Growth Trajectories of Motivation Beliefs Across Time and Academic Domains: Interactions With Tasks and Others

• In Event: 25.024 - Synergies in Studies of Motivation and Learning: An Interactive Workshop

Abstract

The pipeline metaphor used to characterize dwindling interest in science and STEM related careers has gradually been replaced by alternative models that convey complex pathways into, through and out of science by young men and women. In our chapter, we review literatures from educational psychology, cognitive development and science education and present our own mixed methods approach to developing a model of the roles that children, parents and teachers play in launching, supporting, and sustaining pathways to science interest from early childhood to the transition to college. We use our longitudinal data to describe cases that illustrate these critical developmental inflection points.

In our presentation, these rich cases will be used to illustrate the advantages of using qualitative methods, when possible, to augment developmental models derived from more quantitative approaches. The cases discussed highlight critical roles that parents and teachers might play in nurturing science interests among males and females. Modeling change in interest over time is a persistently challenging task and we are not the only researchers who have taken up the challenge of describing these changes. For example, Chapter 11 suggests that the design of tasks and activities and interactions with other people may affect interest at any point in time. More importantly, situations where these supports do not match the learner phase of interest needs may actually result in decreased motivation. Additionally, Chapter 18 offers a lens for addressing developmental change over time (and for thinking most importantly about the role of the teacher in fostering long-term interests). We consider these findings in relation to our own longitudinal data to describe a model that honors the roles that children, parents, and teachers play in supporting and sustaining pathways to science interest from early childhood to the transition to college.

Authors

• Carin L. Neitzel, Black Hills State University

• Joyce M. Alexander, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Kathy E. Johnson, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis