The Association Between Aspects of Self-Reported Intrinsic Motivation and Challenge Preference in Second-Graders
Haley Witthuhn
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07/26/2021
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Previous research has shown that intrinsically motivated students perform better on academic tasks than extrinsically motivated students. Challenge preference, which is suggested to be a component of intrinsic motivation, is also predictive of students’ academic achievement. The purpose of the current study was to determine if there is a relation between different aspects of self-reported intrinsic motivation and a students’ preference for challenge on a puzzle task.
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- [00:00:01.120]Hi, my name is Haley Witthuhn,
- [00:00:02.750]and I'm a psychology major here at
- [00:00:04.340]the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
- [00:00:06.430]working with Dr. Jenna Finch
- [00:00:07.680]in the psychology department
- [00:00:09.370]on a project titled,
- [00:00:10.767]"The Association Between Aspects
- [00:00:13.020]of Self-Reported Motivation
- [00:00:14.910]and Challenge Preference in Second-Graders."
- [00:00:18.840]The study of motivation in learning environments
- [00:00:20.950]has gained significant attention in recent decades.
- [00:00:24.610]Intrinsic motivation can be defined as
- [00:00:27.560]pursuing a task based on one's own desire
- [00:00:29.830]to gain new knowledge, satisfy their curiosity,
- [00:00:32.660]or just for their own enjoyment.
- [00:00:34.610]Whereas extrinsic motivation,
- [00:00:36.430]can be defined as pursuing a task
- [00:00:38.830]in order to gain approval
- [00:00:40.810]or obtain an external reward
- [00:00:42.400]while being dependent on a teacher.
- [00:00:45.430]Challenge preference is defined as
- [00:00:47.520]a child's preference
- [00:00:48.704]to pursue challenging tasks over easy tasks.
- [00:00:52.220]So a child will have a higher challenge preference
- [00:00:54.330]if they engage in challenging tasks,
- [00:00:56.480]and they will have a low challenge preference
- [00:00:58.410]if they avoid challenging tasks
- [00:00:59.980]and choose to engage in easier ones instead.
- [00:01:03.400]So challenge preference is considered
- [00:01:05.100]a component of intrinsic motivation,
- [00:01:07.440]as it can be described
- [00:01:08.660]to be sort of a reflection of how children
- [00:01:10.960]are driven by their curiosities and interests
- [00:01:13.450]and their desire to learn new things.
- [00:01:15.970]So intrinsic motivation and challenge preference
- [00:01:18.130]are both predictors of academic achievement.
- [00:01:20.750]One study revealed that standardized test scores
- [00:01:23.170]have a positive correlation with intrinsic motivation,
- [00:01:26.820]and a negative correlation with extrinsic motivation.
- [00:01:30.480]This suggests that intrinsic motivation
- [00:01:32.810]is a predictor of academic achievement.
- [00:01:35.600]Research has also found that challenge preference
- [00:01:38.100]can predict performance
- [00:01:39.680]on standardized achievement tests.
- [00:01:41.880]So a study found that students who reported
- [00:01:43.970]greater levels of challenge preference
- [00:01:46.330]also performed better
- [00:01:47.390]on those standardized achievement tests.
- [00:01:49.790]Further, literature has also revealed that
- [00:01:52.450]intrinsically motivated children
- [00:01:54.070]pursue more challenging puzzles
- [00:01:55.550]when given the option,
- [00:01:56.980]and this leads us to the current study.
- [00:01:59.300]So the purpose of this research is
- [00:02:01.280]to determine the association
- [00:02:03.020]between aspects of second graders self-reported
- [00:02:05.677]intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
- [00:02:08.340]on a task measuring for challenge preference.
- [00:02:11.230]So the study had a single hypothesis,
- [00:02:13.400]which was second graders who self-report
- [00:02:15.770]that they're more intrinsically motivated
- [00:02:18.120]and less extrinsically motivated
- [00:02:20.280]are more likely to choose
- [00:02:21.490]more challenging puzzles.
- [00:02:24.350]So participants were invited
- [00:02:25.690]to come into the lab space
- [00:02:26.860]to complete a two hour
- [00:02:27.960]in-person laboratory assessment.
- [00:02:30.530]And during the assessment,
- [00:02:31.670]the second grader and their parent
- [00:02:33.130]completed multiple activities independently
- [00:02:35.370]and then they came together at the end
- [00:02:36.840]to complete a few activities together.
- [00:02:39.290]So for the purpose of this study,
- [00:02:40.600]we focus specifically on two of the measures
- [00:02:43.570]that were administered during the second grader's
- [00:02:45.580]independent portion of their assessment.
- [00:02:48.540]So Harter's Motivational Scale was used
- [00:02:50.600]to assess the extent of how intrinsically
- [00:02:52.980]or extrinsically motivated the child was.
- [00:02:55.770]The scale consists of 33 questions
- [00:02:57.838]that can be divided into six sub-scales.
- [00:03:00.730]Three of the sub-scales measure
- [00:03:01.890]for intrinsic motivation,
- [00:03:03.330]which include challenge, curiosity,
- [00:03:05.240]and independent mastery sub-scale.
- [00:03:07.330]And the other three sub-scales
- [00:03:08.600]measure for extrinsic motivation,
- [00:03:10.480]which include the easy work, pleasing the teacher,
- [00:03:12.810]and dependence on teacher sub-scales.
- [00:03:15.200]So Harter's Motivational Scale is scored
- [00:03:17.280]using a five point Likert scale
- [00:03:19.320]with 1 being, "Not at all true for me,"
- [00:03:21.510]to 5 being, "Very true for me."
- [00:03:24.360]Challenge preference was assessed
- [00:03:25.920]using a puzzle task.
- [00:03:27.550]So there were three sets of puzzles
- [00:03:29.030]with varying difficulty levels.
- [00:03:31.010]The easy puzzle had seven pieces
- [00:03:32.760]that the child needed to place.
- [00:03:34.500]The medium puzzle had 10 pieces
- [00:03:36.020]that needed to be placed.
- [00:03:37.310]And then the hard puzzle had 13 pieces
- [00:03:39.440]that needed to be placed.
- [00:03:41.270]So the child got to choose
- [00:03:42.390]which difficulty level they wanted,
- [00:03:44.070]and then they were given three minutes
- [00:03:45.550]to complete the puzzle.
- [00:03:47.250]So challenge preference was scored using the mean
- [00:03:49.820]of the child's chosen difficulty level.
- [00:03:52.250]So easy puzzles were given a score of 1,
- [00:03:54.420]medium puzzles, a score of 2,
- [00:03:55.940]and hard puzzles, a score of 3.
- [00:03:58.550]So, when scored,
- [00:03:59.840]a child could have a challenge preference
- [00:04:01.480]between 1 to 3,
- [00:04:02.800]with 1 being a low challenge preference,
- [00:04:04.980]and 3 being a high challenge preference.
- [00:04:08.130]Moving on to our results,
- [00:04:09.730]we have descriptive statistics
- [00:04:11.420]presented in table 1.
- [00:04:13.410]So on average, children chose medium puzzles.
- [00:04:16.600]And as I mentioned before,
- [00:04:17.910]the range for this is 1 to 3,
- [00:04:19.610]however, as you can see here,
- [00:04:20.900]it is 1 to 2.67.
- [00:04:23.520]So this means that at least one child
- [00:04:25.290]chose all three easy puzzles,
- [00:04:27.780]but none of the children
- [00:04:28.613]choose all three hard puzzles.
- [00:04:30.720]The rest just chose a combination
- [00:04:32.250]of the difficulty levels.
- [00:04:34.410]So overall,
- [00:04:35.400]children were more intrinsically motivated
- [00:04:37.510]with a mean of 3.68,
- [00:04:40.000]and they were less extrinsically motivated
- [00:04:41.660]with a mean of 3.37.
- [00:04:45.810]Moving on, we have our bi-variate correlations table
- [00:04:48.590]presented in table 2.
- [00:04:50.550]So we had two significant findings.
- [00:04:53.370]We found that the challenge sub-scale
- [00:04:55.220]of intrinsic motivation
- [00:04:56.460]was positively correlated with puzzle difficulty.
- [00:04:59.840]So second graders that reported
- [00:05:01.560]that they liked challenges,
- [00:05:03.500]chose more difficult puzzles on our puzzle task.
- [00:05:06.820]Similarly, the easy work sub-scale
- [00:05:08.620]of extrinsic motivation
- [00:05:09.980]was negatively associated with puzzle difficulty.
- [00:05:12.970]So second-graders who reported
- [00:05:14.580]that they preferred easy work,
- [00:05:16.000]actually chose easier puzzles on our puzzle task.
- [00:05:19.720]Lastly, intrinsic motivation
- [00:05:21.410]is positively correlated
- [00:05:22.870]with challenge preference on a puzzle task,
- [00:05:25.620]meaning that the more
- [00:05:27.760]intrinsically motivated the child was,
- [00:05:29.830]the more difficult puzzles that they chose.
- [00:05:31.930]So while this result isn't significant,
- [00:05:34.000]it is on trend.
- [00:05:36.510]So in summary,
- [00:05:37.580]the results support the hypothesis.
- [00:05:40.150]So second graders who self-reported
- [00:05:41.950]that they are more intrinsically motivated
- [00:05:44.150]and less extrinsically motivated,
- [00:05:46.150]chose more challenging puzzles.
- [00:05:49.610]So the challenge sub-scale
- [00:05:50.670]of intrinsic motivation
- [00:05:51.830]was positively associated with puzzle difficulty
- [00:05:54.950]and further, the easy work sub-scale
- [00:05:56.495]of extrinsic motivation
- [00:05:58.408]was negatively associated with puzzle difficulty.
- [00:06:02.080]So the implications of this study
- [00:06:04.160]provide evidence that second graders
- [00:06:05.910]can accurately assess
- [00:06:07.682]their preference for challenges
- [00:06:09.760]versus more easy work.
- [00:06:11.690]So this research can provide data
- [00:06:13.500]that may lead to a better understanding
- [00:06:15.200]of academic achievement in elementary students.
- [00:06:18.720]This research also builds upon
- [00:06:20.140]the existing literature,
- [00:06:21.360]as it provides more evidence
- [00:06:23.180]that intrinsically motivated children
- [00:06:25.310]do in fact pursue more difficult tasks,
- [00:06:27.460]in this case puzzles, when given the option.
- [00:06:31.340]So this study does have limitations.
- [00:06:34.020]So while we are continuing to collect data,
- [00:06:36.480]they're still a small sample size
- [00:06:38.190]with limited ethnic and racial diversity.
- [00:06:41.500]So, in the future,
- [00:06:42.830]larger studies could be conducted
- [00:06:44.620]in a location that has access
- [00:06:46.040]to a more diverse population of children.
- [00:06:48.600]And then another limitation we had
- [00:06:50.110]is that we only had three puzzles
- [00:06:51.800]that may have been too challenging.
- [00:06:53.980]So many of the children
- [00:06:55.000]in this study had more difficulties
- [00:06:56.820]than we had anticipated
- [00:06:58.140]while trying to complete the hard,
- [00:07:00.110]and sometimes even the medium puzzles.
- [00:07:02.450]So future studies could add in more puzzle sets
- [00:07:04.920]at a more appropriate challenge level
- [00:07:06.920]for children's abilities.
- [00:07:08.370]And that would be interesting to see
- [00:07:09.970]how adding in those puzzles
- [00:07:11.570]at the more appropriate level
- [00:07:12.950]would affect the data that we currently have.
- [00:07:15.730]Lastly, I would just like to thank my mentor,
- [00:07:17.760]Dr. Jenna Finch,
- [00:07:18.640]and the UNL McNair Scholar's Program
- [00:07:20.460]for supporting me throughout this project,
- [00:07:22.460]as well as all the latter lab RAs
- [00:07:25.620]who helped with data collection
- [00:07:26.900]and then the families that participated
- [00:07:28.510]in our smile study.
- [00:07:30.140]So thank you all for listening,
- [00:07:31.290]and that is all I have for you today.
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