict demands in order to guard the scientific
credibility of the results, and even though the opinion is divided on how to
take the educational field into account, several design solutions can be found
to increase ecological validity. The educational field shows several paradoxes
in goals, beliefs, and demands of the players involved in the implementation
of educational interventions. Furthermore, the players appear to be highly
interdependent. What makes an intervention societally credible is rather
defined by the degree to which it can incorporate all the different demands,
Conclusion and discussion
180
than by some strict rules. Based on these findings, implications were formulated
for both educational researchers and educational field professionals
cooperating in an attempt to implement educational interventions. Scientists
should take the complexity of the educational environment and the pragmatic
methodology into account, include attention for process and ‘hot’ variables in
their approaches, and consider themselves part of an implementation process
and therefore a factor of influence. Field professionals should continuously
reflect on the pitfalls of their pragmatic methodology and try to overcome
the paradoxes characterizing their profession, such as the choice between
pursuing short term solutions or long term educational goals. Both fields
should work together on a shared language, communication, cooperation
and mutual understanding in order to successfully construct, implement, and
evaluate educational interventions that are high on both scientific credibility
and societal credibility. In order to answer to the different demands of both
the scientific field and the educational field in the intervention studies of this
thesis, the search for an approach to influencing students’ motivation would
need to include both a theoretical consideration of motivation, and a practical
consideration of how to influence motivation in a classroom setting.
In the third chapter, the main aim was to explore the concept of
motivation. This was done by reviewing recent studies on the effects of
educational interventions on the motivation of students in the first years of
secondary school. This should unveil information on what can be done to stop
the decrease in students’ motivation and why. By combining a theoretical
with an empirical approach, preliminary conclusions could be drawn on
mechanisms behind effective approaches of enhancing motivation. Especially
since the concept of motivation is rather multifaceted (see chapter one), it was
considered important to thoroughly understand which part of motivation was
effective, in which case, and how it was translated to classroom implementation.
The analysis of the interventions yielded information on what were important
factors in the operationalization of the concept of motivation in a classroom
Chapter 6
181
intervention, what theoretical mechanisms were prevailing in the approach
to enhancing motivation, and which combinations of characteristics could be
considered as effective. Important in the operationalization of motivation in
classroom interventions was to consider 1) the amount of choice or personal
influence was given to the students and 2) the amount of social interaction
that was used in the construction of contents and the instruction of the tasks.
The more socially orientated approaches were prevailing. Three effective
combinations of intervention characteristics were observed: 1) studies showing
a learning approach to motivation by having comparable aim and outcome
regarding the self, and a self-regulation approach with static contents and
standard instruction 2) studies showing a social approach to motivation by
showing socially constructed interventions that elicit positive task perception
outcomes, and 3) studies showing a co-regulation approach to motivation by
combining social instruction, constructed contents, a focus on and outcome
in task perception, but also transfer to academic-self outcomes. Furthermore,
the analysis showed that all of the established theoretical approaches to
motivation were represented in the different studies. All though these results
emphasize the multi-facetted and dialectical nature of motivation, valuable
information was found on what can be done to influence students’ motivation.
In the fourth chapter, the main aim was to evaluate the effects of
two interventions on the development of motivation and self-regulation
over time of students in the first two grades of pre-vocational secondary
education in an empirical study. For motivation, goal orientations were used
as an outcome variable, since they have a strong connection to behavior, self-
perceptions, and self-regulation. Since for each of the two forms of motivation
a different approach to influencing motivation was observed in chapter three,
both the self-regulation focused approach and the social instruction and
constructed contents focused approach were decided to be used to construct
the interventions. The two interventions used were Self-Regulated Strategy
Development (SRSD), aiming at teaching self-regulation strategies to students
Conclusion and discussion
182
comparable to the self-regulation focused interventions observed in chapter
three, and Behavioral Consultation (BC) with SRSD integrated in it, aiming
at teacher problem solving and creating an environment fostering learning
and motivation, comparable to the social instruction and constructed contents
focused interventions observed in chapter three. Both interventions were
implemented at teacher level, in an attempt to achieve durable effects, but
the combined condition was implemented in a way that it would transcend
teacher level and trigger cooperation and problem-solving school-wide. The
results of the multilevel growth curve analysis showed a decline of motivation
and self-regulation over time for the control group. The students in the BC
and SRSD combined condition showed significantly less decline in goal
orientations on the long term compared to the control group. The SRSD only
condition showed no different effects compared to the control group. This
implies that only teaching self-regulation strategies is not sufficient to achieve
a durable change in students’ motivation. Apparently, only triggering local
processes in the students was not enough to influence the motivation of the
students. By combining a school-wide approach to problem-solving, and
teacher communication and collaboration (BC), with teaching self-regulation
strategies (SRSD), students’ motivation could be influenced, and a durable
effect was achieved on the long term development of students’ motivation.
In the fifth chapter, the differences between the two interventions,
both in intervention contents and in effects, were studied in more depth in
an empirical study. Using a planned variation design, the two interventions
were compared as a minimal version of an approach to enhancing students’
motivation, with only SRSD, and a maximal version of an approach to
enhancing students’ motivation, with SRSD combined with BC. It was
argued that BC expanded SRSD in 1) that it approaches the problem of an
individual student by analyzing the whole learning environment, 2) that
it actively stimulates teacher to professionalize, and 3) that it stimulates
cooperation, vision building and support among teachers school-wide. The
Chapter 6
183
effects of the interventions were compared with an emphasis on assessing
the differences between the different conditions on the short and the long
term. On task orientation, no differences were notable on the short term, but
on the long term the combined condition showed significantly less decrease
than the SRSD only condition. Additionally, on ego-enhancing orientation
and ego-defeating orientation, an increase was observed on the long term in
the combined condition, suggesting a patterns approach to goal orientations.
Apparently, the SRSD approach did have some small effects on motivation on
the short term. These effects were however too small to be significant -as was
shown in chapter four- and did not last long enough to become significant.
The combined approach did remain to influence the students’ motivation
over time. This showed that a school-wide environmental change must be
made in order to achieve durable effects.
In the next sections, a synthesis of the findings of the studies will
be discussed and interpreted in relation to their theoretical and practical
significance. Furthermore, some considerations will be made concerning
the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology applied in this thesis,
accompanied by suggestions for future research.
Discussion
Theoretical significanceThe most important theoretical contribution of this thesis is concerning
the understanding of motivation and how it can be influenced. In the first
chapter, it was shown that literature on motivation painted a rather complex
and abstract picture. To work towards further understanding of motivation
elaborate explorations of the literature were done in the second and the third
chapter on studies aiming at a change in student motivation, and studies
reporting on the influence of the educational context on the implementation
Conclusion and discussion
184
of interventions. These explorations yielded some suggestions on the
nature of motivation, how motivation can be influenced, and what should
be taken into account when constructing and implementing educational
interventions. Based on the findings of these explorations, two interventions
were constructed and implemented in the studies in chapter four and five.
Especially the intervention taking all theoretical findings into account was
found to be effective to influence students’ motivation, thereby delivering
empirical proof for the theoretical contributions of this research. In this
paragraph, the theoretical contributions of the research in this thesis and their
implications will be considered into more detail.
Dialectical nature of motivation With regard to the nature of motivation, the exploration of the motivational
theories in chapter one showed a dialectic between a form of motivation
regarding the self, and a form of motivation regarding the task, or in a broader
sense, the environment. Students, in an attempt to cope with environmental
demands, are either motivated to adapt themselves to the environment, or to
adapt the environment to their own demands. This means that motivation is
situated either in the person (Can I adapt myself to the environment?), or in the
characteristics of the task (Is the task in line with my demands?). The exploration
of recent studies reporting on interventions aiming at influencing motivation
in chapter three confirmed that this dialectical and multifaceted nature of
motivation can still be observed in current studies to motivation and the
attempts to influence motivation. The two forms of motivation as well as a
combination of the two forms were all well represented in both the aims as
well as the outcomes of the studies reviewed in chapter three. Furthermore,
the different theoretical approaches to motivation that were identified in the
exploration of motivational literature in chapter one, were also identified in
the review of current intervention studies in chapter three. This led to the
conclusion that indeed the dialectic between a form of motivation regarding
Chapter 6
185
the self and a form of motivation regarding the task could be spotted in
motivational theory as well as in approaches to influencing motivation
until recent day. Furthermore, it also led to the conclusion that the different
theoretical approaches to motivation, including the micro theories, should
be considered to be theoretically sound, since they have yielded abundant
empirical research in the past and still remain to do so in current studies.
The conclusions that motivation has a dialectical nature and that the
different theoretical approaches to motivation are valid, are important for
the understanding of the concept of motivation. However, the question still
remains What can be done to influence students’ motivation?, since the different
theories offer different recommendations on how to deal with the dialectical
and multifaceted nature of motivation, and how to influence students’
motivation. Two ways to deal with the dialectical and multifaceted nature of
motivation can be identified in motivational literature, being to device a large
amount of specific conceptualizations of parts of motivation (the rational-
cognitive approach), or to combine the two forms of motivation in one theory
(the expectancy-value theory, achievement goal theory, self-determination
theory). Some authors have tried to devise general theories that were able
to incorporate the different motivational micro theories, but in general these
attempts resulted in large models linking the different micro-concepts found in
different theories (e.g. Appleton, Christenson, & Furlong, 2008; De Brabander
& Martens, 2012). The three major theories, all though incorporating the two
forms of motivation, give their own conceptualizations of how the specific
form of motivation works, how it can be influenced, and what the relationship
with the other form of motivation is. For example, when considering the
three major theories of motivation (see chapter one), the forms of motivation
can be conceptualized as a perceived value of something (expectancy-value
theory), as an orientation towards a goal (achievement goal theory), or as an
innate form of motivation for competence (self-determination theory). They
can be influenced by cognitive techniques and feedback of the environment
Conclusion and discussion
186
(expectancy-value theory), by creating an environment influencing the person’s
goal structures (achievement goal theory), or by creating an environment
showing involvement, structure, and autonomy support (self-determination
theory). Furthermore, the relationship of motivation regarding the self and
regarding the task are conceptualized differently: the two are either unrelated
to each-other (expectancy-value theory), or on two dimensions making them
able to co-exist and in some instances strengthen each other (achievement
goal theory), or on one dimension and therefore hierarchically related (self-
determination theory). This conceptual pluralism with regard to the nature
of motivation can be considered viable from a theoretical point of view, since
the micro mechanisms can be investigated and understood into detail. From
a more practical point of view, however, it has some major disadvantages.
For example, it makes it hard to formulate applicable advice to, for example,
teachers. Furthermore, a micro theory of motivation will have a hard time
taking the ecological factors into account. Every context or situation would
demand for the use of a different micro-theory.
The dialectical nature of motivation may very well be related to the
dialectical nature of education identified in chapter two. An example of a
dialectical relationship in the educational situation would be the relationship
between teaching contents and the demands from the educational environment
or the students. Environmental demands can be assumed play a role on
every level in the educational situation. Comparable to when implementing
educational interventions, the complex classroom ecology should be taken
into account when considering motivation in education. Ecological factors
are ever present in especially educational research, since educational research
takes place in a complex environment. These factors will be likely to activate
other motivation mechanisms than aimed for in the research, make it hard to
achieve durable results on students’ motivation. This not only emphasizes the
importance of a whole picture approach when constructing, implementing,
and evaluating an approach to changing students’ motivation (societal
Chapter 6
187
credibility), but it also confirms what was already considered in chapter one:
that the clue to influencing motivation should be looked for in the relationship
of the students with the environment (ecological validity).
In this thesis, in order to deal with the dialectical nature of motivation
and the educational situation identified in the first chapter and confirmed in
chapters two and three, an interaction-focused approach to motivation was
adopted in the empirical studies in chapter four and five. This perspective
assumes that students become motivated when they are able to competently
and effectively interact with the tasks or their environment. A situation is
motivating when persons feels both competent in adapting to the task or the
environment, and the task or the environment has enough affordances to be
perceived as interesting, enjoyable, or stimulating. Instead of conceptualizing
motivation as either being competent in dealing with the environment, or
perceiving the environment as interesting or enjoyable, motivation is considered
to be fostered when students can combine the both. This conceptualization of
motivation is not contrasting with the definitions of motivation as given in
the major theories. Even more, the interactional approach, with an organismic
instead of a rational-cognitive view on motivation, comes rather close to the
ideas of the self-determination theory. According to the self-determination
theory, people can be ‘freed’ from environmental constraints when relatedness,
competence and autonomy are fostered. This research indeed has shown the
potential of the self-determination theory as a framework for understanding
motivation, as was already presumed in the introduction.
Influencing students’ motivationThe exploration of the motivational theories showed that the different
motivational theories all offered approaches to influencing motivation.
However, it also revealed that the different theories had difficulties in dealing
with the dialectical nature of motivation and difficulties taking the many
ecological factors into account. The results of the review in chapter three
Conclusion and discussion
188
showed a high occurrence of social approaches to influencing motivation, as
well as approaches assigning a certain amount of influence to the students.
Both socially oriented interventions and interventions giving students a
choice have been implemented in order to enhance students’ motivation. It
should, however, be noted that merely focusing on the social side to learning
does not automatically lead to student motivation. In order to effectively learn
in a social fashion, students need to have skills in for example cooperation and
self-regulation, and the task as well as the instruction needs a clear structure.
This is also in line with the dialectical nature of motivation, as explained in the
previous paragraph. Only focusing on making the characteristics of the task
attractive, by introducing group work, or making the person more competent
in performing tasks, by teaching specific strategies, is not enough to trigger
durable motivation.
Social and choice-oriented approaches to teaching and learning are
already well-known from educational theory. Based on the ideas of Dewey
(1938) and Vygotsky (1978), social and choice-oriented approaches to teaching
and learning have become popular as an alternative for frontal teaching and
rote learning of static contents. However, in Dewey’s theory the main goal
is experience. Social approaches to learning and students’ choice were the
means to bringing about experience. The same can be found in Vygotsky’s
theory, where the social approach and students’ choice are means to achieve
constructed knowledge. Social approaches to learning are supposed to
make the taught materials more framed into contexts in which the materials
will be used, to teach the students social and thinking skills, to educate
the students to be independent individuals, and to motivate them to learn
(Vygotsky, 1978). Rather, the social approaches and students’ choice should
be seen as contributing to “democratic” interaction (Biesta, 2007) of teachers
and students. This democratic interaction in turn contributes to Dewey’s
experience and Vygotsky’s constructed knowledge.
Besides a social and choice-oriented approach, in chapter three also
Chapter 6
189
a learning oriented approach was observed in the reviewed studies. This
approach focused more on self-regulating strategies and aimed at a local effect
on motivation, being regarding the self. This approach was not as widely
represented as the social and choice-oriented approach, but nevertheless also
showed promising results for influencing motivation regarding the self. In
the empirical studies, the approach teaching self-regulation strategies to the
students was not found to produce effects different from the control group.
Apparently the aim of the intervention is too local, and no transfer to other
processes or situations takes place. The SRSD intervention originally was
constructed to intervene on a specific area, being writing. It has been shown
to produce strong effect in that area. However, since motivation is a complex
concept and is related to various other concepts, in line with Campione
(1987), local interventions do not sort an effect, and especially not on the long
term, since that would demand for extensive transfer to other situations and
problems.
Thus, as was already stated in chapter one and confirmed in the
empirical studies in chapter four and five, interventions based on the
rational-cognitive approach to influencing motivation are too specific to bring
about durable change in motivation since they focus on local processes and
processes regarding parts of motivation. In the organismic interaction-focused
approach, these issues are overcome. The interaction-focused approach
focuses on the process instead of on the outcome. Interventions based on the
interaction-focused approach strive towards democratic interaction between
students and teachers or between students and their environment in a more
global sense. This democratic interaction is characterized by student choice
or influence and social knowledge construction. In this approach, the quality
of the interaction is determining for students’ motivation. High quality
interaction stimulates students’ competence in dealing with the tasks and the
environment, by for example offering tailor-made strategies or feedback, and
adapts the environment to the students, by, for example, offering students
Conclusion and discussion
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influence on lesson contents or instruction formats. This should enable
students to achieve experience and construct knowledge, and therefore feel
competent in dealing with the environment.
One advantage of the interaction-focused approach is that it can deal
with the dialectical nature of motivation and the educational field and the
demands from the educational environment, since the approach focusses on
process and quality of interaction. These processes and the interaction can
be adapted to different contexts and situations. This makes the approach
generalizable and ecologically valid, since it can be adapted to different
specific target ecologies, but also societally credible size it can be adapted to
the demands of the particular school. Another advantage of the interaction-
focused approach is that it creates the opportunity to interpret the mechanism
of motivation in everyday behavior instead of new abstract concepts that have
to be related to behavior or tasks. The key to influencing students’ motivation
appears to be in the interaction between the students and the teacher or the
students in the environment, or, in other words, the pedagogical relationship
between student and the teacher or the student and the learning environment.
The interaction can be judged to have high pedagogical quality when it
contributes to democratic influence and knowledge construction. High quality
pedagogical interaction is believed to foster students’ motivation.
To some extent, the interaction-focused approach resembles the ideas
of the self-determination theory, in which motivation is said to be fostered
by giving students a sense of belonging, structure, and autonomy. From this
perspective, it can be concluded that these studies have offered theoretical and
empirical prove for the self-determination theory without actually using self-
determination operationalization or questionnaires. One might even say that
the findings in these studies extent on self-determination theory knowledge,
since knowledge produced on how to translate the self-determination idea of
an environment fostering relatedness, competence, and autonomy to actual
classroom situations, in the form of knowledge construction and teacher-
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student democratic interaction.
The above clearly shows the contribution of a theoretical exploration
to the understanding of motivation and how to influence motivation.
Additionally, it shows that the ultimate test of understanding of motivation is
to be found in the classroom. The exploration of theory was needed to tell the
different theories apart in their working mechanisms and develop a framework
for understanding motivation. Ultimately, however, these theories and this
framework have to be applied in the classroom. Since so many different
ecological situations and influences can be identified in the educational field,
the real understanding of motivation has to be sought in specific classroom
situations. This is why the interventions constructed and implemented in
the fourth and fifth chapter were not so much aimed at directly influencing
students’ motivation, by for example making the tasks more interesting or
the students perceiving themselves as more competent. Rather an indirect
approach was chosen in which the students gained feelings of control over
their academic achievements and the interaction of the teachers with the
students was improved. Neither were the teachers trained in interaction skills,
but rather in an interactive vision on students’ behavior, as well as a tailor-
made approach of learning contents. Additionally, in the approach combining
Self-Regulated Strategy Development with Behavioral Consultation the
interactive vision was implemented school-wide, in order to supply teachers
with additional support. This created the necessary pre-conditions for high
quality teacher-student pedagogical interaction, with the opportunity for
the teachers to incorporate their personal teaching skills and beliefs into the
approach, as well as the situational demands. In the empirical chapters, the
effects of the approach were explored in a target group with specific features
and background, pre-vocational education students. By placing emphasis
on student care in the interaction approach, the specific demands of this
target group were fitted into the approach. Consequently, the theoretical
contribution of this thesis can be found in a general exploration of motivation
Conclusion and discussion
192
and how it can be influenced, combined with a specific exploration of effects
an approach based on the general exploration on students’ motivation in a
specific target group.
Practical significanceIn addition to the theoretical contributions in the previous paragraphs, practical
contributions can be noted of the research. These practical contributions are
the next steps towards the final aim of formulating recommendations on how
to stop the decline in students’ motivation. The theoretical explorations of
motivation and the educational field, and the empirical explorations of the
effects of interventions based on the theoretical findings with a specific target
group, produced practical implications for teacher knowledge and teacher
professionalization. First, this thesis offers practical knowledge to teachers
on what motivation is, and on how to influence motivation. This knowledge
can easily be translated to applicable teacher behavior and is suitable for
implementation in specific target groups and in different educational
situations. Second, teacher professionalization is indispensable for quality
of pedagogical interaction and dealing with classroom challenges. These
practical implications will be considered in the next section.
Teacher knowledge and understanding of motivationTeachers want to know how they can positively influence students’ motivation.
When students’ motivation declines, this affects the teaching situation, and
consequently also students’ performance. In order to be able to influence
students’ motivation, the teachers need knowledge on motivation that they can
understand and translate to classroom behavior. Furthermore, for teachers to
judge knowledge as applicable, it has to be suitable for use in, or adaptive to, a
range of different contexts and educational situations. The research in chapter
four and five of this thesis showed that the approach combining SRSD and BC
described and explored on effects indeed did respond to these two demands.
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193
Therefore, this thesis provides knowledge to be of added value to teachers.
First, the results in the chapters three till five of this thesis show
that something can be done to stop the decline in students’ motivation and
that teachers can play a role in this process. What can be done is formulated
in concrete teaching goals, such as attention for quality teacher-student
interaction, democratic knowledge construction, and mastery-based
learning. In short, motivation is being assumed to be fostered by quality of
pedagogical interaction. Therefore recommendations made by the approach
explored in this thesis aim at achieving or maintaining high quality of
pedagogical interaction. These recommendations are on how teachers can
develop and maintain a dynamic vision on students, assess possible grounds
for remediation of problems, device tailor-made solutions for problems, and
thereby develop a durable culture of interaction and knowledge construction
within the school. This stimulates teachers to create a balance between
conveying and constructing knowledge, to help students develop into human
beings that autonomously can make choices, and to ‘think outside of the
box’ during problem-solving. Additionally, by monitoring and evaluating
the quality of their interaction with students, teachers are able to develop
a more accurate picture of their own teaching and pedagogical quality, as
well as of the students’ academic potential and possible problem areas. This
will stimulate teachers to continuously reflect on their own behavior and
develop their own identity as an educational and pedagogical professional.
Furthermore, when teachers’ attention is focused on problem solving, they
become aware of the positive contributions of individual differentiation and
effective teacher-student interaction. When teachers learn to see every student
as a unique individual in need of an individualized approach, they will be
less likely assess students’ behavior as aversive, and they will probably feel
more efficacious in dealing with differences between and within students. By
focusing on increasing or maintaining high quality of pedagogical interaction
as a way to fostering motivation, the more abstract sides of motivation,
Conclusion and discussion
194
which were discussed in the previous paragraphs concerning the theoretical
significances, are being translated to applied behavior. Not only does it
make certain characteristics of high quality interaction clear and applicable
in the classroom for teacher, it also reminds teachers of the importance and
significance of pedagogical interaction.
So far, only the teachers’ role in achieving high quality of interaction has
been discussed. Interaction, however, demands for at least two ‘actors’. The
approach explored in this thesis has attention for both sides of the interaction.
Students are being taught self-regulation skills and strategies, which allows
them to regulate their own learning and maintain positive perceptions of
their own competence. The goal is that the students eventually will be able to
autonomously and efficaciously interact with the tasks and the demands of the
environment. Self-regulation, as it was operationalized in the implemented
interventions, should be seen as self-management in interaction situations.
This is especially valuable for students in lower educational tracks, since
they are more likely to have negative experiences in their interaction with
the environment. When the students are more able to regulate their own
learning, they will be more able to participate in the interaction, for example
when knowledge is constructed socially or when a teacher tries to assess what
will be the next step in learning on which the teacher can aim the instruction
(Randi & Corno, 2000). Additionally, a good fit between the students’ goals
and strategies has been shown to be beneficial for students’ performance
(Renkema & Van Yperen, 2008), which means that the students need well-
adjusted strategies to translate their motivation to classroom behavior. In the
empirical studies, no effect on the interventions was observed in the students’
self-regulation scores, probably because of the specificity of the questionnaire
used. Some effects which were assumed to be related to self-regulation were
observed in the students’ scores on ego-orientation (see chapter 5). On the
other hand, the results of the empirical studies show, that only focusing on
teaching students self-regulation strategies does not bring about durable
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change in students’ motivation, while the combined approach, focusing
on students, teachers, and school-wide support, does. Additionally, since
interaction involves multiple persons, the responsibility for the quality of the
outcomes is shared. These skills in self-regulated learning, self-management,
and additionally shared responsibility for outcomes are not only important to
improve student motivation, but also can be expected to contribute to student
achievement and a decrease in their tendency to drop-out.
In this thesis, no actual assessment was made of the quality of
interaction of the teachers with the students. There are two reasons for this.
First, making classroom observations was judged to be too time consuming
and beyond the scope of this project. Second, no good instrument for the
assessment of the interaction quality was available. Until recent day, the
question What makes high pedagogical quality? has not been answered to
satisfaction (see also Minnaert, Lutje Spelberg, & Amsing, 2009). Rather,
in this thesis, the responsibility of the judgment of quality is placed by the
teachers. The teachers are stimulated to assess the quality of their interaction
with the students and to continuously try to improve this quality. Therefore,
as a manipulation check, not so much observations of teacher interaction
behavior was assessed on quality of interaction, but the change in the vision
of the teachers on their behavior towards the students, especially the students
demanding special educational care, was assessed. For both intervention
conditions, this change in vision was observed among the participating
teachers, albeit that in the combined condition the change in vision had
evolved into school-wide ownership of the vision.
In addition to offering understandable and applicable advice to
teachers, the approach to fostering motivation explored in this thesis is
suitable for use in different situations and contexts. The interventions do
not aim at motivating students for tasks or making tasks more motivating.
Instead, they aim at achieving or maintaining high quality of pedagogical
interaction. As was shown in chapter three, motivating students for tasks or
Conclusion and discussion
196
making tasks more motivating lacks in generality and durability. This means
that a teacher continuously has to apply motivating practices for new tasks or
situations, and it makes it difficult to achieve an enduring effect. Furthermore,
the approach of motivating students or making tasks more motivating is
in threat of lacking individual differentiation. Due to the complex nature
of motivation, inter- and intra-individual differences are very likely to be
observed in what is effective to motivate students. In addition to choosing
an aim of the interventions that can be adapted to situational or contextual
demands, the recommendations being made by the interventions are also
suitable for adaption or integration. The recommendations are not so much
teaching strategies on how to improve the quality of the interaction. Rather
they are on vision and problem solving, thereby creating a situation fostering
high quality interaction behavior. This was made clear by the fact that the
approach was found to be effective with a specific target population. The aim
of the interventions was achieving or maintaining high quality pedagogical
interaction. With this specific population, the means of achieving high quality
pedagogical interaction was by working towards effective problem solving
and high quality student care. With a different target population, it may well
be that high quality pedagogical interaction is achieved in a different way.
By being able to answer to the specific demands of the target population,
ownership of the interventions could be achieved among the teachers and the
school, and durable effects could be achieved with the students. Additionally,
this contributes to the societal credibility of the approach. The expertise and
experience of the teachers is used in the adaption of the ideas represented in
the approach to the specific teaching situation.
The results in chapter four and five clearly show that in order to
achieve a durable effect on students’ motivation a school-wide approach is
needed. This finding can be attributed to the nature of pedagogical quality
and the multi-leveled structure of education. An approach to achieving
high pedagogical quality cannot be limited to an interaction between
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a teacher and a student on a local level. It has to be implemented school-
wide and demands collaboration, communication, knowledge sharing, and
vision building among teachers and administrators. This was illustrated by
the fact that in the combined condition, the school administrator indicated
that the school saw important implications of the approach for group-wise
evaluations by the teachers of student performance. The approach was judged
to show potential as a guideline for group-wise evaluating the students and
solving student problems. The dynamic vision on students and interactive
vision on problem solving was lifted to the inter-teacher level. Furthermore,
since the educational field has a leveled structure and these levels influence
each-other, an approach to motivation has to be made uniform school-
wide in order to have an effect; otherwise the influences from other levels
will threaten the pedagogical quality and teachers efficacy to effectively
interact with the students (see chapter two). In order to support the teacher
in dealing with challenges concerning student learning and motivation
cooperatively with the students, the school also has to confront challenges
and stimulate teacher professionalization. This once again emphasizes that an
approach to influencing students’ motivation transcends the knowledge on
motivation, and includes learning, problem solving, students’ remedial care,
teacher professionalization, and organizational development (Van den Berg,
Vandenberghe, & Sleegers, 1999). An interdisciplinary approach is needed to
answer to the ecological demands and bring about durable effects.
Teacher professionalizationIn this thesis, a picture is painted of motivation resulting from quality of
pedagogical interaction. As stated in the previous paragraph, the scope of the
interventions goes beyond motivation, and includes topics such as problem
solving, students remedial care, self-regulation, and school-wide vision
building and collaboration. For teachers, in order to maintain high quality
pedagogical interaction, knowledge and skills are necessary. Teachers have to
Conclusion and discussion
198
deal with the challenges they face in the classroom. Especially with the specific
population of pre-vocational secondary education students, many students
have additional needs and target care is requested for them. This thesis
shows the importance of teacher professionalization for student motivation
as well as the added value for teachers themselves. Professionalization
should be defined broadly, covering the many subjects involved in teaching.
Professionalization can contribute to the quality of teaching, the quality of
pedagogical interaction, and therefore has a wide array of positive influences,
ranging from student performance to student motivation, effective problems
solving, and teacher motivation.
As shown in chapter two, teacher professionalization is influenced
by the complex nature and the multi-level structure of the educational field.
Teachers tend to be somewhat skeptical towards educational interventions.
This can partly be attributed to the fact that teachers have been confronted
with abundant reform initiatives and policy change over the last decades.
However, additionally to this, interventions do not always respond to the
immediate demands of applicability and adaptability to different situations
or contexts. Interventions have to appear useful to the teachers, have to be
suitable to their teaching situation and possible to achieve, and have to fit
into their subjective ideas on teaching (Gregoire, 2003). On the other hand,
the teachers should be stimulated to elaborate on the information, integrate
it into their existing knowledge, and reflect on the links between the different
subjects. Their subjective theories on teaching contributes to their ability to
deal with the unpredictability of the environment, and revising these theories
is not always an attractive idea since the theories serve as safe knowledge
to fall back on (Lee & Porter, 1990). However, the teachers need to remain
critical on their subjective theories and be prepared to revise them or add new
information to them when needed.
Additionally, the school on an organizational level can be either
facilitative or detrimental to teacher professionalization and implementation
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of the approach. The school can support the teachers in problem-solving by
supplying consultation, developing a shared vision, and making collaboration
possible. This collective responsibility, support, and ownership can help the
teacher do develop the professionalism and efficacy to overcome paradoxes
that can rise from the complex educational situation, or problems that are
specific to the target ecology (Nevin, Thousand, Paolucci-Whitcomb, &
Villa, 1990). A positive and democratic working atmosphere also stimulates
teachers to, in turn, contribute to the processes in the school (Van Yperen, Van
den Berg, & Willering, 1999), creating the opportunity for both the teachers
and the organization to continuously professionalize. Furthermore, in depth
analysis of differences between the two interventions in chapter five showed
that pedagogical quality goes beyond a local interaction between teacher and
students, and therefore should be encouraged school-wide. The results of
the studies in this thesis have strengthened the viewpoint that school-wide
implementation of the approach to changing motivation produces durable
effects on students’ motivation. On the other hand, as shown in chapter two,
even as local as within a school, paradoxes can rise. When schools on an
organizational level do not cooperate, successful execution of any approach is
likely to be a challenge (Boekaerts & Minnaert, 2003). For example, when school
administrators retract their support for an approach during implementation,
this will diminish the change that teachers will successfully adopt the
approach. The interdependency and the paradoxical nature of the educational
field make that there is a fine line between contribution and interference by
the people involved. Therefore, taking the school organizational level into
account is irrefutable when trying to achieve teacher professionalization
(Nevin et al., 1990).
Methodological considerations and future research Several methodological factors were conducive to the theoretical and practical
Conclusion and discussion
200
contributions of this thesis. Some choices regarding the research design and
methodology were made in order to purchase a combination of high scientific
credibility and high societal credibility, as was recommended in chapter two.
These choices have both advantages and disadvantages. Answering to all of
the demands of scientific credibility and societal credibility can be problematic
due to issues of compatibility of the demands as well as due to practical issues.
In this paragraph, the rationale behind choices regarding the research design
and methodology will be discussed, as well as their consequences.
One strength of this study is that it involves both theoretical
considerations and empirical evaluation in its methodology. Another strength
is that the study can be rated high on ecological validity. The first strength, the
inclusion of both theoretical considerations and empirical evaluation in the
study has its advantages for the internal validity of the study. Multiple data
sources and qualitative and quantitative methods have been used. The fact
that different data sources yielded comparable conclusions and that findings
of previous research were confirmed by findings in this research contributes
to the credibility of the causal relationships between the concepts and the
empirical findings (Krathwohl, 1998) and the trustworthiness (Lincoln &
Guba, 1985) of the findings. Additionally, the combination of theoretical
and empirical sources contributed to the construct validity (Shadish, Cook,
& Campbell, 2002) of the findings regarding the concept of motivation.
The combination of theoretical and empirical sources made it possible to
develop a thorough understanding of motivation, which was needed to
make recommendations for applied classroom behavior. Since motivational
theory still had many unanswered questions, exploratory steps had to be
made from motivational theory to classroom practice. These explorations
lead to an approach that focused on quality of pedagogical interaction
instead of motivational strategies. The advantages are that these exploratory
steps have led to an approach that is able to deal with the dialectical nature
of motivation and is adaptable to the demands of the educational field
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201
demands. Furthermore, it responds to a call made by Minnaert (2013), to not
only investigate the effects for example interventions have on achievement
goals, but also the processes underlying those effects. Based on the results
of this thesis, teacher-student interaction and pedagogical quality can be
concluded to play a role in students’ motivation, and therefore the relations
of these subjects with motivation should be investigated more elaborately
in future research. The former is already studied within the approach of the
self-determination theory (e.g. Maulana, 2012), and the latter with regard
to students’ self-image (e.g. Wentzel, 1997), but neither has produced many
intervention studies yet. For a future research agenda, an explicit focus on
intervention studies aiming at student motivation, student performance, and
teacher motivation, is strongly requested.
Regarding the research design, however, not all of the demands for
internal validity could be met. A higher number of participants per condition
would have improved the power of the test to detect effects of the interventions.
Random assignment of schools to conditions, multiple groups per treatment,
and more extensive manipulation checks would have contributed to the
credibility of the causality of the relationship between treatment and effect and
therefore the internal validity of the findings (Shadish et al., 2002). Practical and
societal issues made these demands very difficult to meet. In the Netherlands,
participation of schools to research is not obligatory. Many schools judge
participation as too cumbersome and time-consuming. This made it hard to
recruit a large amount of participating schools for the research. Assigning
students to conditions within schools was judged to be undesirable, since it
would have increased the threat of contamination between conditions, and
since one of the conditions had to be implemented school-wide. Furthermore,
since the schools had extensive demands regarding the interventions, random
assignment of schools to conditions was impossible. The characteristics
of the conditions had to (to some extent) fit the demands of the schools,
otherwise they would not participate. By matching schools to conditions the
Conclusion and discussion
202
ecological validity of the design was increased, but the internal validity of the
research design was decreased. The weaknesses in the research design were
compensated by methodological choices. Multilevel growth curve analysis
was used to deal with for example the problems of low number of participants
and low statistical power. This procedure is pretty robust to attrition of
participants, and shows trends in addition to significances. Furthermore,
multiple measurement moments were used. The importance of using a
longitudinal approach was illustrated by the results of the empirical studies.
On the short term, no differences were observed between the conditions. On
the long term, the differences were striking. Research without a longitudinal
measurement is in danger of stimulating easy-to-implement local approaches
and teaching-to-the-test. This research shows that besides a local approach,
a generic approach is necessary to achieve durable effects. Future research
should include a longitudinal design, as well as interventions that are broadly
oriented and implemented. Statistical techniques become more advanced,
making longitudinal research and research including multiple components
possible.
Another issue regarding the research design was the external validity
of the design. Since the recruitment of participants was problematic, not all
demands of external validity could be met. By using a large design with
random sampling and multiple groups per treatment, the generalizability of
the findings would be increased (Shadish et al., 2002). These weaknesses in the
research design were to some extent compensated by the use of multiple data
sources and qualitative and quantitative methods. The approach to influencing
students’ motivation was based on general findings of the exploration of
motivation and the educational field, and therefore generally formulated.
The aim of the interventions was to achieve or maintain high quality in
pedagogical interaction, and the way to do that was to stimulate the teacher
to cooperatively construct an approach to classroom problem solving and
student care. A general framework grounded in careful scientific explorations
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203
was formed, and an adapted version was created to respond to the demands
of the target ecology. The generally formulated approach did indeed show
potential to be adapted into effective interventions responding to the specific
demands of the target population, thereby suggesting generalizability of the
approach. Future research is advised, however, to include larger designs
with random selection, and many different participating schools in order to
produce empirical prove of the external validity of the findings
The ecological validity of the findings can, on the other hand, argued
to be high. It was already stated that this is a strength of this study. Qualitative
and quantitative methods were used in order to achieve a thorough
understanding of both motivation and the educational field. This led to a more
ecologically valid approach and the opportunity to oversee the relationships
between abstract concepts and applied behavior. For example, detailed
information on the implementation processes and teaching contents could be
involved in the research when investigating motivation. The approach was
not only high on ecological validity in the sense that it showed potential to be
applied in different contexts and situation, but also the eventual interventions
answered to the features and demands of the target ecology. The proof for both
forms of ecological validity (see chapter two) was delivered by the fact that
the approach was successfully implemented with a specific target population,
and the approach showed effects on this specific target population.
Additionally, ecological validity of the construction and
implementation of the approach has contributed to what in chapter two
was called the societal credibility of the approach. Since the eventual aim
of this thesis was the first step towards an approach that could be credibly
implemented in a classroom ecology, the educational field was subjected
to a thorough analysis. This yielded valuable conclusions on what would
be facilitating in constructing and implementing interventions that would
answer to demands of the classroom environment. This information could be
used in the empirical studies. The implementation at school level, for example,
Conclusion and discussion
204
had positive effects on the degree to which intervention participation of
teachers and school evolved into ownership. The reactions during the follow-
up session in the combined condition showed that the school had developed
ownership on the parts of the approach that they could use to improve
their current proceedings. Thus, the societal credibility of the approach was
increased by first using information on the target ecology in the construction
of the interventions, but second and foremost, by letting the target ecology
construct their own version of the approach. Additional positives for the
educational field were relative short implementation trajectories as well as a
constructivist approach to intervention contents during the training sessions.
However, future research could include further explorations of the target
ecology in the form of classroom observations and elaborate explorations of
teachers’ beliefs. This can be expected to have positive effects on ecological
validity and treatment fidelity.
When considering the scientific and societal credibility of this
research, it must be concluded that regarding scientific credibility a lot of
demands were met, but also several demands could not be met. In order
to produce evidence-based advice on how to stop the decline in students’
motivation, large designs with randomization, multiple conditions, and
many participating schools are needed, and the findings need to be replicated
(Cook & Payne, 2002). It was beyond the scope of this project to subject every
step of this research to strict methodological demands. The research in this
thesis did succeed in performing the needed exploratory steps that could
yield necessary and scientifically valid knowledge to work towards such an
evidence-based approach in the future. Regarding societal credibility, many
steps were set in order to answer to the demands of the educational field. In
this way, this research can be concluded to include many of the steps in the
model of Levin and O’Donnell (1999) as discussed in chapter two. The final
test of the validity of the framework was placed in the field. Future research
on motivation should further work towards a design that is possible to yield
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evidence-based knowledge on approaches to fostering motivation that also
answer to ecological demands.
Final conclusions
This thesis should not be seen as a plea for a new framework or theory of
motivation. The existing motivational theories are theoretically sound based
on empirical evidence and therefore should not be disregarded. This thesis
does, however, argue for an interaction oriented view on motivation, its
components, and the way it is influenced. This is not entirely new, indeed some
of the theory behind it can already be found in White’s 1959 article. Neither is
the link between motivation and pedagogical interaction (see Wentzel, 1997).
However, an exploration of recent interventions on motivation in chapter three
shows that the rational-cognitive approach is still the predominant approach
to changing motivation. By focusing on only a part of motivation, a durable
change for all students is hard to achieve. On the other hand, by only focusing
on interaction, crucial motivational mechanisms become lost out of sight. An
interaction approach, stimulating pedagogical quality and taking knowledge
on motivation into account, should be on the agenda for motivational research
for the future. A tailor-made approach, with pedagogical quality, and school-
wide vision and collaboration, adaptable to specific target populations, should
be the objective for educational professionals.
Conclusion and discussion
206
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Motivatie: hoe de olifant in de klas te temmen? Een studie met als doel meer te begrijpen van motivatie, en de effecten van
interventies te testen op de motivatie van leerlingen in het VMBO-onderwijs.
Nederlandse samenvatting
In deze thesis wordt onderzoek gedaan naar de ontwikkeling van motivatie
van middelbare scholieren, meer specifiek scholieren in het voorbereidend
middelbaar beroeps onderwijs (VMBO). Eerdere studies hebben laten zien
dat de motivatie van scholieren over het algemeen tijdens de middelbare
schoolperiode afneemt, en dat vooral VMBO scholieren een kwetsbare groep
is die vaker problemen heeft met leren en een hoger percentage drop-out
laat optekenen dan andere niveaus. Daarom is besloten onderzoek te doen
naar wat voor aanpak gebruikt kan worden om deze afname in motivatie te
verminderen, en deze aanpak in de vorm van een interventie te toetsen bij
VMBO scholieren. Vooraf is duidelijk dat een multidisciplinaire benadering
van belang is, gezien de multi-level structuur van het onderwijs en de
complexiteit van de onderwijsomgeving. Niet alleen dient onderzoek gedaan
te worden naar het concept motivatie en hoe motivatie beïnvloed kan worden,
ook dient de omgeving waarin de aanpak geïmplementeerd moet worden en
de onderwijspraktijk grondig bestudeerd te worden, en dient de interventie
toegespitst te worden op een specifieke doelgroep, te weten VMBO scholieren.
Allereerst is de literatuur over motivatie en motivatietheorieën verkend om
de huidige stand van zaken in kaart te brengen. Op basis van de literatuur
over motivatie wordt gesteld dat motivatie een abstract concept waar vele
kanten aan zitten en dat (nog) niet duidelijk afgebakend is. Wat wel duidelijk
is, is dat motivatie voortkomt uit een interactie tussen de persoon, de taak en
de omgeving. Een samenvatting van de motivatietheorieën laat een dialectiek
Nederlandse samenvatting
232
zien tussen een vorm van motivatie die betrekking heeft op het zelf en een
vorm van motivatie die betrekking heeft op de taak, of in een bredere zin, de
omgeving. Wetenschappers hebben diverse micro-theorieën geconstrueerd
die elk specifieke mechanismes van één van beide vormen van motivatie
verklaren. Drie grote motivatietheorieën, te weten de expectancy-value theory
(Eccles et al., 1983), de achievement goal theory (zie bijv. Nicholls, 1984) en
de self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), omvatten beide vormen
van motivatie. Er zijn echter nog wel verschillen waar te nemen tussen deze
theorieën in hoe ze stellen dat de twee vormen van motivatie werken, hoe
ze stellen dat ze beïnvloed kunnen worden, en hoe ze stellen dat de twee
vormen van motivatie zich tot elkaar verhouden. Verdere informatie over
het vinden van een balans tussen het zelf en de omgeving (de twee vormen
van motivatie) is te vinden in literatuur over gedragsverandering en over
onderwijs. Deze literatuur schetst drie manieren waarop de relatie tussen het
zelf en de omgeving kan worden beïnvloed, namelijk 1) controle mechanismes
en zelfregulatie, 2) kennis constructie en democratische interactie, en 3)
omgevingen die autonomie of eigen keuze stimuleren. De conclusie na deze
theoretische verkenning van motivatie is dat motivatie een abstract en niet
eenduidig begrip is. Van de drie grote motivatietheorieën geeft achievement
goal theory de meeste aanwijzingen over hoe motivatie naar gedrag van de
leerling in de klas kan worden vertaald. Daarom is besloten dat deze theorie
het meest geschikt is als raamwerk om in deze studie de uitkomsten op het
gebied van motivatie bij de studenten te meten. Wat betreft het beïnvloeden van
motivatie en mogelijke inhoud van een interventie gericht op verandering in
de motivatie van studenten geven de grote motivatie theorieën geen duidelijk
omschreven aanbevelingen. Daarom zijn er twee doelen geformuleerd voor
deze thesis. Het eerste doel is om aanvullende inzichten te ontwikkelen over
hoe motivatie werkt en hoe motivatie beïnvloed kan worden. Het tweede doel
is om bij een specifieke doelgroep, namelijk VMBO-scholieren, de effecten
van benaderingen om motivatie van studenten te beïnvloeden te verkennen.
233
Om deze doelen te bereiken wordt 1) een verkenning gemaakt van literatuur
over de onderwijsomgeving om meer te weten te komen over de invloeden
van de multi-level structuur van het onderwijs, 2) een overzicht gemaakt van
literatuur over onderwijsinterventies gericht verandering in motivatie van
studenten, en 3) de informatie verkregen in deze verkenning en dit overzicht
gebruikt om interventies gericht op verandering van motivatie van VMBO-
scholieren te construeren, implementeren, en te evalueren.
Vervolgens is literatuur over implementatie van onderwijsinterventies
verkend in een theoretische beschouwing. Dit is gedaan om een goed beeld te
ontwikkelen van de omgeving waarin de interventies geïmplementeerd gaan
worden: het onderwijs, en om te verkennen wat factoren zijn die eventueel
een rol kunnen spelen in het implementatieproces. Zowel de rol van de
wetenschappers als die van de onderwijsprofessionals in de implementatie
van onderwijsinterventies is onder de loep genomen, aangezien meerdere
bronnen hebben gemeld dat het combineren van de eisen van de wetenschap
en de eisen van de praktijk een uitdaging is bij de implementatie van
onderwijsinterventies (zie bijv. Boekaerts & Minnaert, 2003; De Corte, 2000).
Een synthese van de omvangrijke literatuur op het gebied van doelen, eisen
en de betrokken spelers van de wetenschap en de praktijk brengt enkele
interessante nieuwe conclusies voort. Deze conclusies werpen niet alleen
een nieuw licht op waar de problemen bij het combineren van de eisen van
de wetenschappers en van de praktijk vandaan komen, maar brengen ook
praktische aanbevelingen met zich mee voor de constructie, implementatie,
en evaluatie van onderwijsinterventies. De belangrijkste bevindingen zijn dat
de wetenschap behoorlijk strenge eisen hanteert om de wetenschappelijke
geloofwaardigheid van de resultaten te bewerkstelligen. Daarnaast zijn er
diverse design oplossingen die de ecologische validiteit verhogen, ondanks
het feit dat niet iedereen het erover eens is in hoeverre er rekening gehouden
met worden met de praktijk situatie in interventieonderzoek. De praktijk
Nederlandse samenvatting
234
vertoont meerdere paradoxen op het gebied van de doelen, overtuigingen,
en eisen van de spelers bij de implementatie van onderwijsinterventies.
Bovendien blijken de betrokkenen in hoge mate onderling afhankelijk. Wat
een interventie geloofwaardig voor de praktijk maakt is vooral de mate
waarin de interventie aan de verschillende eisen van de praktijk en al haar
spelers kan beantwoorden, en niet zo zeer aan strenge regels. Op basis van
deze bevindingen kunnen enkele implicaties geformuleerd worden voor
zowel onderwijs onderzoekers als onderwijs professionals die samenwerken
om onderwijsinterventies te implementeren. Wetenschappers moeten
rekening houden met de complexiteit van de onderwijsomgeving en de
pragmatische methodologie van de onderwijsprofessionals. Ook moeten ze
aandacht hebben voor het proces van implementatie en ‘warme variabelen’.
Tenslotte is het belangrijk dat wetenschappers zichzelf beschouwen als
onderdeel van het implementatieproces en daardoor als tevens een factor
van invloed. Onderwijsprofessionals moeten voortdurend reflecteren op
de valkuilen van hun pragmatische methodologie. Daarnaast moeten ze
proberen om de paradoxen te overbruggen die hun professie karakteriseren,
zoals de keuze tussen het nastreven van korte termijn oplossingen of lange
termijn onderwijsdoelen. De wetenschappers en de praktijk-professionals
moeten samenwerken aan een gemeenschappelijk taal, aan communicatie,
aan samenwerking, en aan wederzijds begrip. Alleen dan zijn ze in staat om
onderwijsinterventies die zowel hoge wetenschappelijke geloofwaardigheid
als hoge geloofwaardigheid voor de praktijk hebben succesvol in elkaar te
zetten, te implementeren, en te evalueren.
Nadat eerst de onderwijsomgeving en de implementatie van interventies is
geanalyseerd, wordt het concept motivatie verder verkend. Vooral aangezien
het concept motivatie vele kanten heeft, is het belangrijk om grondig te
begrijpen welk deel van motivatie effectief was in welk geval, en hoe dat
vertaald is naar implementatie in de klas. Dit is gedaan door recente studies
235
te bespreken die rapporteren over de effecten van onderwijsinterventies op
de motivatie van scholieren in de eerste jaren van de middelbare school.
Bij de analyse van de studies is gekeken naar het doel van de studies,
de karakteristieken van de interventies die gebruikt zijn, de empirische
uitkomsten van de interventies, en in welk motivatie-theoretisch kader de
studie past. De combinatie van theoretische en empirische analyse van de
interventies verschaft informatie over wat belangrijke factoren waren in de
operationalisering van het concept motivatie in een interventie in de klas, over
welke theoretische mechanismes het belangrijkst zijn als je motivatie probeert
te beïnvloeden, en welke combinaties van interventie karakteristieken
beschouwd kunnen worden als effectief. Bij de operationalisering van
motivatie in interventies in de klas bleek het belangrijk te zijn om oog te hebben
voor 1) de mate van keuze of persoonlijke invloed dat aan de studenten was
gegeven, en 2) de mate van sociale interactie die was gebruikt bij de constructie
van inhoud of bij de instructie van de taken. De meer sociaal georiënteerde
aanpakken werden iets vaker gebruikt dan de minder sociaal georiënteerde
aanpakken. Drie effectieve combinaties van interventie karakteristieken
werden waargenomen in de geanalyseerde studies: 1) studies die een
leerbenadering van motivatie hanteren in de vorm van een overeenkomstig
doel en uitkomst betreffende het zelf, en een zelf-gereguleerde aanpak met
statische inhoud en gestandaardiseerde instructie, 2) studies die een sociale
benadering van motivatie hanteren in de vorm van sociaal geconstrueerde
interventies die een positieve perceptie van de taak teweeg brengen, en 3)
studies die een co-regulatie aanpak van motivatie hanteren in de vorm van
een combinatie van sociale instructie, geconstrueerde inhoud, perceptie van
de taak als doel en uitkomst, maar ook met een transfer naar uitkomsten op
het gebied van het academische zelf. Bovendien liet de analyse zien dat alle
gevestigde theoretische benaderingen van motivatie vertegenwoordigd zijn
in de verschillende studies.
Nederlandse samenvatting
236
De verkenning van theoretische literatuur over motivatie, literatuur over
de onderwijsomgeving en implementatie van interventies, en recente
empirische literatuur over onderwijsinterventies gericht op beïnvloeding van
de motivatie van middelbare scholieren levert de volgende conclusies op: 1)
motivatie is een abstract begrip dat verschillende kanten kent, 2) het is bij de
constructie, implementatie en evaluatie van onderwijsinterventies van belang
om rekening te houden met de doelen en eisen van zowel de wetenschap
als de onderwijspraktijk, en het liefst wetenschap en praktijk bij elkaar te
brengen, en 3) de dialectiek tussen motivatie wat betreft het zelf en motivatie
wat betreft de taak wordt ook in recente studies nog waargenomen en alleen
een aanpak die hoge mate van sociale instructie en geconstrueerde inhoud
bevat schept mogelijkheden om deze dialectiek te overstijgen. De informatie
uit deze verkenningen wordt gebruikt bij de constructie, implementatie en
evaluatie van de interventies in dit onderzoek.
Na in literatuurverkenningen nagegaan te zijn wat aandachtspunten zijn
voor interventies gericht op de beïnvloeding van motivatie van de studenten
en de implementatie van die interventies, is vervolgens het belangrijke doel
om in een empirische studie de effecten te evalueren van twee interventies
op de ontwikkeling over tijd van motivatie en zelfregulatie van studenten
in de eerste twee klassen van het VMBO. Voor de motivatiemeting worden
de ‘goal orientations’ gebruikt als uitkomst variabelen, vanwege het feit dat
‘goal orientations’ een sterke connectie met gedrag, zelfbeeld en zelfregulatie
hebben. Aangezien voor elk van de twee vormen van motivatie (betreffende
het zelf en betreffende de taak) een losse aanpak is geobserveerd in de
literatuurstudie van recente interventie-studies, is besloten om zowel een
aanpak die zich richt op zelfregulatie als een aanpak die zich richt op sociale
instructie en geconstrueerde inhoud te gebruiken om de interventies in elkaar
te zetten, in lijn met de gevonden aanpakken in de literatuurstudie. De twee
interventies zijn Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), en Behavioral
237
Consultation (BC) met SRSD erin geïntegreerd. SRSD is gericht op het aanleren
van zelfregulatie strategieën aan de studenten en is vergelijkbaar met de
interventies die zich richten op zelfregulatie geobserveerd in de literatuurstudie
van recente interventie-studies. BC is gericht op probleemoplossing door
de leerkracht en het creëren van een omgeving die leren en motivatie
stimuleert. Deze aanpak is vergelijkbaar met de interventies geobserveerd in
de literatuurstudie van recente interventie-studies die zich richten op sociale
instructie en geconstrueerde inhoud. Beide interventies zijn geïmplementeerd
op het niveau van de leerkracht om duurzame effecten teweeg te brengen.
De gecombineerde conditie (BC en SRSD) is echter zo geïmplementeerd dat
de aanpak het niveau van de leerkracht zou ontstijgen en samenwerking en
probleemoplossing school breed zou initiëren. De resultaten van de multi-
level growth curve analyse laat een afname over tijd zien van motivatie en
zelfregulatie voor de controlegroep. De studenten in de gecombineerde BC en
SRSD conditie laten significant minder afname zien van ‘goal orientations’ op
de lange termijn in vergelijking met de controle groep. De SRSD conditie laat
geen afwijkende ontwikkeling van motivatie en zelfregulatie zien over tijd
in vergelijking met de controle groep. De conclusie is dat alleen het aanleren
van zelfregulatie-strategieën niet genoeg is om langdurige verandering in
motivatie van studenten teweeg te brengen. Kennelijk is het niet voldoende
om alleen maar lokale processen binnen studenten aan te spreken om de
motivatie van de studenten duurzaam te beïnvloeden. Door een schoolbrede
benadering van probleemoplossing, communicatie en samenwerking tussen
leerkrachten (BC) te combineren met het aanleren van zelfregulatie strategieën
(SRSD) wordt de motivatie van de studenten wel beïnvloed en wordt een
duurzaam effect teweeg gebracht op de ontwikkeling van de motivatie van
de studenten.
Aansluitend op de eerste conclusies over de effecten van de twee interventies
worden in een volgende empirische studie de verschillen tussen de twee
Nederlandse samenvatting
238
interventies meer diepgaand bestudeerd, zowel wat betreft de interventie
inhoud als wat betreft de effecten. Hiervoor wordt gebruik gemaakt van een
planned variation design. De enkel SRSD conditie vormt de minimale versie
van een aanpak om de motivatie van studenten te verhogen, en de SRSD
gecombineerd met BC conditie vormt de maximale versie van een aanpak
om de motivatie van studenten te verhogen. Op het gebied van de interventie
inhoud wordt gesteld dat BC een uitbreiding is van SRSD op de volgende
punten: 1) dat de aanpak van een probleem van de individuele student wordt
benaderd door de hele leeromgeving te analyseren, 2) dat het leerkrachten
actief stimuleert om te professionaliseren, en 3) dat het schoolbreed
samenwerking, visie ontwikkeling en ondersteuning van leerkrachten
stimuleert. De verschillende tussen de ontwikkelingen van motivatie en
zelfregulatie tussen de twee condities worden op de korte termijn en de lange
termijn vergeleken om de verschillen tussen de effecten van de minimale en
de maximale versie van de aanpak vast te stellen. In ‘task orientation’ worden
geen verschillen waargenomen op de korte termijn, maar op de lange termijn
laat de gecombineerde SRSD en BC conditie significant minder afname
zien dan de enkel SRSD conditie. In zowel de ‘ego-enhancing orientation’
als de ‘ego-defeating orientation’ wordt op de lange termijn een toename
geobserveerd bij de gecombineerde conditie, hetgeen een patroon benadering
van ‘goal orientations’ suggereert. De enkel SRSD benadering zorgt voor
enkele kleine effecten op de korte termijn, maar deze effecten zijn te klein
om significant te zijn en houden niet lang vol. De gecombineerde aanpak laat
blijvende effecten zien op de motivatie van de studenten. Dit laat zien dat
een schoolbrede verandering in de leeromgeving moet worden gemaakt om
duurzame effecten te bewerkstelligen op de motivatie van de studenten.
In de conclusie en discussie van de thesis wordt tenslotte teruggegrepen op
de allereerste onderzoeksvraag: Wat kan er gedaan worden om de afname
in motivatie van VMBO scholieren te verminderen?, worden de theoretische
239
significantie en de praktische significantie van het onderzoek aangegeven,
wordt de methodologie besproken, en worden implicaties voor toekomstig
onderzoek gegeven. Op theoretisch gebied draagt de thesis bij aan kennis
over motivatie en hoe motivatie beïnvloed kan worden. Zowel op theoretisch
als op empirisch gebied is er aanvullend bewijs geleverd voor het feit dat
motivatie dialectisch van aard is. Door motivatie vanuit een dialectisch
perspectief te benaderen kan zowel het zelf als de taak of omgeving een
rol krijgen in de beïnvloeding van de ontwikkeling van motivatie, of in de
oplossing van motivatieproblemen, in plaats van dat slechts één van de twee
een rol krijgt. Ook laat het onderzoek in deze thesis zien dat het invloed heeft
op de motivatie van de student wanneer in interactie de student invloed kan
hebben op de taak of de omgeving door middel van sociale kennisconstructie
en keuze. Vanuit een interactieperspectief kan omgegaan worden met de
dialectische aard van motivatie. Deze bevindingen hebben ook waarde op
praktisch gebied. De bevindingen over hoe motivatie beïnvloed kan worden
zijn waardevolle informatie voor leerkrachten, aangezien de theoretische
ideeën goed vertaalbaar zijn naar gedrag in de klas en concrete doelen voor de
leerkrachten, en de ideeën toepasbaar zijn in verschillende situaties. Niet alleen
laten de studies zien dat hoge kwaliteit van pedagogische interactie bijdraagt
tot motivatie van leerlingen, ook laten ze zien hoe leerkrachten pedagogische
interactie hoog van kwaliteit kunnen maken. Aangezien de leerkrachten wel
voortdurend de kwaliteit van de interactie moeten blijven monitoren, en hun
interactie moeten blijven aanpassen aan voortdurend wijzigende situaties, is
professionalisering van leerkrachten, het liefst schoolbreed georganiseerd en
ondersteund, onmisbaar.
Wat betreft de toegepaste methodologie wordt geconcludeerd dat de
combinatie van theoretisch en empirisch onderzoek, het gebruik van meerdere
databronnen en verschillende methodologieën bijdraagt aan conclusies
op het gebied van kennis over motivatie en de interne validiteit van de
conclusies. Enkele kenmerken van het empirische onderzoeksdesign zorgen
Nederlandse samenvatting
240
echter voor wat tekortkomingen op het gebied zowel de interne validiteit als
externe validiteit. Tot op zeker hoogte worden deze ondervangen door de
analysetechnieken. Het feit dat een algemeen theoretisch model kan worden
toegepast voor implementatie bij een doelgroep met zeer specifieke kenmerken
en dat de aanpak op basis van dit model vervolgens effectief blijkt te zijn bij
deze doelgroep maakt dat deze studie op het gebied van ecologische validiteit
sterk is. Dit heeft niet alleen positieve effecten voor de constructvaliditeit van
de theoretische ideeën, maar ook voor de geloofwaardigheid van de aanpak
en de bevindingen voor de praktijk.
241
Dankwoord
Tijdens het doen van mijn onderzoek en het werken aan mijn proefschrift heb ik
samengewerkt met en ben ik gesteund door verschillende mensen. Graag wil
ik iedereen bedanken die een bijdrage heeft geleverd aan de totstandkoming
van mijn proefschrift. Enkelen wil ik in het bijzonder noemen.
Allereerst Alexander en Marie-Christine, mijn promotor en co-promotor:
Jullie deelden met mij de kennis die nodig was voor het verrichten van
wetenschappelijk onderzoek op hoog niveau. Daarnaast hebben jullie mij de
vrijheid en het vertrouwen gegeven om (delen van) het onderzoek op mijn
manier te doen. Ik heb erg genoten van de inhoudelijke discussies. Dikwijls
ging ik een gesprek in met een bepaald idee waar nog wat haken en ogen aan
zaten, en wisten we het idee in een goed gesprek in een vorm te gieten die ik
in ieder geval vooraf niet had zien aankomen. Kennisconstructie in optima
forma!
Graag wil ik de leden van de leescommissie, de hooggeleerde heren
Martens, Vermunt en Van Yperen, bedanken voor het beoordelen van mijn
proefschrift. Ik zie er naar uit om met u van gedachten te wisselen tijdens mijn
verdediging.
Ik wil de vele mensen die ik heb ontmoet en mee heb samengewerkt
tijdens mijn promotie graag bedanken. Met mijn collega’s van de sectie Leer- en
Onderwijsproblemen heb ik vele vergaderuren gedeeld (dikwijls interessant
en zo nu en dan vol vuur), vaak samengewerkt (een goed programma voor
de terugkomdagen), en leuke informele momenten beleefd (o.a. Brussel).
Anke: bedankt voor de gezelligheid en de interesse vanaf de eerste dag. Els:
bedankt voor de ervaring die je met me gedeeld hebt in het werk, maar ook
de gezelligheid en menselijkheid naast het werk. Jorith: de terugkomdagen
samen waren erg leuk. Ernst: bedankt voor de levendige discussies. Marieke:
bedankt voor je hulp bij mijn onderzoek en tijdens de trainingen op de scholen.
Dankwoord
242
Ook de jonge collega’s van het AiO-huis en later de Bladergroenvleugel wil ik
graag bedanken voor de steun en de gezelligheid. Tim: dank je voor je morele
leiding en vriendschap. Ook Susan, de laatste student die ik begeleid heb:
bedankt voor de interessante overlegmomenten.
Ik wil mijn collega’s uit Amsterdam bedanken: Thea, Ineke, Lisette en
Jaap. Niet alleen hebben we interessante inhoudelijke discussies gehad, maar
ook was het elke keer erg gezellig (soms tot laat) bij onze overlegmomenten
en op de congressen. I want to thank Stuart Karabenick for his advice on my
research and my thesis, especially concerning the second chapter.
Additionally, I want to thank my friends from the 2010 ICM Porto
Summerschool and the other international colleagues I have met at the
different ICM and EARLI conferences. I am glad that I have met all of you,
especially the Summerschool friends. Talking to you has been really inspiring
and a lot of fun. I hope we will stay in touch and meet many more times.
Graag wil ik de verschillende scholen die hebben meegewerkt aan
mijn onderzoek bedanken. Hartelijk dank aan de afdelingscoördinatoren
die de trainingen en de dataverzamelingen mogelijk hebben gemaakt, aan
de leerkrachten die hebben deelgenomen aan mijn interventies, en aan de
leerlingen die mijn vragenlijsten hebben ingevuld.
Ik ben erg blij dat mijn nichten Myra en Lotte de opmaak van mijn
thesis en een illustratie voor de voorkant hebben verzorgd. De thesis ziet er
schitterend uit!
Mijn goede vrienden Roderick en Dries: Ik wil jullie bedanken voor
de steun de afgelopen jaren. Bedankt voor de momenten dat jullie zeiden
“neem gewoon nog een biertje” als ik wel wat ontspanning kon gebruiken,
maar ook bedankt voor de momenten dat jullie begrip hadden als ik aangaf
dat ik nu geen tijd had. Ps: vanaf nu heb ik tijd, dus maar een biertje en niet te
weinig Led Zeppelin?
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Dankwoord
Mijn familie heeft me enorm gesteund tijdens mijn promotietraject. Papa en
mama: Jullie waren er altijd voor me en hebben feilloos aangevoeld wat ik
nodig had. Mijn broer en zus Hugo en Laura: bedankt voor jullie voortdurende
interesse. Mijn lieve oma: Dat u elke keer tegen me zegt hoe trots u op me bent
maakt mij op mijn beurt zó trots. Carin, Carlijn en Willemijn: ook jullie hebben
voortdurend interesse getoond. Dank daarvoor.
Bijzonder dankbaar ben ik mijn paranimf, kamergenoot en collega van
het eerste uur Kim. We hebben zo veel samengewerkt, zo veel inhoudelijke
gesprekken gehad, zo veel samen uitgezocht. Ik heb veel bewondering voor je
kennis en de manier waarop jij jouw project hebt uitgevoerd. Doordat je vaak
anders dacht dan ik heb je mij dikwijls een andere kant van de zaak kunnen
laten zien. Ik kijk met heel veel plezier terug op onze samenwerking.
Een persoon zou eigenlijk een eigen dankwoord verdienen in dit proefschrift.
Dit is mijn lieve vriendin, collega en paranimf Marlous. Lieve Marlous,
zonder jou was dit proefschrift er simpelweg niet gekomen (en je weet wat
het betekent als ik zoiets zeg). Je hebt meegewerkt aan een hoofdstuk, mij
mentaal gesteund tijdens moeilijkere periodes, als klankbord gefungeerd en
in de laatste maanden mij het leven zo gemakkelijk gemaakt dat ik hard kon
werken aan de afronding. Ik weet dat dit niet altijd makkelijk is geweest, zeker
aangezien je ook nog je eigen proefschrift had om mee bezig te zijn, en ik kan
dan ook niets dan bewondering voor jou hebben. Heel erg bedankt voor alles,
en op de komende (hopelijk wat rustigere) jaren: Proost!
244
Curriculum Vitae
Arnout Prince is op 28 april 1982 geboren te Groningen.
Hij bezoekt het Praedinius Gymnasium in Groningen en geeft al op jonge
leeftijd hockeytraining aan verschillende leeftijdsgroepen. Vervolgens
gaat hij Psychologie studeren aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Tijdens
zijn studie volgt hij vooral vakken Sociale Psychologie, hetgeen hij ook als
afstudeerrichting kiest. Daarnaast volgt hij ook vakken Sport
Psychologie, Ontwikkelings Psychologie, Onderwijs Psychologie en
Bewegingswetenschappen. Na afronding van zijn studie in 2007 werkt
Arnout gedurende twee jaar als fulltime professioneel hockeytrainer en
-coach, om vervolgens in 2009 aan de slag te gaan als promovendus aan de
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, afdeling Orthopedagogiek. Dit resulteert in het
proefschrift dat momenteel voor u ligt.
Curriculum Vitae