Expectancy - Value Theory of Achievement Motivation

Expectancy - Value Theory of Achievement Motivation Allan Wigfield of the University of Maryland and Jacquelynne Eccles of the University of Michigan wrote the academic article that I found. They discuss the nature of expectancy and value constructs, how they develop, and how they relate to childrens' and adolescents' performance and choice. The authors explain that expectancies and values are influenced by task specific beliefs such as ability beliefs, the perceived difficulty of different tasks, and individuals' goals, self-schema and affective memories. These variables are also influenced by the individual's perceptions of their own previous experiences. Table 1, listed below, defines and measures the expectancies for success as children's beliefs about how well they will do on upcoming tasks, in the immediate or long-term future. They discuss how belief about one's ability plays a prominent role in motivation theory. For example, in table 1, they asked the children to rate their own abilities and also how they thought their abilities compared to different subject areas and other individuals. How Children's Expectancies for Success, Ability Beliefs, and Subjective Values Change across the School Years:  Results of the 1st study -   Children's ability-related beliefs and values become more negative in many ways as they get older. Children believe they are less competent in many activities and often value those activities less. The negative changes in children's achievement-related beliefs and values have been explained in two major ways. 1. Children become much better at understanding and interpreting the evaluative feedback they receive and engage in more social comparison with their friends. As a result of these processes many children become more accurate in realistic in their self-assessments, so that their beliefs become relatively more negative. 2. School environment changes in ways that makes evaluation more salient and competition between students more likely, thus lowering some children's achievement beliefs (Wigfield & Eccles). How the theories in the article reflect what I have seen in elementary schools: My freshman year of college I was a tutor for an underprivileged school in Bryan. I worked with 5th graders and helped some of the kids who were a little behind in their school work. I remember a specific girl that I worked with who did not have any faith in herself. She did not believe that she was good at math and therefore would not even try it. Yes, some of the kids may have been better at math naturally, but I always encouraged her that she could do it. As the weeks went on I saw more and more confidence in her and eventually she started to enjoy doing math. I believe the theories in this article are important for teachers to be educated on so that they can encourage their students to change their mindset / MOTIVATE them. The kids may not be the best at everything but they can have confidence that the impossible can be done. by: Stefanie Poteet

TABLE 1 Items Used to Assess Children’s Ability Beliefs and Subjective Task Values

Ability Beliefs Items 1. How good in math are you? (not at all good very good) 2. If you were to list all the students in your class from the worst to the best in math, where would you put yourself? (one of the worst one of the best) 3. Some kids are better in one subject than in another. For example, you might be better in math than in reading. Compared to most of your other school subjects, how good are you in math? (a lot worse in math than in other subjects a lot better in math than in other subjects) Expectancy Items 4. How well do you expect to do in math this year? (not at all well very well) 5. How good would you be at learning something new in math? (not at all good very good) Usefulness, Importance, and Interest Items 1. Some things that you learn in school help you do things better outside of class, that is, they are useful. For example, learning about plants might help you grow a garden. In general, how useful is what you learn in math? (not at all useful very useful) 2. Compared to most of your other activities, how useful is what you learn in math? (not at all useful very useful) 3. For me, being good in math is (not at all important very important) 4. Compared to most of your other activities, how important is it for you to be good at math? (not at all important very important) 5. In general, I find working on math assignments (very boring very interesting [fun]) 6. How much do you like doing math? (not at all very much)  Works Cited:   Allan Wigfield, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Expectancy–Value Theory of Achievement Motivation, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2000, Pages 68-81, ISSN 0361-476X