Examining the Role of Motivation for Transfer in Middle School Science: A Person-Centered Approach

• In Event: Broadening the Terrain: Examining Novel Motivational Processes in STEM Contexts

Abstract

Objectives
Though there are many examples of transferring prior knowledge and experience to solve new problems in our day-to-day lives (Kamouri, Kamouri, & Smith, 1986), intentionally fostering transfer in educational settings remains a persistent challenge (Day & Goldstone, 2012). The current work sought to integrate work in cognition and motivation in order to better account for varying transfer outcomes within a science context. We did so by: (1) applying a person-centered approach across motivational constructs to capture more complex profiles of motivation, (2) relating those profiles to different types of transfer and instruction, and (3) comparing those results to a variable-centered approach.

Theoretical Significance
Work from the learning sciences has argued for theories of transfer to incorporate learning and participation in context (Greeno & Middle School Mathematics Through Applications Project Group, 1998). Some have argued that learners’ dispositions (e.g., affect and motivation; Turner, 2001) can impact how they engage in educational contexts and, therefore, impact possibilities for transfer. Prior research on motivation has found that certain goals and beliefs are related to particular engagement outcomes, learning strategies, and metacognitive strategies which are theorized to relate to transfer (Pugh & Bergin, 2006). However, less empirical work has examined how these motivational factors directly impact transfer itself. Further, the majority of past motivation work has taken a variable-centered approach, which does not typically focus on how motivational factors cluster together in an individual to predict outcomes. The current work attempts to address these gaps.

Methods & Results
We used a model-based cluster analysis to identify motivational profiles including self-efficacy, interest, and achievement goals for 190 sixth-grade science students enrolled in one of three charter middle schools. Four distinct motivational profiles emerged and were examined in relation to near, intermediate, and far transfer outcomes during instructional activities related to the calculation of speed. We also examined how these profiles interacted with different types of instruction (tell-and-practice versus structured inquiry) in predicting transfer outcomes. Results revealed students who had a motivational profile that consisted of moderate interest, self-efficacy, and mastery-approach goals but low-performance goals had significantly better performance on far transfer than those who had similar interest, self-efficacy, and mastery-approach goals but with high-performance goals when given structured inquiry instruction rather than tell-and-practice (see Figure 3.1). Results also revealed self-efficacy as a significant predictor of far transfer when examining motivation variables individually. No relations were found between motivational profiles or individual motivation variables and near or intermediate transfer outcomes.

Significance
The current work shows that motivation interacts with instruction to impact learning and far transfer in a middle school science context. The person-centered results highlight that particular motivation combinations may, in some cases, predict learning better than individual motivational factors. The variable-centered approach results highlight that self-efficacy may be a unique predictor that impacts learning above and beyond prior knowledge. Both approaches point to motivation as an important factor that educators should consider when attempting to impart knowledge to students that can be applied in new contexts.

Authors

• Kelly Boden, University of Pittsburgh

• Eric Kuo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Timothy James Nokes-Malach, University of Pittsburgh

• Quentin King-Shepard, University of Pittsburgh

• Tanner LeBaron Wallace, University of Pittsburgh

• Muhsin Menekse, Purdue University