Variables that influence motivation

grades for their future academic studies, and of their relative place in the classroom and in the school, that influence their chances of being a valedictorian, or getting any of the other honors as best pupils.

Salili, Chiu, & Hong (2001b) have compared goal orientation, self-efficacy, test anxiety, and effort among culturally different students in three groups: Chinese students in Hong Kong, Canadian students of European origin, and East-Asian Canadian students. Although there is evidence that Chinese students have become more Westernized (Yu & Yang, 1987), family and social groups have still played an important role on the student’s achievement motivation (Salili, 1995). Peers (Chen, Stevenson, Hayward, & Burgess; 1995; Schneider & Lee, 1990) and teachers (Chen et al, 1995) played a special role in supporting academic activities of Asian and Asian-American students. In addition, Chinese parents were found to be influenced by Confucian values; one of the main characteristics of Confucian teaching is the high importance of education (e.g. Chen & Stevenson, 1989; Salili, 1995). It is important to note, that in Chen’s (2001) study of parents’ attitudes and expectations regarding science education similar results were found: Chinese parents placed greater emphasis on self-improvement, set higher standards, and helped their children more than American parents; the attitude of the Chinese-American parents was influenced both by the Chinese heritage and the American environment.

Maehr & Yamaguchi (2001) have found cultural differences between American and Japanese college students regarding motivation. As expected, American students were more intrinsic motivated than Japanese students.

Hines (1974) compared achievement motivation data from four ethnically identical but culturally different groups: English, Australian, New Zealander, and North American individuals selected randomly from business directories and university catalogs. Among managers the English scored the highest, the Australians and the Americans scored about the same, and the New Zealanders scored the lowest.

Among educators Americans scored the highest and the English scored somewhat lower; the New Zealanders – as among managers – scored the lowest. Elizur (1979) compared achievement motivation of Israeli and American managers. He found that the need for achievement motivation was higher among Americans. Thus we can see that motivational orientation is highly culture-dependent.

6.4.2. Age: Decline in the motivation in the transition to middle school

Intrinsic motivation correlates negatively with age (Midgley, 2002; Stipek, 1984, 2001). According to Stipek (1984, 2001), while in kindergarten children experience neither shame nor embarrassment when failing, and as a result they perceive no

performance anxiety and their achievement motivation remains intact in spite of failures. The situation does not change substantially in grade 1, namely, though the learning becomes more structured most children are still intrinsically motivated and only few signs of anxiety are visible. The main difference between kindergarten and grade 1 is in the need of school children to have more contact with the teacher many of them need extra private explanations and instructions. Some adopt failure-avoidance behavior and some – learned helplessness (Covington & Beery, 1976;

Covington & Omelich, 1981; Holt, 1964; Jakson, 1968). Not participating in the classroom activities and being helpless are behaviors typical to avoiding failure;

another such behavior is choosing only easy assignments. The helpless child seeks help without even trying to fulfill the given task on her or his own.

Freedman-Doan, Wigfield, Eccles, Blumenfeld, Arbreton, & Harold (2000) interviewed 865 first-, second, and fourth-grade American children regarding their ability to improve their achievements in academics, sports, music, and arts. The children were optimistic about their ability to perform better by investing more effort in all areas, especially in academics and sports. In fourth grade an increasing number of children started doubting whether putting more effort would enable them to score best in their current worst activity. However, most children sill believed that their abilities could improve so much that they become best in their weakest present area.

This finding is in not completely in accordance with those of Benenson & Dweck (1986), Eccles, et al., (1993), and Wigfield, Eccles, Harold, Blumenfeld, Arberton, Freedman-Doan, & Yoon (1997), who found that during elementary school years children’s beliefs in their abilities became less positive.

A severe problem of motivation decline takes place in the transition from elementary- to middle school in the US (Anderman & Maehr, 1994; Wigfield, Eccles, MacIver, Reuman, & Midgley, 1991). While in elementary school intrinsic motivation is enhanced, in middle school neither teaching methods nor class environment encourage the development of intrinsic motivation as in elementary school. Anderman & Maehr (1994), Anderman, & Midgley (1998), and Eccles &

Midgley (1989) suggested that the transition from elementary to junior high school is characterized by a shift to a more performance-oriented motivation.

Dresel (2000) has indicated, that the motivation problem of school children becomes more and more acute as they grow older. Many other studies have agreed with this finding (e.g. Helmke, 1992; Schober, 2000b). The Israeli educational

system requires a high-level of math knowledge at the end of junior high school in order to be entitled to study high-level high school math. Thus the issue of mathematics motivation should receive a special emphasis among junior high school children, when increasing the motivation level can still make a change, namely, influence the pupil to choose a scientific track that includes high-level mathematics.

Shi, Wang, Wang, Zuo, Liu, Maehr, Mu, Linnebrink, & Hruda (2001) have found negative influence of age on the motivational pattern across the middle school in China. Older students adopted more performance-focuses goals, and used less deep-learning strategies than younger ones.

In summa: Most studies concentrate on the 12-16 age group, which is consisted mainly of junior high school students. However, findings from primary school children, as well as from studies among college students will also be summarized hereby, aimed to get the widest possible picture.

6.4.3. Gender and motivational styles

Many studies have found gender differences regarding the belief about how much children’s abilities can change. In the Freedman-Doan et al. (2000) research of first, second, and fourth graders, children’s ability beliefs for the various activities – academics, sports, arts, and music were culturally stereotyped in all domains. The same results were found both among elementary school children (Eccles, Wigfield, Harold, & Blumenfeld, 1993; Wigfield et al., 1997) and preadolescents to young adults (Marsh, 1989).

In a research done in English high schools among hundreds 7^th, 9^th, and 11^th graders Rogers, Galloway, Armstrong, & Leo (1998) have found that in math and English the motivation level of boys was similar to that of girls.

Miller et al (1996) measured the 5 goals students might have had for doing academic goals – learning goals, performance goals, obtaining future consequences, pleasing the teacher, and pleasing the family. No substantial gender differences have been found.

Patrick, Ryan, & Pintrich (1999) have examined whether gender differences regarding goal orientation existed in a sample of 7^th and 8^th grade American students.

It was found that females were more mastery oriented while males more extrinsically oriented. In addition, females’ extrinsic orientation did not cause a decrease in

self-efficacy and achievement, as was the case with males high in extrinsic motivation. On the other hand, among females mastery orientation found in the beginning of the year predicted an increased self-efficacy at the end of the year. High level of mastery orientation found among males didn’t predict such effects.

Shi et al. (2001) have studied the influence of the Chinese tradition and culture on the goals of both genders. They have found that male students scored higher than female students in 17 scales of the Pattern of Adaptive Learning Survey (PAL) (Midgley, Kaplan, Middleton, Maehr, Urdan, Anderman, Anderman, &

Roeser, 1998; Midgley, Maehr, & Urdan, 1993). Among these scales were:

performance focused at school, the performance-focused in class, self-efficacy, the belief that intelligence can be changed, the feeling of belonging in class, the feeling of belonging at school, the use of deep cognitive strategies, effort-avoidance strategies and self-worth protection strategies. Some of these scales were reversed when the climate of the classroom was more democratic.

.4.4. Ethnicity and motivational styles

Cooper & Tom (1984) have reviewed 43 studies that compared samples belonging to different SES and ethnic groups regarding their need for achievement, taking into account the different ages, genders, the year each study was taking place, and its location. In the comparison between Anglo-Americans and Afro-Americans five of the ten studies revealed that Anglo-Americans had a higher level of achievement motivation, and the results of other three studies were mixed. Of the mixed results in two studies no differences were found, and in the third – the achievement motivation of Afro-Americans was found to be higher. In the other two studies conflicting results were found for two sub-samples.

These results were in accordance with those of Mingione (1968) and Adkins

& Payne (1972). The average time of the 10 studies reviewed in the Cooper & Tom (1984) review was also 1972. The results were highly significant. The exceptions among the studies surveyed, namely, the one that stated a higher achievement motivation level of Afro-Americans and the two that stated no significant differences were all conducted among college students. Thus, it can be assumed that without even taking the SES into consideration, the age and the educational level play a substantial role in the level of achievement motivation of Afro-American students.

A review of nine studies comparing Anglo-Americans with non-Anglo-Americans revealed mixed results. Significant differences regarding achievement motivation were found only in one (Hall, 1972) out of the four comparisons between Anglo-Americans and Mexican Americans; it favored Anglo-Americans. Two studies compared achievement motivation between Anglo-Americans and Native-Americans.

Reboussin and Goldstein (1966) found a stronger need for achievement among first year college Navaho students than among European-American students, and Query, Query, & Singh (1975) found a stronger though non-significant need of achievement among Anglo-Americans than among Sioux and Chipewa Native-Americans.

Mingione (1968) compared the need of achievement in two groups of 5^th and 7^th graders: Anglo-Americans and Americans of Puerto-Rican origin. Anglo-Americans had a higher need of motivation in three out of the four gender*age groups: the exception was 7^th grade Puerto-Rican females who scored higher than Anglo-Americans.

A study that compared Greek-born and United-States born Greek Americans with Anglo-American (Hines, 1973) revealed findings similar to those of studies done among South-Eastern Asians: American-born Greek Americans had a higher need of achievement than Anglo-Americans, but lower than Greek-born Americans.

Rosen (1959) compared six different ethnic groups in six different northern states of the US. The group that scored highest in need of achievement was Greeks, the second – Jews, the third and fourth – Protestants and Italians, and the two last – Canadians and Afro-Americans. The largest difference was between French-Canadians and all others: the reason might lie not only in the different ethnicities but in the SES difference between these two groups and the other four as well.

6.4.5. Socioeconomic Status and motivational styles

A confirmation of the SES hypothesis as the main one influencing achievement need has been found in the Adkins & Payne (1972) study, conducted among 3-6-year-old children from 10 different ethnic groups. The three middle class groups – Mormons, Catholics, and Jews did not differ among themselves.

Tidrick (1971) examined the relation between SES and need of achievement among Jamaican college students. She found a significant positive correlation between these two variables. Gokulnathan & Mehta (1970) found consistent but

non-significant relations between SES indexes – father’s education, occupation, and income – and achievement need of boys and girls from 14 secondary schools in India.

Gruenfeld, Weissenberg, & Loh (1973) studied the relation between SES and the need of achievement among high school Peruvian high school students. They found no differences among seven schools serving children from various socio-economic classes. Rosen (1972) found among Brazilian school children that those with the fathers at the lowest educational and occupational levels outperformed their peers whose fathers were at the top of this ladder. Interestingly, this finding is similar to that found recently among Israeli Arabs: not only that the percentage of examinees in the matriculation examinations belonging to the highest SES is lower than those belonging to a lesser SES, the percentage of those entitled to the matriculation certificate has the same pattern (Statistics, Israel, 2002a, table 13). In the Jewish Israeli population a positive relation between SES and achievement exists in all SE classes, as expected (ibid.).

In summa: Although there seems to be a general tendency towards a positive relation between SES and need for achievement, there are mixed findings which point mainly at the need to refine the future studies by taking into account as many variables as possible in each research.

6.4.6. Ability: Motivation and goals of high ability students

Inkson (1971) found a significant, positive correlation between SES and need of achievement among high ability male English teen-agers. Gokulnathan (1970) examined the relation between SES and need for achievement among Indian youth with high intelligence. He found – among the three indexes examined – that only father’s occupation had a significant relation to need of achievement.

The question whether all students are indeed interested in both goals can be questioned in light of the fact that there are students who do not care about external reinforcement, especially highly talented and gifted students. A high level of internal motivation is in many cases a characteristic of such students, who do not always need to have outer rewards in order to invest as much as possible in learning (e.g. Winner, 1996; Zorman & David, 2000). On the other hand, the problem of lack of motivation among schoolboys has become a central issue in many developed countries since the beginning of the 90ies. As for lack of intrinsic motivation – there are thousands of

studies dealing with this problem, most of them under the assumption that a higher level of intrinsic motivation is a main clue for improving both the process of learning and its results.

In their study Shi, Shi et al (ibid) have examined motivation patterns and goal orientation of gifted 10^th and 11^th grade Chinese students in comparison to their non-gifted peers. They revealed a change among the non-gifted students from grade 10 to grade 11: while in grade 10 the gifted students were more mastery oriented than the regular students, this orientation was declining until in grade 11 it reached the level of the mastery orientation among regular students. The opposite process took place with performance orientation: while among regular students it has increased mildly from grade 10 to 11, among gifted students the increase between these two grades was much more substantial and in grade 11 the level of performance-focused goals was higher among gifted students than among regular ones. In addition, many gifted students believed their intelligence was fixed and could not be improved, and were adopting patterns as effort-avoidance and self-protection strategies. Apparently the motivation change among these gifted students, who were already accepted to the best Chinese universities and thus had much less pressure than regular students, had a good reason. During grade 11 these gifted students were to participate in national competitions, and the tension involved caused the change in their motivation styles.

Thus, it can be concluded that the school context and the special demands of each educational system might have a crucial influence on the developmental of motivational styles; sometimes more than intra-personal or interpersonal motives.

6.4.7. Classroom versus “real-life” and motivational styles

Pintrich, Marx, & Boyle (1993) have argued that motivation research has taken place mostly in a classroom context, where mastery motivation of “real-life” problems was quite limited. They assumed that four of the motivational constructs – goals, values, self-efficacy, and control beliefs – that contribute to a conceptual change, suffer, while examined in a classroom environment, from two main research problems that limit their validity: 1. They rely too much on cognitive components, and not enough on personal – psychological or sociological ones; 2. They cannot be generalized to circumstances, which belong to out-of-class reality.

In addition, Anderman, Austin, & Johnson (2001) have found that there are shifts in students’ goal orientations. Some of these changes are predictable, because

they depend on the changing learning environments and situations. Such changes can be, for example, the transition from elementary school to junior high school (Anderman, & Maehr, 1994; Midgley, Eccles, & Feldlaufer, 1991; Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1989; Pajares, & Graham, 1999; Wigfield, Eccles, MacIver, Reuman, & Midgley, 1991).

In summa: Motivational styles are quite varied, and depend on many psychological, educational, environmental, social, and familial variables. Each such style has an influence both on classroom achievements and participation. In the rest of this chapter I will describe some more of these influencing ingredients.