Renewing Interest in Effort: The Development of the Academic Effort Beliefs Scale

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Motivation and Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Academic effort beliefs (AEB) represent students’ beliefs and perceptions about the value and utility of expending effort in school. Students’ holding favorable views of effort, i.e., high AEB, are theorized to produce an adaptive profile of strategy use and engagement in school. The present study provides evidence for the validity of a new self-report measure, the Academic Effort Beliefs Scale (AEBS). Factor analyses revealed the AEBS produced a second-order factor structure comprised of four first-order factors: Ineffectual, Outcome, Internalized, and Difficulty beliefs. Scores from the AEBS were significantly related in the hypothesized direction to several important academic outcomes. Scores from the AEBS were meaningfully different from three conceptually-similar beliefs: implicit theories of intelligence, epistemic beliefs, and self-efficacy for self-regulated learning.

Authors

• Ryan Iaconelli, National Center for Education Statistics

• Christopher A. Wolters, The Ohio State University