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Session Type: Paper Symposium
Persistence at mastering challenging tasks, or mastery motivation, plays a key role in learning and achievement (Turner and Johnson, 2003), is malleable (Moorman and Pomerantz, 2008), and is a core concept in development (Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000). Mastery motivation is an essential school readiness skill, and for children living in poverty, may play a critical role in closing the achievement gap (Magnuson, Waldfogel & Washbrook, 2012). Although interventions targeting mastery motivation have successfully improved academic outcomes in older children (Blackwell, Trzesniewski & Dweck, 2007), attempts to apply this research to early childhood have yielded mixed results due to the absence of developmentally appropriate measures (Brown, 2009, Day & Burns, 2011). This session seeks to address this gap by presenting three varied approaches for directly assessing mastery motivation in young children.
First, we present a tablet-based assessment of mastery motivation that measures persistence during three tasks. This reliable and valid school readiness assessment is child-friendly and efficient and easy for educators to administer in authentic educational settings. Next, we present a game-based tablet measure that assesses preschooler’s mastery orientation in response to success and failure. While reliability was demonstrated, the results suggest a complex interplay between children’s self-awareness of their performance and mastery motivation. Finally, we introduce a measure using a problem-posing block-building toy, validated with preschoolers from low-income families and significantly correlated with academic outcomes. The discussant will highlight the strengths and drawbacks of each measure and pose recommendations for future work on this critical topic.
A Computer-based Assessment of Mastery Motivation for Young Children: Reliability and Validity of a New Measure - Presenting Author: Krisztián Józsa, University of Szeged, Hungary; Karen Caplovitz Barrett, Colorado State University; George Morgan, Colorado State University
Assessing Preschoolers’ Mastery Motivation Based on Their Choice of Task Difficulty: Understanding Counterintuitive Results - Presenting Author: Andres S. Bustamante, Temple University
The Preschool Assessment of Mastery Motivation: Measuring Goal-oriented Behavior During a Moderately Challenging Puzzle Task - Presenting Author: Jessica Young, Education Development Center; Janna Fuccillo Kook, Education Development Center; Kristen Reed, Education Development Center