Skill and will: the role of motivation and cognition in the learning of college chemistry.

This study investigated how students' level of motivation and use of specific cognitive and self-regulatory strategies changed over time, and how these motivational and cognitive components in turn predicted students' course performance in chemistry. Participants were 458 students enrolled in introductory college chemistry classes. Participants' motivation and strategy use were assessed at three time points over the course of one semester using self-report instruments. Results showed an overall decline in students' motivational levels over time. There was also a decline in students' use of rehearsal and elaboration strategies over time; students' use of organizational and self-regulatory strategies increased over time. These trends, however, were found to vary by students' achievement levels. In terms of the relations of motivation and cognition to achievement, the motivational components of self-efficacy and task value were found to be the best predictors of final course performance even after controlling for prior achievement. Introduction Why do some students excel academically while other students struggle to pass a class? What drives some students to actually learn and appreciate the course material? Why do some students study and others do not? In short, what are the determinants of academic success? Indeed, the question is straightforward. The answer, however, is far from simple. In the domain of science, from the research on science instruction and schooling practices to the research on conceptual change, investigators have proffered numerous explanations to this exact question. While we do not deny the importance of such accounts, it is our contention that such explanations nevertheless ignore one crucial aspect of the learning process; that is, motivation. Accordingly, the primary objective of this paper was to investigate the role of certain motivational components and their relation to students' learning and achievement outcomes in two college chemistry courses. Recently, researchers have taken a primarily social cognitive approach to the study of motivation, with an emphasis on the role of students' beliefs and strategies. Theorists have largely conceptualized motivation as a process, rather than a product. As such, it is believed that motivation can be discerned through students' reports of their beliefs as well as through behaviors such as choice of activities, level and quality of task engagement, persistence, and performance. Figure 1 displays our general model of achievement motivation and learning that forms the basis of this study. This model proposes that certain personal characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, and prior knowledge, along with classroom contextual factors, help to shape how an individual approaches, engages, and responds to an achievement task, which in turn influences students' level of cognitive processing and, ultimately, outcomes such as choice, effort, persistence, and academic achievement. In line with the social cognitive perspective of motivation, this model also assumes that the relationships between the various components are reciprocal and, thus, can mutually influence one another. For example, researchers have demonstrated in numerous studies how one's prior academic successes and failures can influence future levels of engagement and motivation For the purposes of this study, we will focus on only three of the components of the model: motivational processes, cognitive processes, and outcomes. In terms of motivational processes, we are concerned with four motivational components. The first is self-efficacy, which can be defined as students' judgments of their capabilities to perform a task, as well as their beliefs about their agency in the course. Generally, researchers have shown that it is more adaptive to have higher efficacy beliefs. Students who believe that they are capable of adequately completing a task and have more confidence in their ability to do so typically display the highest levels of academic achievement, and also engage in academic behaviors that promote learning The second motivational component is task value beliefs, or students' beliefs about the utility and importance of a course. Again, it is believed that having higher task value beliefs is favorable; typically, researchers have demonstrated positive relations of task value beliefs to deeper levels of cognitive processing and performance Goal orientation represents the third motivational component in our model. Briefly, goal orientation can be defined as individuals' purposes when approaching, engaging in, and responding to achievement situations. Goal theorists commonly identify two primary achievement goals -mastery and performance goals -as being important determinants of students' motivation and performance. Endorsement of a mastery goal, or the goal to develop competence and task mastery, has been found to be positively related to various learning and motivational indices. In contrast, adoption of a performance goal, or the goal to validate one's competence in relation to others, is generally thought to have a negative effect on students' achievement motivation and academic performance The last motivational component is affect. Specifically, in this study we define affect in terms of interest and anxiety. Interest, defined as personal interest in course material or general liking of subject matter, has been linked with deeper cognitive processing as well as higher levels of achievement In terms of cognitive processes, we were mainly concerned with students' selfreported use of specific cognitive and self-regulatory strategies. Strategies can be divided into two main categories: superficial strategies that only require surfacelevel processing, and those strategies that require more deeper processing of course material. Generally, researchers have shown that it is more adaptive to use deeper processing strategies, in terms of long-term retrieval of information Given this model of motivation and cognition, we focused on the following research questions. First, how does motivation change in chemistry over the course of one semester? Second, how does strategy use change in chemistry? Third, how do the motivational and cognitive components predict performance in chemistry? Given previous research on the decline of motivation and engagement over the course of schooling Methods Participants Participants were 458 college students (243 female, 215 male) enrolled in two introductory chemistry courses at a large Midwestern university in the USA. The majority of these students were freshmen or sophomores. In terms of ethnicity, approximately 75% of these students identified themselves as 'Caucasian/White', 9% as 'Asian/Asian-American', 3% as 'African-American', and 1% as 'Hispanic'. Procedure Over the course of the semester, participants were asked to complete three surveys, which were administered at approximately 5 weeks, 10 weeks, and 15 weeks into the semester. All surveys were administered individually to participants during lectures, and took about 15-20 minutes to complete. The first questionnaire consisted primarily of demographic and other background-related questions (e.g. gender, ethnicity, SAT-mathematics score), in addition to items assessing students' self-efficacy and task value beliefs. The second and third questionnaires assessed participants' goal orientations, self-efficacy and task value beliefs, interest, anxiety, as well as their use of various cognitive and selfregulatory strategies. SKILL AND WILL 5 Measures Motivational measures for this study included self-efficacy (seven items regarding perceptions of one's ability to learn the course material; alpha values over three waves = 0.92-0.93), task value (five items concerning the importance and/or utility of the course in general; alpha values over three waves = 0.85-0.88), mastery goal orientation (six items regarding a goal of learning and understanding the course content; alpha values for waves 2 and 3 = 0.84-0.86), performance goal orientation (10 items concerning an approach performance goal of trying to do better than or outperform other students in the course; alpha values for waves 2 and 3 = 0.94), interest (five items concerning personal enjoyment and liking of the course; alpha values for waves 2 and 3 = 0.84-0.85), and anxiety (five items including both emotionality and worry components of anxiety; alpha values for waves 2 and 3 = 0.88). Cognitive measures included rehearsal (five items regarding surface-level processing/memorization of course material; alpha values for waves 2 and 3 = 0.72-0.73), organization (seven items concerning deeper processing of course material through the use of charts, diagrams, and other organizational tables; alpha values for waves 2 and 3 = 0.83-0.85), elaboration (six items concerning deeper processing of content by relating new ideas in course to other preexisting schemas or concepts; alpha values for waves 2 and 3 = 0.76-0.79), and metacognitive self-regulation (10 items regarding the planning, monitoring, and control of one's cognition and understanding of course material; alpha values for waves 2 and 3 = 0.77). With the exception of the interest scale, which was adapted from Elliot and Church's (1997) intrinsic motivation scale, all of the motivational measures were adapted from the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey (PALS) as well as the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The cognitive measures were drawn solely from the MSLQ. Both the PALS and MSLQ are self-report questionnaires that have been have been validated on numerous samples, from elementary school students to college students Finally, students' grades were collected at the end of the semester as a measure of participants' course performance. Students' grades in both courses were calculated based a point system, thus eliminating the need to standardize test scores across the two courses. Students' final course grade was determined by summing their one quiz score, three examination grades, and their final examination grade, for a maximum of 600 points in both courses. In addition, students' SAT-mathematics scores were used as a measure of prior achievement. The examinations consisted of both open-ended and close-ended questions. Open-ended questions included short case studies drawn from pharmaceutical chemistry or materials science that required students to represent their understanding of the chemical phenomenon in multiple ways; for example, through numbers, words, pictures, and graphs. Close-ended questions were typically of multiple-choice format, and emphasized a range of recognition and reasoning skills. Results Research question 1: how does motivation change in chemistry? To answer our first research question, repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVAS) were conducted on all of the motivational measures. the means and standard deviations for self-efficacy, task value, the two goal orientation scales, and the two affect measures. In general, students' levels of motivation decreased over time. More specifically, there was a decline in students' level of self-efficacy (F(2,443) = 15.10, p < 0.001). Task value, too, declined over the course of the semester (F(2, 443) = 91.40, p < 0.001), as did students' endorsement of performance goals (F(1, 440) = 11.662, p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in students' reports of their mastery goals, interest, and anxiety over time. Research question 2: how does strategy use change over time? Table 2 presents the means and standard deviations of students' cognitive strategy use at the two time points. Over the course of the semester, there was a significant decline in students' reported use of rehearsal strategies (F(1,452) = 77.51, p < 0.001) and elaborative strategies (F(1, 451) = 180.77, p < 0.001), while students' use of organizational (F(1, 449) = 251.92, p < 0.001) and metacognitive strategies (F(1,405) = 18.01, p < 0.001) increased from time 2 to time 3

Rising Out of the Gap: Early Adolescent Black Males and Academic Success

This qualitative inquiry examined the lived experiences of 14 high-achieving, eighth-grade, Black males in three inner city middle schools. Anchored in a social constructivist paradigm, this study focused on factors that influence the educational experiences of early adolescent Black males. Participant selection was based on state test scores, GPA, and SES; data were collected by classroom observation and semi-structured interviews. Six themes and twenty-two subthemes related to factors which promote achievement and the meaning of achievement were found. Results show that high achieving students were motivated to excel, in part, by striving to counter negative assumptions about Black males. Participants faced many personal and contextual challenges, but they were able to identify individual and environmental resources that they used to fuel their drive for academic success

Motivational component profiles in university students learning histology: a comparative study between genders and different health science curricula

Background: The students' motivation to learn basic sciences in health science curricula is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of different components of motivation (intrinsic motivation, self-determination, self-efficacy and extrinsic -career and grade-motivation) on learning human histology in health science curricula and their relationship with the final performance of the students in histology. Methods: Glynn Science Motivation Questionnaire II was used to compare students' motivation components to learn histology in 367 first-year male and female undergraduate students enrolled in medical, dentistry and pharmacy degree programs. Results: For intrinsic motivation, career motivation and self-efficacy, the highest values corresponded to medical students, whereas dentistry students showed the highest values for self-determination and grade motivation. Genders differences were found for career motivation in medicine, self-efficacy in dentistry, and intrinsic motivation, self-determination and grade motivation in pharmacy. Career motivation and self-efficacy components correlated with final performance in histology of the students corresponding to the three curricula. Conclusions: Our results show that the overall motivational profile for learning histology differs among medical, dentistry and pharmacy students. This finding is potentially useful to foster their learning process, because if they are metacognitively aware of their motivation they will be better equipped to self-regulate their science-learning behavior in histology. This information could be useful for instructors and education policy makers to enhance curricula not only on the cognitive component of learning but also to integrate students' levels and types of motivation into the processes of planning, delivery and evaluation of medical education.This research was supported by the Unidad de Innovación Docente, University of Granada, Spain through grants UGR11-294 and UGR11-303

Regulating approaches to learning: Testing learning strategy convergences across a year at university

Background. Contemporary models of student learning within higher education are often inclusive of processing and regulation strategies. Considerable research has examined their use over time and their (person-centred) convergence. The longitudinal stability/variability of learning strategy use, however, is poorly understood, but essential to supporting student learning across university experiences. Aims. Develop and test a person-centred longitudinal model of learning strategies across the first-year university experience. Methods. Japanese university students (n = 933) completed surveys (deep and surface approaches to learning; self, external, and lack of regulation) at the beginning and end of their first year. Following invariance and cross-sectional tests, latent profile transition analysis (LPTA) was undertaken. Results. Initial difference testing supported small but significant differences for self-/external regulation. Fit indices supported a four-group model, consistent across both measurement points. These subgroups were labelled Low Quality (low deep approaches and self-regulation), Low Quantity (low strategy use generally), Average (moderate strategy use), and High Quantity (intense use of all strategies) strategies. The stability of these groups ranged from stable to variable: Average (93% stayers), Low Quality (90% stayers), High Quantity (72% stayers), and Low Quantity (40% stayers). The three largest transitions presented joint shifts in processing/regulation strategy preference across the year, from adaptive to maladaptive and vice versa. Conclusions. Person-centred longitudinal findings presented patterns of learning transitions that different students experience during their first year at university. Stability/variability of students’ strategy use was linked to the nature of initial subgroup membership. Findings also indicated strong connections between processing and regulation strategy changes across first-year university experiences. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.Thomas and Mary Ethel Ewing Scholarshi

Culture, self, and goals: An investigation into the motivational processes of bicultural Asian -American and Anglo -American college students.

Recent work on biculturalism has made theoretical and methodological inroads into our understanding of the relation of cultural processes to psychological functioning. Through the use of cultural priming methodologies, investigators have demonstrated that biculturals, or individuals who have experienced and identify with more than one culture, can switch between various cultural frames of reference in response to corresponding social cues. Drawing on this work on the cognitive implications of biculturalism, three studies were conducted to examine how the experimental manipulation of two divergent views of self influenced bicultural Asian American (N = 157) and Anglo American (N = 206) college students' tendencies toward self-enhancement, preferences for personal goals, and their levels of motivation, achievement, and persistence. The first study examined the assumption that independent and interdependent self-construals are associated with the cognitive processes of self-enhancement and self-criticism respectively. The second study investigated how manipulations in self-representations shaped Asian American and Anglo American students' preferences for personal learning goals. Subsequently, the third study examined how these self-representations influenced Asian American and Anglo American students' goal endorsement on an actual learning task and how these goals, in turn, influenced specific motivational and achievement outcomes. Across these three studies, more similarities than differences were found between these two groups of students. For example, Asian American students were found to commit self-enhancing biases at comparable levels to Anglo American students. No ethnic differences were observed in terms of the types of personal goals students pursued; nor were there any mean level differences in students' goal orientations. There were also no significant differences in students' preferences for approach vs. avoidance goals. Finally, no ethnic differences were found in students' levels of motivation and achievement; however, a number of prime effects were found. In particular, students who received an independent self-prime were found to display more self-enhancing biases than those who received an interdependent self-prime. What is more, those students in the independent-self condition were found to report higher levels of interest, self-efficacy, and achievement than those in the interdependent-self condition. Implications for the work on self-representations, achievement goal theory, and acculturation are discussed.Ph.D.EducationEducational psychologyPsychologySocial psychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/123994/2/3106200.pd

Wide-range frequency selectivity in an acoustic sensor fabricated using a microbeam array with non-uniform thickness

In this study, we have demonstrated the fabrication of a microbeam array (MBA) with various thicknesses and investigated the suitability it for an acoustic sensor with wide-range frequency selectivity. For this, an MBA composed of 64 beams, with thicknesses varying from 2.99–142 µm, was fabricated by using single gray-scale lithography and a thick negative photoresist. The vibration of the beams in air was measured using a laser Doppler vibrometer; the resonant frequencies of the beams were measured to be from 11.5 to 290 kHz. Lastly, the frequency range of the MBA with non-uniform thickness was 10.9 times that of the MBA with uniform thickness