High school students tend to get more motivated over time
Study suggests feeling of belongingness key to improvement

Date:
March 1, 2021
Source:
Ohio State University
Summary:
Parents may fear that if their high school student isn't motivated
to do well in classes, there's nothing that will change that. But
a new study that followed more than 1,600 students over two years
found that students' academic motivation often did change - and
usually for the better. Results showed that increasing students'
sense of 'belongingness' in school was one key way of increasing
academic motivation.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Parents may fear that if their high school student isn't motivated to
do well in classes, there's nothing that will change that.


==========================================================================
But a new study that followed more than 1,600 students over two years
found that students' academic motivation often did change -- and usually
for the better.

Results showed that increasing students' sense of "belongingness" in
school was one key way of increasing academic motivation.

"Our results point to a more hopeful picture for students who start
out with lower levels of motivation -- they tend to shift toward more
adaptive profiles with better motivational characteristics over time,"
said Kui Xie, lead author of the study and professor of educational
studies at The Ohio State University.

The study found that motivation was more complex than often
assumed. Students often hold multiple types of motivation that drive
their academic behavior. For example, some students may be motivated
to do well in school by both their intrinsic love of learning, but also
the desire to get a good job after graduation.

Results placed students into six different profiles, from worst,
which was amotivated -- those who were not motivated at all -- to best, autonomous motivated, meaning the student had an inner desire to learn,
with no outside influence needed.



==========================================================================
The study was published recently in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

The study involved 1,670 students at 11 public high schools in central
and northeastern Ohio who were in grades 9 to 11 when the study began.

The students completed surveys that assessed their motivation in two consecutive school years.

Motivation was measured by asking students how much statements like
these described them: "I go to school because I experience pleasure and satisfaction while learning new things" and "I go to school because I
need at least a high school diploma to find a high-paying job later on."
School belongingness was measured the first year in a survey that asked students how true statements like this were for them: "I feel like a real
part of this school." Of the six motivation profiles, the researchers considered two of them maladaptive, two of them adaptive and two in
the middle.



==========================================================================
The maladaptive profiles characterized students who had no motivation
at all or were only motivated to go to school because they were forced.

"These are the students who are most at risk of dropping out if we can't
find better ways to get them excited about school," said Xie, who heads
Ohio State's Research Laboratory for Digital Learning.

The two most adaptive profiles included students who were entirely
motivated by their love of learning, or who combined love of learning with
some external motivations, such as the desire to get into a good college.

Many students did change their profiles between years one and two of the
study, Xie said. Depending on which profile they started in, between 40%
and 77% changed.

While students changed across all profiles, most often they switched to
one of the adjacent profiles.

There was an overall positive change in students' motivation, results
showed.

For example, 8% of the students were in the most adaptive profile -
- autonomously motivated -- in the first year, and that increased to
11.4% in the second year. The least adaptive profile, the amotivated,
described 2.8% of the students in the first year, dropping to 2.1%
in the second year.

The other good news in the study was that the most adaptive motivational profiles tended to be the most stable as far as membership between years
one and two, according to Xie.

"That means that if we can find better ways to motivate students, if we
can get them in a better profile, they tend to stay there," he said.

Why did students tend to move in a positive direction in terms of
motivation? "One reason may be simply because they're a year older and
more developmentally mature," he said.

But the study did find two other factors that impacted how likely
they were to become more motivated. One, not surprisingly, was prior achievement. Students who had higher grade point averages the first
year were more likely to shift to or remain in profiles characterized
by higher levels of academic motivation in year two of the study.

The other factor was school belongingness, with students who felt they
were more a part of their school in the first year being more likely to
move to or stay in a more adaptive profile in the second year.

"This may be one area where we can help students become more motivated,"
Xie said. "Belongingness is something schools can change. They can find
ways to help students feel like they are part of the school community."
These results confirm those of a similar study by Xie and colleagues,
published last year in the journal Contemporary Educational Psychology,
that found the same six motivational profiles, plus one other, in a
different, much larger sample of students.

Because the previous study involved 10,527 students, it could identify
a rarer profile that wasn't seen in this smaller sample size, he said.

Overall, both studies suggest that schools should routinely assess
students' motivation in order to identify students who are most at risk
for dropping out or underperforming. Then, schools can create personalized intervention programs that target students based on their motivational
profile, he said.

Most importantly, with a routine assessment plan on students' motivation, schools can implement interventions before students disengage or drop
out from academic activities.

"When we design interventions, we should think about gradually shifting students to more adaptive profiles," Xie said.

"We need to tailor the motivation strategies to specific profiles. There
is no one universal strategy that will work for all groups." The study
was supported by the Ohio Department of Education.

Co-authors on the study are Vanessa Vongkulluksn of the University of
Nevada- Las Vegas; Sheng-Lun Cheng of Sam Houston State University;
and Zilu Jiang, a graduate student at Ohio State.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Ohio_State_University. Original
written by Jeff Grabmeier. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Kui Xie, Vanessa W. Vongkulluksn, Sheng-Lun Cheng, Zilu
Jiang. Examining
high-school students' motivation change through a person-centered
approach.. Journal of Educational Psychology, 2021; DOI: 10.1037/
edu0000507 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210301084503.htm

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