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Emerging evidence attests to the need to intervene in young students' science motivation and achievement before their science motivation starts to dwindle. Heeding this call, we implemented a science utility value intervention for fifth and sixth graders in 23 classrooms (N = 550). Through five intervention sessions that consisted of diverse individual and group activities including writing, students learned and internalized the personal and communal usefulness of science for 14 popular non-STEM professions as well as their own aspired future careers. After the intervention, the students in the experimental condition perceived greater utility value of science, were more interested and self-efficacious in their science classes, expressed greater appreciation of the role science played in their future careers, and aspired to science-related careers more strongly than the students in the control condition. The intervention was especially effective for improving the personal utility value, appreciation, and science-related career intention of girls. The advantage of the experimental group in science interest and self-efficacy, compared to the control group that received a delayed intervention, was maintained till the end of the semester. The findings provide important empirical and practical insights into designing effective science interventions for young learners.

The role of motivation in online learning has been explored mostly as a predictor of course retention or satisfaction, rather than as an adaptive outcome in itself. We thus aimed to investigate how the features of motivation develop in online courses during the semester and how students' perceived teaching and social presences influence their motivational growth in online learning. A total of 152 college students responded to a questionnaire about motivational beliefs, expectancies, and task values, in an online course three times during a semester, as well as perceived teaching and social presences assessed once. Latent growth models reported all motivation variables significantly and positively developed over time, and the motivational growths were predicted by teaching and social presences. More precisely, teaching presence predicted baseline expectancies at the beginning of the course, while social presence predicted both baseline and growth of expectancies and intrinsic value over the course duration.

Purpose: We examined the extent to which achievement goals predict reading comprehension, measured by two response formats (free recall and constructed response), and how these relations differ for students with and without reading difficulties (RD). We further explored how executive functions (working memory and semantic verbal fluency) mediate the relations between achievement goals and reading comprehension. Method: We fit multigroup structural equation models with data from monolingual English-speaking fifth graders (n = 146 for RD; n = 109 for non-RD) in the United States. Results: Results revealed that achievement goals predict reading comprehension as measured by the free recall but not by the constructed response format, and this pattern was moderated by RD status. For students with RD, mastery goals positively predicted performance on free recall, a relationship that was completely mediated by semantic verbal fluency, whereas performance-approach goals were negatively related to free recall. For students without RD, however, achievement goals did not predict reading comprehension as measured by either assessment format. Conclusion: Our findings underscore the need to account for motivational differences in reading comprehension and the importance of fostering mastery goals when teaching reading comprehension, particularly for students with RD. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED627133.]

Background: A controversy over the distinction between curiosity and situational interest has recently resurfaced. Nonetheless, empirical research comparing the two is noticeably lacking. Aims: We attempted to fill this gap and provide much-needed evidence of the distinction between curiosity and situational interest by examining the antecedents and consequences of the two constructs. Methods: We assessed enjoyment, novelty, uncertainty and surprise as potential antecedents and information seeking, individual interest, career intention and achievement as potential outcomes of curiosity and situational interest among 219 Korean sixth graders in the domain of science. Results: Of the hypothesized antecedents, enjoyment during science class related most strongly to students' situational interest in science, whereas novelty in science class related most strongly to students' science curiosity. Uncertainty and surprise in science class related to only science curiosity and not situational interest in science. Among the outcomes considered, situational interest in science related to only students' individual interest in science. In comparison, science curiosity related significantly to all science outcomes measured in this study. Science curiosity also significantly mediated the relationships between the antecedents and outcomes in science. Conclusions: Together, these results support the distinction between curiosity and situational interest and suggest different ways to promote each motivation construct depending on desired outcomes in the science classroom.

Are there really "right-brained" and "left-brained" learners? The argument of left- and right-brain learning is the second most pervasive neuromyth in education. In this article, we debunk this myth by distinguishing fact from fiction. Each hemisphere indeed shows dominance in processing certain types of cognitive function. However, individual characteristics and learning potentials cannot be categorized into the left or the right brain. Not only is the entire brain required for any type of learning, but also there exist considerable individual differences in the hemispheric specialization of any specific function. Good teaching is not determining or matching instruction to who is left and who is right but engaging each student's whole brain. Teachers should instead help students utilize and develop their whole brain by (a) delivering instruction in multiple modes and providing diverse encoding pathways, (b) involving students in the extensive practice of important skills, and (c) promoting students' agency and self-regulation.

Student motivation varies quickly, particularly under the pressing context. However, extant literature tends to focus on the individual, rather than contextual, differences in motivational patterns. We examined Korean adolescents' time-varying pursuits of achievement goals and learning outcomes using the experience sampling method, which collects individuals' subjective experiences repeatedly across time and context. A hyperlink to an 11-item online survey asking about achievement goals and learning outcomes at the moment was sent to 45 adolescents twelve times during the weekend before the midterm examination. The multilevel data revealed that mastery-approach goals predicted cognitive strategies better at the between-person level where they were treated as stable individual characteristics. In comparison, ability-approach and -avoidance goals retained their predictive power at the within-person level where their time-dependent changes significantly predicted several outcomes. The results demonstrate how adolescents' achievement goals fluctuated during a short time and how these changes predicted different learning outcomes.

We aimed to investigate the inter- and intra-individual relationships between early adolescents' achievement goals, metacognitive monitoring, and academic outcomes. Korean sixth graders responded to achievement goal questionnaires, solved four quizzes, monitored their own confidence in these four quizzes, and took a final exam. Given the nested data structure, we conducted multi-level path modeling, which can distinguish between inter- and intra-individual effects in a single model. We found significant between-person indirect effects of mastery goals on the final exam score via individual's average scores for the four calibrations and for the four quizzes. We also found a positive within-person relationship between the calibration and quiz scores. The students' pursuit of personal mastery goals positively moderated this within-person relationship. These findings indicate that pursuing mastery goals can be more effective for metacognitive monitoring and knowledge acquisition, particularly for early adolescents.

Reading for understanding is a challenging task for many upper elementary struggling readers, and their attitudes toward such challenges can make a difference in their subsequent engagement and reading achievement. Mindset and achievement goals provide a useful explanatory framework for understanding struggling readers' engagement and reading comprehension. This study examined the extent to which mindset and achievement goals are associated with reading comprehension; as well as the mechanism through which engagement mediates this relation, controlling for the effects of vocabulary, word recognition, and limited English proficiency status. Structural equation modeling of four and fifth grade struggling readers (N = 107) demonstrated the importance of achievement goals in predicting reading comprehension. Effects of mindset on engagement and reading comprehension were completely mediated by mastery and performance-avoidance goals; further, these goals had indirect relations to reading comprehension through emotional engagement. Performance-approach goals had a direct, negative relation to reading comprehension. Findings highlight the importance of including motivational variables in understanding sources of individual differences in reading comprehension for struggling readers.

By analyzing the open-ended reasons for studying generated by 3 different groups of Korean middle school students, we aimed to provide partial answers to current issues in achievement goal research that are difficult to resolve solely with the use of survey ratings. We categorized student responses using the achievement goal frameworks of Midgley et al. (2000), Elliot and McGregor (2001), and Grant and Dweck (2003), as well as the social-academic goal framework of Dowson and McInerney (2003). The responses gained from interviews with the students (Study 2) supported our categorization. Grant and Dweck's normative (Study 1) and outcome goals (Study 2) and Midgley et al.'s performance-approach goals (Study 3) appeared most frequently when competence-oriented responses were considered, while Dowson and McInerney's social status goals were the most common for noncompetence responses. Grant and Dweck's framework as a whole accounted for the largest proportion of competence-oriented responses. However, when present-oriented achievement goals were analyzed independently, Midgley et al.'s mastery goals (Grant and Dweck's learning goals) accounted for the overwhelming majority of student responses. Grant and Dweck's ability validation goals were also especially prominent among students subjected to ability grouping (Study 3), demonstrating the effect of the immediate learning environment on the types of achievement goals that students pursue. Elliot and McGregor's mastery-avoidance goals were rare regardless of whether all achievement goals or only those in the immediate classroom context were examined. A majority of students also pursued only a single goal from within Elliot and McGregor's 2 × 2 framework.

The purposes of the present study were to investigate (a) how the subjectively perceived achievement goals of significant others would predict the academic self-efficacy and achievement goals of Korean adolescents and (b) how those self-efficacy and achievement goals in turn predicted their achievement. We also compared these predictive relationships between 339 elementary and 507 middle school students. The perceived achievement goals of teachers, peers and parents made unique contributions to students' self-efficacy and achievement goals in mathematics. The perceived achievement goals of teachers demonstrated stronger relationships with students' motivation in the elementary school than middle school samples, whereas those of peers and parents showed comparable relationships across the two samples. The perceived performance goals of peers and parents displayed particularly strong links to students' motivation. Among the motivation variables, self-efficacy again emerged as the most consistent and powerful predictor of achievement. Our results confirmed perceived contexts and motivation as critical contributors to students' achievement in school.