Process Model of Motivational Decision Making and Classroom Competence

• In Event: Part 2 – Recent Advancement in Sociocultural Influences on Motivation and Learning: Big Theories Revisited

Abstract

Purpose and theoretical framework: The purpose of this paper is to present a model of motivational decision-making that is based on a competence-in-context perspective. This perspective can be found in the work of several theorists (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1989; see also Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Ford, 1992; Maehr & Braskamp, 1986), who suggest that becoming a competent and well-adjusted student is a multi-faceted and complex process that involves the achievement of goals that are valued and interesting to the student as well as those that are valued by teachers and peers. They further suggest that competence is a product of personal attributes that facilitate successful goal pursuit and contextual supports. A model depicting such factors is depicted in Figure 2.

Modes of inquiry: An extensive literature based on multiple methods and informants supports the proposed model (see Wentzel, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017; Wentzel & Muenks, 2016 for reviews). Studies have focused on samples of adolescents in the U.S. that reflect geographic, racial and ethnic diversity, and have examined multiple social supports from parents, teachers, and peers in relation to motivation beliefs, goal choice and goal pursuit. Findings support the significant contribution of multiple supports from parents, teachers, and peers, to children’s motivation to learn and to behave appropriately at school.

Results: Based on social developmental and motivational perspectives, this model suggests that specific social, psychological, and affective processes regulate the extent to which students will actively pursue goals. The model predicts that social supports and motivational beliefs are related to classroom competence by way of pursuit of goals to achieve outcomes that are central to the learning process. These goals can reflect many outcomes, including displays of appropriate classroom behavior, and efforts to learn and understand subject matter. Social provisions from teachers and peers in the form of clear expectations and opportunities for goal pursuit, instrumental help, emotional support and safety and responsivity reflect potential contextual influences on student goal pursuit. In part, these provisions support goal pursuit by providing input concerning socially-valued goals that students should pursue, and facilitating positive motivational beliefs in the form of values, self-efficacy, control beliefs, perceived social expectations and belongingness.

Scholarly significance: This model is unique in its perspective on competence-in-context for understanding motivation at school, and it extends more traditional views of classroom motivation by recognizing the role of social supports in facilitating student motivation and pursuit of appropriate classroom goals.

Author

• Kathryn R. Wentzel, University of Maryland