The Achievement Motivation Enhancement Curriculum: Evaluating an Affective Intervention for Gifted Students

• In Event: Special Programs for Gifted Students

Abstract

Specific motivation-related constructs support academic achievement, including academic self-perception (Schnitzler et al., 2020), goal valuation (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020), goal orientation (Albert & Dahling, 2016), self-regulation (Ridgley et al., 2020; Zimmerman, 2002), resilience (Yeager & Dweck, 2012), and positive self-talk (Thomaes et al., 2020). Many gifted students may currently be achieving academically, but they are not required to use these motivation-related skills to succeed in their schools.

Although gifted students who exert minimal effort may still be successful in their current school environment, eventually, motivation-related skills will be necessary, and students should learn them and start practicing them. So, the purpose of this presentation is to summarize four studies evaluating the Achievement Motivation Enhancement curriculum (AME), an affective intervention to teach gifted students motivation-related strategies and skills to support their long-term achievement. The AME curriculum targets positive self-perceptions, goal-valuation, mastery or learning goal orientation, self-regulation, resilience, self-directed learning, and positive self-talk.

Through a mixed-methods program of studies, we have evaluated the effectiveness of the AME curriculum in various settings: a summer enrichment program for gifted students with 20 participants (Study 1), middle school (single case; Study 2), during emergency remote teaching at a STEM-based charter high school with 57 participants (Study 3), and an online enrichment program with 108 participants (Study 4).
These studies involved various quantitative analyses (e.g., descriptive analysis, interrupted time-series analysis, t-test) of the following variables: academic achievement, behavioral engagement, goal valuation, academic self-perception, self-regulation, attitudes toward teachers and school. These studies also involved inductive and deductive thematic analysis (Nowell et al., 2017) of interview transcripts, field notes from observations, and written responses to open-ended survey questions.

Across the studies, qualitative data indicate students enjoyed the AME sessions and felt they benefited from talking about their experiences with peers in small groups. Students discussed improved self-perceptions and said they helped from learning goal valuation, goal-setting, and self-regulation strategies. Additionally, results from Study 2 (single case) showed a significant increase in behavioral engagement (d = 1.22, p <.001) and achievement during and after the intervention (SMD = 1.28). Academic self-concept (MD = 0.57) and attitudes toward school (MD = 1.00) improved, attitudes toward teachers showed no change. Although goal valuation (MD = -0.67) and self-regulation (MD = -0.40) decreased, the student demonstrated increased awareness of self-regulation and goal-setting strategies. The study provides preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention.

Results from Study 3 (n = 57) showed students reported large improvements in their academic self-perception (Cohen’s d = 0.46) and self-regulation (Cohen’s d = 0.44), and small improvements in goal valuation (Cohen’s d = 0.16) after participating in the AME curriculum. Data from Study 4 (n = 108) have been collected and cleaned but are still being analyzed.

This program of studies showed that positive changes in academic achievement, behavioral engagement, self-perception, self-regulation, and attitudes toward school occurred when the intervention was implemented. Therefore, these findings offer valuable insights for developing and implementing affective interventions targeting achievement motivation.

Author

• Ophélie Allyssa Desmet, Valdosta State University