Using Utility Value Information and Choice to Promote Interest in STEM: Effects and Mechanisms (Poster 40)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Two
  In Poster Session: Motivational Beliefs in Context

Abstract

In a 2 x 2 design (N = 602), we conducted a laboratory test of two instructional methods of promoting interest in statistics: communicating the personal usefulness (i.e., utility value) of the material and providing students with meaningful choices. Both manipulations affected students’ self-reported situational interest in statistics, and they did so through distinct mechanisms. The choice manipulation increased participants’ perceptions of autonomy and their engagement during a regression lesson, whereas the utility value manipulation increased perceptions that regression was useful. The utility value manipulation also made students more likely to seek out resources for learning more about statistics, suggesting that it may have also been successful at affecting interest on a deeper, personal level.

Authors

• Michael W. Asher, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Judith Harackiewicz, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author