Developing a Sense of Academic Ownership : a Longitudinal Analysis

Student responsibility has emerged as a key developmental task, particularly during the transition to middle school. A developmental and motivational perspective was taken for the present study that emphasized agency, ownership, and engagement as key parts of the development of student responsibility. Self-determination Theory (SDT) was selected as the overarching framework for the present investigation due to the theory\u27s emphasis on autonomy, which refers to the experience of oneself as the authentic origin of one\u27s own actions (Deci & Ryan, 1985). In SDT, the construct of autonomy is used to integrate views of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and to differentiate multiple kinds of extrinsic motivation. Forms of extrinsic motivation, called external, introjected, identified, and integrated, can be arrayed from less to more self-determined. In this way, it is possible to conceive of a source of autonomous motivation for tasks that are not intrinsically enjoyable. Data from 1370 students collected from a larger cohort sequential longitudinal study were used to track student trajectories of four autonomy types: intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external during late elementary school and over the transition to middle school. Motivational antecedents to the development of a sense of autonomy in school, including student perceptions of competence and relatedness and perceptions of teacher support, and the outcome of engagement were investigated. Results indicated that on average, perceptions of autonomy declined from elementary to middle school, with different growth patterns for each autonomy type. A correlational simplex pattern (Deci & Ryan, 1985) among autonomy types was found, but evidence suggested shifts in the pattern with student grade level. In turning to predictors of autonomy types, both perceived competence and relatedness had unique effects on the four autonomy types. Teacher support was also a direct predictor of student perceptions of ownership over the middle school transition. Increases in reported engagement during late elementary school and decreases over the transition to middle school were partially attributed to student perceptions of external, identified, and intrinsic autonomy. Analyses of the moderating effects of grade level and latent growth curve analyses contributed to questions regarding developmental processes among the study constructs

The Adolescent Peer System and Academic Engagement

Peers are central in shaping adolescents’ development across various domains. This research examined patterns of peer system resources and liabilities, and their association with academic adjustment. A person-centred approach, Latent Profile Analysis, was used to classify students into groups based on characteristics of the peer system: friendship quality, group, and general peer relations. Participants were 443 students in their ninth grade year, 14.7 years old on average, and 57% female. Peer system characteristics formed four profiles. The most common profile had high resources and low liabilities; the three other profiles were mixtures of moderate/high resources and low/moderate liabilities. Students with high resources/low liabilities had higher self- and teacher-reported academic engagement and GPA in fall and spring. The three mixed profiles were associated with poorer academic outcomes. These findings underscore the limitations on access to academic success for students negotiating different peer contexts

Motivational processes involved in academic help seeking and help avoidance

During middle childhood, help seeking and avoidance are two ways children deal with academic problems. For this study, the dominant view of help seeking as a strategy of self-regulated learning was elaborated to consider it a way of coping framed within the Self-System Model of Motivational Development. This framework allows for the consideration of (1) the opposite of help seeking (help avoidance) as a motivated way of coping, (2) the central role of teachers, and (3) the operation of multiple self-system processes in shaping students\u27 coping behaviors. Self-report, teacher-report, and school record data from 765 3rd through 61 h grade students and their teachers were analyzed to determine the structure of help seeking and avoidance, the antecedents and consequences of these ways of coping, and developmental differences that may account for age-related changes in coping. Data were available from two time points, the fall and spring of one academic year, allowing for concurrent and change over time analyses