3-155 - Measuring Mastery Motivation in Early Childhood: Methodological Advances and Challenges

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

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.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Kristen Reed, Education Development Center

Discussant

• Penny Hauser-Cram, Boston College

Individual Presentations

• 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