Why are children off task? What is going on
in classrooms where a majority of children are off task?
In this study we analyzed primary-grade classroom literacy
instruction in which there was considerable off-task behavior.
Using Turner and Paris's fame for understanding student
motivation in the classroom, we analyzed 73 activity settings
where students were off task at least 25 percent of the
time for instructional characteristics positively associated
with student motivation: choice, challenge, control, collaboration,
constructing meaning, and consequences. Student off-task
behavior was prevalent in classrooms where few of these
six variables were present and instructional tasks were
characterized as 'closed', i.e. where the products and processes
were predetermined. Where there was indication of a high
degree of off-task behavior, a disproportionately high number
(23 of the 28 data sets) were from classrooms that used
scripted literacy instructional programs. Findings are interpreted
using both psychological and critical frameworks.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
This study examined the extent that motivational processes
facilitate the comprehension of texts and the extent of culture's role
in children's motivational processes of text comprehension. Relationships
between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the amount of reading, past
reading achievement and text comprehension were examined by utilizing
structural equation modeling. Fourth-grade students (187 U.S. and 197
Chinese) were administered a reading test and two questionnaires regarding
reading motivation and reading amount. A final model fit the data well,
showing that intrinsic motivation predicted text comprehension for both
students groups after controlling for all other variables. Extrinsic
motivation negatively predicted text comprehension except when associated
with intrinsic motivation. Reading amount did not predict text comprehension
after controlling for motivational variables. The structural relationships
were statistically equivalent across the U.S. and Chinese groups. Cultural
influences on reading motivation, reading amount, and comprehension
were discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International
Reading Association.
There has been extensive debate among scholars and practitioners
concerning whether self-beliefs, influence academic achievement. To
address this question, findings of longitudinal studies investigating
the relation between self-beliefs and achievement were synthesized using
meta-analysis. Estimated effects are consistent with a small, favorable
influence of positive self-beliefs on academic achievement, with an
average standardized path or regression coefficient of .08 for self-beliefs
as a predictor of later achievement, controlling for initial levels
of achievement. Stronger effects of self-beliefs are evident when assessing
self-beliefs specific to the academic domain and when measures of self-beliefs
and achievement are matched by do- main (e.g., same subject area). Under
these conditions, the relation of self-beliefs to later achievement
meets or exceeds Cohen's (1988} definition of a small effect size.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates: www.leaonline.com
Contemporary theories of academic motivation seek to explain
students' behaviours in academic settings. While each theory seems to
possess its own constructs and unique explanations, these theories are
actually closely tied together. In this theoretical study of motivation,
several theories of motivation were described and an underlying theme
of the influence of emotions was used to unify the theories. In these
theories, emotions and beliefs are thought to elicit different patterns
of behaviour such as pursuit of mastery, failure avoidance, learned
helplessness and passive aggression. Implications emerged which focused
upon creating classroom contexts that foster feelings of autonomy, competence
and meaning as the catalysts for developing adaptive, constructive learning.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
The authors discuss the nature and domain specificity
of reading motivation and present initial results that examined how
2 reading instructional programs, Concept Oriented Reading Instruction
(CORI) and multiple Strategy Instruction (SI), influenced 3rd-grade
children's intrinsic motivation to read and reading self-efficacy. Each
reading program occurred during the fall of the school year and lasted
12 weeks. Approximately 150 3rd-grade children participated in CORI;
200 3rd-grade children participated in SI. Results of pre- and posttest
analyses of children's responses to a reading motivation questionnaire
showed that children's intrinsic motivation to read and reading self-efficacy
increased only in the CORI group.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Heldref Publications:
www.heldref.org
Background: Although the relationship between motivation
and learning problems has been studied in older children, little is
known about how these factors interact during the first years of schooling
or even earlier.
Aims: To compare the development of motivational-emotional profiles
from preschool to grade 2 between groups classified as poor readers,
good decoders and good readers in grade 2. To study the possibility
that diverging motivational-emotional paths occur concomitantly with
school experience. Sample: A total of 127 children were followed longitudinally
from preschool up to the second grade. In preschool, their mean age
was 6 years 8 months.
Method: Two different methods tapping motivational-emotional
vulnerability were used. Firstly, researchers at preschool age and classroom
teachers in grades 1 and 2 rated children's task, ego-defensive and
social dependence orientations. Secondly, an experimental situation
was arranged each year where children's play behaviour with LEGO® bricks
was observed in free play vs. in induced pressure situations, and their
motivational orientations were scored.
Results: In preschool, the motivational-emotional profiles were
almost the same among the three prospective reading-level groups, but
in grades 1 and 2, classroom teachers rated poor readers as less task-oriented
and more ego-defensive and socially dependent compared to good decoders
and good readers. The ratings were corroborated by observational data
on play behaviour in induced pressure situations.
Conclusions: Early problems in learning to read and spell are
related to motivational-emotional vulnerability in learning situations
in the school context.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
The research looks at the relationship between social
class, notions of masculinity, intelligence and achievement in 16-year-old
boys in co-educational comprehensive schools in England and Wales. The
obvious link between educational qualifications and occupational success,
central to the middle-class ideal of masculinity, along with the strong
relationships between social class and academic achievement has led
to the assumption that for males extrinsic motivation (the desire for
recognition, high-status employment and high earning power) is the key
to academic success. The results of the research reported here challenge
that assumption by showing that intrinsic motivation is a much stronger
predictor of achievement than extrinsic motivation, which failed to
discriminate between successful and unsuccessful boys. The research
also showed that boys who gave the strongest support to the maintenance
of the traditional sex roles in society and who themselves intended
to follow that role were the least successful boys in the sample.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Triangle Journals:
www.triangle.co.uk
Background: Children's perceived competence and
intrinsic motivation are assumed to be very high at the outset of schooling.
However, how they change and how they relate to each other and to academic
achievement across early schooling years remain open to question.
Aims: This 3-year longitudinal study was aimed at examining the
following questions. Do children's perceived competence and intrinsic
motivation about reading and mathematics change across the first 3 years
of schooling? Do their perceived competence and intrinsic motivation
differ according to academic domains? Do their perceived competence
and intrinsic motivation relate to their academic achievement in each
academic domain?
Sample: A total of 115 elementary schoolchildren (63 boys and
52 girls) were examined in first grade (mean age = 84,5 months, SD =
.67) and for the next 2 years.
Method: Children respond to questionnaires about their perceived competence
and intrinsic motivation in reading and mathematics. Year-end grades
in these two subjects were used as a measure of performance.
Results: Changes in perceived competence and intrinsic motivation,
and between-year intercorrelations, were observed to differ according
to academic domain and gender. Intrinsic motivation did not make a significant
contribution to academic achievement at either school grade or in any
academic domain, whereas perceived competence was significantly related
to achievement at each school grade in both reading and mathematics.
Conclusions: Differences between boys and girls observed in this
study were not linked to a specific domain and cannot be attributed
to gender-role stereotypes. Girls appeared to be more precocious in
differentiating their competence and intrinsic motivation according
to academic domain, as well as in being able to process and integrate
information about their ability from past performances in a domain to
judge their competence in the same domain.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
In order to understand the impact of home-based reading
practices on young children's literacy development, we need to consider
both the types of comments made while reading as well as the affective
quality of the reading interaction. Five-year-olds, during the summer
prior to kindergarten, were observed reading both a familiar and an
unfamiliar book with a member of their family, usually a parent but
in one-third of the cases, an older sibling. Children came from either
African-American or European-American families. Most of the children
(about 83%) came from low income families. Both the nature of comments
made about each book and the affective quality of the interactions were
coded. Parents also were interviewed about the frequency with which
their children engaged in reading activities at home. Children's phonological
awareness, orientation toward print, and story comprehension were assessed
during the spring of kindergarten; their motivations for reading were
assessed at the start of first grade. Comments about the content of
the storybook were the most common type of utterance during reading
interactions. Reported reading frequency was the only significant correlate
of children's early literacy-related skills. In contrast, the affective
quality of the reading interaction was the most powerful predictor of
children's motivations for reading. These results emphasize the importance
of the affective quality of reading interactions for fostering children's
interest in literacy.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Elsevier: www.elsevier.com
Sixty-five 6-year-olds (first graders) from different
sociocultural backgrounds and their mothers participated in a study
examining children's motivation for reading in relation to parental
beliefs and home literacy experiences. Each child completed an individually
administered Motivations for Reading Scale that assessed several theoretical
dimensions of reading motivation, including enjoyment/interest in reading,
perceived competence as a reader, and sense of the value of reading.
Parents were interviewed regarding their beliefs about reasons for reading,
their beliefs about their child's interest in learning to read, and
their ratings of the frequency of their child's experiences with printed
materials. Results revealed that the beginning readers had generally
positive views about reading and that no differences in motivation were
associated with income level, ethnicity, or gender. Empirical support
was provided for the distinctness of the dimensions of value, enjoyment,
and perceived competence. Parental identification of pleasure as a reason
for reading predicted children's motivation for reading, as did parents'
reports that their child took an active interest in learning to read.
Children's motivation for reading was not associated with frequency
of storybook reading or library visits, but frequent use of basic skills
books (ABC books) was negatively associated with motivation. The study
demonstrated the importance of looking beyond quantitative indices of
home literacy experiences in accounting for the development of motivation
for reading; parents who believe that reading is pleasurable convey
a perspective that is appropriated by their children, either directly
through their words or indirectly through the nature of the literacy
experiences they provide.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
The main purpose of this research is to analyse what strategies
are pursued in order to protect self-esteem when it is threatened by
a negative self-evaluation of school competence. Participants were 838
secondary-school students from the seventh to the ninth grades. Data
were collected using Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents,
together with a Scale of Attitudes towards School. Our results show
that there are significant differences between the self-esteem enjoyed
by successful and unsuccessful students in the seventh grade; such differences
disappear in the eight and ninth grades. They also reveal success-related
differences in domain-specific self-evaluation. We also found that students
with low levels of academic achievement attribute less importance to
school-related areas and reveal less favourable attitudes towards school.
We discuss these results in terms of Harter's self-esteem model and
Robinson and Tayler's self-esteem protection model.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
The amount that students read for enjoyment and for school
is a major contributor to students' reading achievement and knowledge
of the world. Consequently, it is important to identify the factors
that predict amount of reading. A literature review revealed that motivation,
strategy-use and past reading achievement all may be expected to predict
reading amount. To examine these variables, a total of 251 students
in Grades 3 and 5 was administered questionnaires of these constructs
and a reading test. Results showed that amount of reading for enjoyment
was predicted most highly be motivation, when all other variables were
controlled statistically in multiple-regression analyses. In contrast,
amount of reading for school was predicted most highly be strategy use,
when all other variables were controlled. However, these predictions
were different for students in Grades 3 and 5. Findings of the study
indicate that amount of reading is multiply determined by cognitive
and motivational constructs, which is consistent with an engagement
perspective on reading development.
This ethnographic study explores kindergarten children's
emergent motivation to read and write, its relation to their developing
concepts of reading and writing (Guice & Johnston, 1994; Johnston, 1997;
Turner, 1995), and to their teachers instructional goals and classroom
norms. Teachers and students together constructed legitimate literate
activity in their classrooms, and this construction framed the motivation
of students who were at risk for developing learning disabilities in
reading and writing. Specifically, the kinds of reading and writing
activity that were sanctioned in each class and the role of student-student
collaboration colored students' views of the purposes of literacy and
their own ability to learn. Findings extend our understanding of how
young children's literacy motivation influences, and is influenced by,
their classroom literacy culture. Implications for early literacy instruction
for children with learning disabilities, and for their continuing motivation
to read and write, are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates: www.leaonline.com
Middle school students are often characterized as disinterested
readers (McKenna, Kear & Ellsworth, 1995), yet studies of adolescent
reading typically do not feature students' voices about classroom practices
(Alvermann, 1998). This study used students as primary informants about
what motivates them to read in their middle school classrooms. We surveyed
1,765 sixth-grade students in reading/language arts classrooms in 23
diverse schools in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States.
Students described how classroom environments motivated their reading
through open-ended responses, short answers and checklist items. To
obtain richer data about positive instructional environments, we conducted
follow-up interviews with 31 students in 3 classrooms in which students
reported high engagement with reading. Using qualitative methodology,
we conducted a content analysis of the survey responses and compared
these findings with the interview data. We identified several overall
findings about positive features of instruction. First, students valued
independent reading and the teacher reading out loud as part of instructional
time. Second, when asked what they liked most about time spent in class,
students focused more on the act of reading itself or personal reasons
for reading rather than on social aspects or activities related to reading.
Third, when students were asked what motivated them to read at school,
they emphasized quality and diversity of reading materials rather than
classroom settin or other people. When considering how middle school
classrooms measure up, issues emerged about access to readng materials
at school. These findings raise questions about the range of materials
used for middle school reading/language arts instruction and t he place
and purpose of student independent reading.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International
Reading Association.
Studies on reading motivation have found that access to
reading materials has an important influence on the amount students
choose to read. There are few studies, however, that have examined print
access in a comprehensive way to include home, school, and community
resources. In this study, surveys and reading tests were administered
to a class of eleventh-grade students (N = 24). Consistent with previous
research, convenient access to reading material, regardless of a student's
reading ability, was associated with more frequent reading. In addition,
more voluntary or "free" reading was associated with higher levels of
reading proficiency. Implications for providing students with easier
access to reading materials are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Over the past decade, several US school and instructional
reforms have sought ways to counter trends of mediocrity in education.
These reforms are grounded in structural motivation theories which postulate
that students' learning experiences are optimised when instruction is
authentic, challenging, demands skills, and allows for student autonomy.
This study set out to investigate empirically the effects of these four
structural characteristics of instruction on students' learning experiences.
Using a unique methodological design, the current investigation measures
students' learning experiences with a confirmatory factor analysis.
The four factors which emerged are next predicted with a series of structural
variables. The results show that high quality learning experiences are
indeed authentic, allow choice, and demand student skills. Boring and
alienated experiences are produced when these instructional characteristics
are absent. The findings suggest that the structures of instruction
that disaffect students are overwhelmingly represented in students'
daily school life; those that spark their hearts are not frequent enough
to motivate students. They also imply that students do not have a general
tendency to be emotionally depressed in school; rather, they perceive
their experiences to be highly influenced by specific structural characteristics
of instruction.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
This eight-year cross-sectional study measured the self-esteem,
reading and mathematical attainments of eight cohorts of
Year 2 and Year 6 children over the period of the introduction
of the National Curriculum and assessment procedures into
primary schools (the first cohort was pre-national curriculum:
the others were post-national curriculum). All Year 2 (N=1513)
and Year 6 children (N=1488) in five randomly selected primary
schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) comprised
the sample to which the Lawseq questionnaire (Lawrence,
1982), Mathematics 7 or 11 (National Foundation for Educational
Research, 1985, 1987a) and The Primary Reading Test Level
1 or 2 (France, 1981) was administered. Self-esteem means
for Year 2 shows a downward trend in the first 4 years of
the study followed by an upward trend in the second half
of the study with the mean of Cohort 8 being slightly below
that of Cohort 1. Self-esteem means for Year 6 fluctuated
for the first 5 years followed by a steady rise until the
mean for Cohort 8 is 2.17 above that of Cohort 1. An analysis
of variance showed there were significant differences between
both years groups with cohorts focused around the introduction
of the national tests having significantly different scores
than other cohorts (Year 2 significantly lower: Year 6 significantly
higher). Overall, there were significant positive correlations
between the children's self-esteem and all their attainment
scores. When the correlation coefficients were computed
separately for the pre- and post-national test groups differences
emerged. There were no significant correlations for the
Year 2 pre-national test cohorts but for the post-national
test groups all the correlations were significant. For Year
6 all correlations were significant. Discussion centres
on the possible link between national testing and self-esteem.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
This study was designed to assess dimensions of reading
motivation and examine how these dimensions related to students' reading
activity and achievement. A heterogeneous urban sample of fifth- and
sixth-grade children completed the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire
(MRQ; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997), a questionnaire designed to assess
11 possible dimensions of reading motivation, including self-efficacy,
several types of intrinsic and extrinsic reading motives, social aspects
of reading, and the desire to avoid reading. The students also completed
several different measures of reading activity and reading achievement.
Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the proposed dimensions
of children's reading motivation could be identified and measured reliably.
Scales based on the different dimensions related positively to one another
and negatively to the desire to avoid reading. Mean scale scores on
most of the dimensions differed by gender and ethnicity, with girls
and African Americans reporting stronger motivation. Mean scale scores
on most of the dimensions were similar for fifth- and sixth-grade students
and for low and middle income students. All of the scales related to
children's reports of their reading activity and several to their reading
achievement. The strength of the relations between reading motivation
and reading achievement was greater for girls and for white students.
Cluster analyses revealed seven distinct groupings of children based
on their motivational profiles that were related to reading activity
and, to a lesser extent, to reading achievement. The study demonstrates
that reading motivation is multidimensional and should be regarded as
such in research and in practice.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International
Reading Association.
This study examines changes in first- and second-graders'
reading motivation across the course of a school year in two countries,
the United States and Finland, in order to explore possible developmental
patterns in early reading motivation that operate universally across
cultural contexts. The most significant finding was that in both countries,
first-graders' reading motivation increased significantly across the
course of the school year while second-graders' reading motivation did
not. This finding is particularly interesting since children begin elementary
school at age 6 in the United States and age 7 in Finland. Thus, gains
in reading motivation occurred during the first year of schooling for
both countries, regardless of age and cultural differences. This finding
sheds new light on the relationship between the initial acquisition
of reading skills and reading motivation in that learning to read during
the first year of school, in itself, may be a powerful motivator.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
The purpose of this longitudinal study was to determine
(a) the degree to which reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading pleasure,
and reading frequency later in life can be predicted by earlier measures
of the same variables; and (b) the degree to which path models and common-factor
models explain the correlational structure of the development of these
four aspects of reading. During five years, a cohort of 363 primary
school children was followed. A variety of tests for the four aspects
of reading was administered in grades 2 through 6. To answer the first
question the quasi-simplex model from Guttman and Jöreskog was used.
To answer the second question a path model and the 'multi-wave, multi-variable'
model from Jöreskog and Sörbom was employed. It appeared that the scores
for reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading pleasure, and reading
frequency measured at a particular point in time could be predicted
quite well by measures of the same variables at the preceding point
in time. The precision of the prediction for reading comprehension and
vocabulary was found to be better than for reading pleasure and reading
frequency. Further, a shared common factor did not appear to underlie
the development of reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading pleasure
and reading frequency. Just as the development of reading comprehension
and vocabulary appears to have a common source, the development of reading
pleasure and reading frequency also appears to have a common source.
Reading pleasure and reading frequency run rather autonomously with
respect to reading comprehension and vocabulary.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
This article reviews the growing literature on home and
family influences on children's motivations for reading. Children whose
early encounters with literacy are enjoyable are more likely to develop
a predisposition to read frequently and broadly in subsequent years.
Young children's self-initiated interactions with print at home are
important behavioral indexes of emerging motivations for reading. Shared
storybook reading plays an important role in promoting reading motivations;
when the socioemotional climate is positive, children are more interested
in reading and more likely to view it as enjoyable. The beliefs held
by children's parents about the purposes of reading and how children
learn to read relate to children's motivations for reading. Parents
who believe that reading is a source of entertainment have children
with more positive views about reading than do parents who emphasize
the skills aspect of reading development. These findings have important
implications for offering guidance to parents and for the development
of family literacy intervention programs.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates: www.leaonline.com
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