A Social-Ecological Perspective on Student Motivation

• In Event: New Directions in Culture and Achievement Motivation: The Roles of Cultural Norms, Mobility, Values, and Beliefs

Abstract

Student motivation is an important determinant of competence development, school success, and psychological well-being, making it both theoretically important and practically relevant. Given its centrality, several theories have been developed to understand student motivation. This has been accompanied by immense growth in empirical studies focusing on motivation. Scoping reviews of educational psychology’s key journals indicate motivational research to be an enduring research focus.
However, much of the existing research on motivation has focused on the role of individual differences or proximal environmental factors. Though the role of context is now increasingly emphasized in motivational research, it is usually operationalized as the proximal context, focusing on the classroom, peers, school, teachers, or family.

The role of the more pervasive yet distal social ecology seems relatively neglected. Richard M. Ryan and his colleagues (2017) argued, “These proximal relationships and contexts are embedded; they exist within more pervasive social systems that shape what goals and values are salient to people, and even the behavioural possibilities that people can envision” (pp. 200).
The four papers in this symposium attempt to address this research gap by highlighting the important role of the social ecology in student motivation and achievement.

The first paper focuses on growth mindsets and how such mindsets are associated with achievement and well-being. Though researchers have long focused on mindsets and how they are associated with achievement and well-being outcomes, prior studies have not examined how the macro-context of cultural norms, particularly on whether other individuals in the same region hold a growth mindset would affect the relationships among the key variables. They found that the societal-level of growth mindset played a key role in how mindsets were associated with achievement and well-being.

The second paper investigates the role of mastery goals and fear of failure in students’ achievement and well-being. The key novelty of this study was to examine how social mobility, which refers to the possibility of improving one’s socio-economic status, could shape the roles played by mastery goals and fear of failure. The author found that social mobility moderated the effect of mastery goals and fear of failure on achievement and well-being.

The third paper underscores the importance of cultural values and beliefs in understanding achievement emotions and procrastination. In particular, they focused on the cultural belief of filial piety. They found that different dimensions of filial piety had distinct associations with achievement emotions and procrastination.

The fourth paper explores whether students in Eastern and Western cultures would have different need-support profiles. They found remarkable similarities in the need profiles of both groups. However, they also found interesting cultural differences in which profiles were more common in certain cultures.

Taken together, these four papers showcase the importance of taking more distal social ecology into account when examining student motivation and achievement. It also opens up the avenue for broadening motivational research beyond individual differences and proximal context into asking questions about the role played by the broader social ecology, something that has heretofore been mostly neglected in motivational research.

Author

• Ronnel B. King, Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Presenting Author