Relationships among motivation, commitment, cognitive capacities, and achievement in secondary education

Abstract

The aims of the present study were (1) to identify to what extent school motivation and school commitment contributed to the explanation of students' academic achievement in addition to the effect of students' cognitive capacities, (2) to find out whether school commitment mediated the relation between school motivation and academic achievement, and (3) to find out whether school motivation mediated the relation between school commitment and academic achievement. New in the field is that perspectives from two different research traditions were adopted, resulting in a selection of variables introduced by identity development theory and by motivational theories on achievement goals. The overall goal was to provide insight in the underlying structure of the relationships among these variables by providing new empirical evidence derived from a large student sample. A sample of more than 6,000 secondary school students from the Netherlands was therefore used in the study. Path models (structural equation models) were used to analyse the data. Fit indices of the final model were satisfactory. This model included students' cognitive capacities, three motivation factors (performance, social, and extrinsic motivation; mastery was excluded) and one commitment component (indepth exploration; the 'commitment' and 'reconsideration of commitment' components were excluded). The results showed small effects of performance (+), social (+), and extrinsic (-) motivation on academic achievement in addition to students' cognitive capacities. A very small negative effect was found for in-depth exploration. In-depth exploration mediated the motivation -achievement relationships to a limited extent. Suggestions for further research are discussed.Keywords: school motivation; school commitment; cognitive capacities; academic achievement; identity development theory; achievement goal theory IntroductionThe purpose of the present study was to better understand the underlying structure of the relationships among school motivation, school commitment, and academic achievement of students in secondary education. School motivation is derived from the achievement goal framework. The school commitment construct follows from identity development theory, referring to students' feelings of being committed to school.The relation between motivation and achievement has received ample attention in the literature (for recent meta-analyses using achievement goal theory see Huang, 2012;Hulleman, Schrager, Bodmann, & Harackiewicz, 2010). However, within the widely used achievement goal framework, the focus is usually on a limited set of achievement goals (i.e. mastery and performance goals). Maehr (1984) suggested that also social solidarity goals and extrinsic goals should be considered when studying achievement goals in educational settings, because students largely vary in their orientations toward learning. Therefore, all four suggested achievement goals are investigated in this paper as indicators of students' school motivation.The relatio...

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“…Neither explicit nor implicit motivation was significantly associated with behavioural engagement, contrary to previous studies (Green et al, 2012;Korpershoek, 2016;Michou et al, 2014;Taylor et al, 2014;Walker, et al, 2006). Previous studies typically used self-reports to assess both explicit motivation and behavioural engagement and found more substantial correlations between explicit motivation and behavioural engagement.…”

“…Self-determination theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan, 1985;Ryan & Deci, 2000a) states that intrinsic motivation facilitates higher levels of engagement and achievement, whereas extrinsic types of motivation can lead to maladaptive learning behaviours and outcomes. Previous research has empirically supported these claims and found positive reciprocal associations between intrinsic motivation and engagement and achievement (see for example Green et al, 2012;Guay, Ratelle, Liem, & Litalien, 2010;Korpershoek, 2016;Michou,Vansteenkiste, Mouratidis, & Lens, 2014;Taylor et al, 2014;Walker, Greene, & Mansell, 2006). Even though motivation has been found to facilitate achievement and vice versa, most studies only found weak or modest associations between motivation-related constructs on the hand, and behavioural engagement and achievement on the other hand (for reviews, see for example Cerasoli, Nicklin, & Ford, 2014;Richardson, Abraham, & Bond, 2012) instead of the powerful relationships that are often assumed.…”

Family background and classroom belonging among adolescent students in Finland

“…The most commonly used definition of school belonging is by Goodenow (1993): "The extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included and supported in the school social environment". Korpershoek (2016) claims that students have a pervasive drive to form and maintain significant interpersonal relationships with their teachers and peers and a psychological need to create ties to the school as an institution. Belonging and connectedness with same-aged peers and adult figures outside the family, such as teachers, may hold particular importance as adolescents begin to transfer their dependencies from parents and families to extra-familial contexts (Allen, 2008;Österman, 2000;Demanet & Van Houtte, 2012).…”

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“…This means that people tend to internalise values and practices from contexts (and people within that context) in which they experience a sense of belonging (Niemiec and Ryan 2009). Within the school context, as explained in Korpershoek (2016), following both the belongingness hypothesis as well as SDT, students generally have a pervasive drive (or in SDT an innate need) to form and maintain significant interpersonal relationships (e.g. with their teachers and peers) and a psychological need to create ties to the school as institution.…”