Middle School Students' Motivation for Learning Science: Understanding Change Across Time and Relationships With Achievement

• In Event: Science Teaching and Learning: Student Attitude and Affect in Science Education

Abstract

In this study, we examine change across time in middle school students’ science motivation and the relationship between motivation and science achievement within the context of an intensive STEM-focused teacher professional development (PD). Recruited teachers received 90 hours of PD during the summer and periodic coaching throughout the school year. Employing hierarchical linear modeling to account for student, teacher, and school factors, we observed: (a) decreases in students’ motivation, which aligns with previous work showing that motivation tends to decrease in middle school (e.g., Wigfield & Eccles, 1994), and (b) relationships between students’ science achievement and self-efficacy and grade motivation, but not other dimensions of motivation, which highlights the importance of including multidimensional measures in evaluations of STEM-focused PD.

Authors

• Elizabeth Lynn Adams, Southern Methodist University

• Anthony Sparks, Southern Methodist University

• Leanne R. Ketterlin-Geller, Southern Methodist University