Motivational influences on transfer of problem-solving strategies

Cognitive perspectives on maintaining physicians' medical expertise: V. Using a motivational framework to understand the benefits and costs of testing

We apply a motivational perspective to understand the implications of physicians' longitudinal assessment. We review the literature on situated expectancy-value theory, achievement goals, mindsets, anxiety, and stereotype threat in relation to testing and assessment. This review suggests several motivational benefits of testing as well as some potential challenges and costs posed by high-stakes, standardized tests. Many of the motivational benefits for testing can be understood from the equation of having the perceived benefits of the test outweigh the perceived costs of preparing for and taking the assessment. Attention to instructional framing, test purposes and values, and longitudinal assessment frameworks provide vehicles to further enhance motivational benefits and reduce potential costs of assessment.

Fostering non-aviation undergraduates' aviation literacy in an online aviation laboratory: effects on students' perceptions, motivation, industry optimism

Aviation is a multidisciplinary subject that has influenced human development over the last century. Learning about aviation exposes students to principles of flight, earth science, aeronautical engineering, language, aviation communication and airmanship. In higher education, many non-aviation undergraduates participate in aviation related activities to have a first glimpse of the aviation industry and equip themselves with basic concepts. This study aims to examine learning perception among 82 university students who have participated in a series of online aviation career exploration activities during the pandemic in Hong Kong and China. They participated in virtual visits and career talks led by aviation professionals, hands-on flight simulation activities and online discussion in an online lab setting. A mixed research method was employed with the use of a motivational survey, teachers' observation and semi-structured interviews to understand students' learning perceptions. This study found that flying laboratory activities could effectively motivate students to learn aviation and improve their aviation knowledge. This could promote students' aviation industry optimism, which may help the industry to recover in the post-pandemic world. This article offers recommendations for online engineering educators to use emerging technologies to teach aviation for future career preparation.

Shifting from Face-to-Face Instruction to Distance Learning of Science in China and Israel During COVID-19: Students' Motivation and Teachers' Motivational Practices

Science teachers in many countries were required to shift from face-to-face (F2F) instruction to distance learning (DL) during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the aim of helping science teachers learn how to support their students in negotiating such shifts in the future, we used an online motivation survey based on achievement goal theory to investigate the shifts to over two thousand 8th grade students' perceptions of their science teachers' motivational practices and their own goal orientations towards science that occurred during the transition from F2F instruction to DL in two very different countries, China and Israel. We hoped to identify issues common to both countries, assuming that these issues might be relevant to other countries as well. Factor analysis, t-tests, and multiple regression were used to identify key teacher motivational practices, changes to these practices and to students' goal orientations, and relations between teacher practices and student goal orientations. The major predictor of students' mastery orientation towards science in both F2F instruction and DL, teachers' attentiveness to their students' need to understand, declined for students in both countries during the shift from F2F to DL, and was associated with a decline in students' mastery orientation, engagement, and enjoyment.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Parents and their Adolescent Children in Relation to Science Learning

With the transition to distance-learning at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, several countries required parents and their children to remain at home, under lockdown. Many parents found themselves taking on additional responsibilities regarding their children's education. However, children do not always interpret their parents' intentions as they intended. This study investigated this complex relationship, showing that parents' emphases regarding science learning changed during the first COVID-19 lockdown and in parallel, the relations between these emphases and their adolescent children's goal orientation and self-efficacy toward science learning also changed. In 2019, one year before the COVID-19 lockdown, the children's mastery and performance orientations toward science, and their self-efficacy in science were significantly correlated with their parent's attitudes toward science. In 2020, shortly after the end of the first COVID-19 lockdown, these relations remained significant, but in addition the parents' emphasis on performance became a significant predictor of the children's mastery and performance orientations, and of their self-efficacy in science. A small increase in the children's performance orientation and self-efficacy in science was seen, and only a small decline in their mastery orientation toward science. These findings contrast with what the literature indicates is typical at this age, when there are no lockdown conditions.

Disrupted Lessons in Engineering Robotics: Pivoting Knowledge Transfer From Physical to Virtual Learning Environments

This study examined the effects of an Arduino microrobot activity on college students' interest in robotics through three specific objectives: (1) determining how students' conceptual understanding regarding the basics of microcomputing and computer programming changes after engaging in an engineering robotics learning module, (2) assessing the impact of these changes on students' sense of competence in engineering robotics, and (3) explaining the role of students' perceived knowledge transferability in the relationship between their sense of competence and changes in their interest for pursuing engineering robotics. Participants (n = 58) were recruited from two Engineering Physics courses and surveyed before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) an Arduino microcomputing learning activity. First, significant increases were reported post-activity for interest in robotics, as well as conceptual understanding of microelectronics and computer programming. Second, changes in the understanding of computer programming significantly predicted students' sense of competence at Time 2. Finally, high and low levels of competence and perceived knowledge transferability were related to changes in students' interest in robotics. Moreover, high levels of perceived knowledge transferability alone played an important role in students' interest in robotics. Transferring complex engineering ideas to novel situations was beneficial regarding students' learning gains associated with computer programming and with the Arduino microcontroller platform. An overview of the virtual lab architecture used is provided with suggested novel directions for teaching college-level courses about engineering robotics.

A meta-analysis of induced achievement goals: the moderating effects of goal standard and goal framing

In this paper, we present a meta-analysis of the motivational and performance effects of experimentally induced achievement goals and the moderating effects of goal standard and goal framing; comprising 90 studies which provided 235 effect sizes (11,247 participants). The findings show that, relative to performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals and no-goals, induced mastery-approach goals enhanced performance, but not motivation. With regards to the goal standard used in the inducement, mastery-approach goals related to better performance than performance-approach goals, when mastery-approach goals were based on task-referenced standards or when social comparison was used as a standard for inducing performance-approach goals. With regards to the goal framing used in the inducement, mastery-approach goals were more beneficial when achievement goals were induced by means of goal content. We therefore conclude that goal framing and goal standard should be taken into consideration in achievement goal research and practice.

Service-Learning and Chinese College Students' Knowledge Transfer Development

As a form of experiential education, service learning (SL) shows great potential for promoting students' knowledge transfer as it offers students opportunities to apply what they have learned in classrooms to serve communities in real-life contexts. To explore how students' knowledge transfer evolves during SL, we collected longitudinal survey data from 96 Chinese college students in a 9-week SL program. Results indicate that (a) students' perceived knowledge transfer in SL did not follow a linear trajectory. Although students' perceived knowledge transfer at the end of SL was significantly higher than those at the beginning, a slight drop was observed in the middle of SL; (b) the developmental pattern of perceived knowledge transfer varied across students; and (c) students' perceived knowledge transfer development during SL was associated with mastery goal orientation and perceptions of psychologically controlling behaviors from their SL supervisors. By providing evidence of the dynamic process and mechanisms of students' knowledge transfer development, the present study adds to our understanding of how, when, and why the benefits of SL are realized.

Safety-Specific Leadership, Goal Orientation, and Near-Miss Recognition: The Cross-Level Moderating Effects of Safety Climate

Near-miss recognition is an increasingly important area of research in safety management. Drawing on the self-determination theory, we ask whether and how safety-specific transformational leadership and safety-specific active transactional leadership promote near-miss recognition. We also explore the boundary condition by focusing on the moderating role of safety climate. We analyzed time-lagged data from 370 participants, and found that safety-specific transformational leadership enhances employees' near-miss recognition (by enhancing their learning goal orientation), and that safety-specific active transactional leadership also positively influences employees' near-miss recognition (by stimulating their performance goal orientation). In addition, we show that safety climate strengthens the relationship between safety-specific transactional leadership and employees' performance goal orientation, but does not affect the relationship between safety-specific transformational leadership and employees' learning goal orientation. We discuss the implications and limitations of the research.

The role of working memory in achievement goal pursuit

The present research examined the role of working memory in the pursuit of qualitatively different achievement goals. Pursuit of a mastery-approach goal entails a focus on developing self-referential competence while a performance-approach goal entails a focus on demonstrating normative competence. Across two experiments it was found that, when working memory is loaded, individuals pursuing a mastery-approach goal experienced larger performance decrements than individuals pursuing a performance-approach goal or those in a no-goal control. It was also found that reliance upon working memory intensive strategies (explicit strategies) was more evident for those in a mastery-approach condition, whereas reliance upon less working memory intensive strategies (implicit strategies) was more evident for those in the performance-approach condition. Results suggest that a motivated focus on developing self-referential skill relies heavily on working memory, facilitated by the use of deliberative, 'step-by-step' strategies during goal pursuit. Conversely, a focus on demonstrating normative skill depends less on working memory, facilitated by the use of more heuristic 'short-cut' strategies during goal pursuit. These findings show, for the first time, that working memory plays an important, but selective, role in achievement goal pursuit.

Dispositional and situational learning goals and children's self-regulation

BACKGROUND

Little research has examined interactions between self-reported dispositional and experimentally manipulated situational group orientations in their effect on self-regulation.

AIMS

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of dispositional and situational learning goal orientation on children's self-efficacy and engagement and persistence at a puzzle task.

SAMPLE

A self-report learning goal orientation scale was completed by 110 children, aged 9-11 years. Fifty-three children (24 girls) selected to be high and low on the scale participated in the experiment.

METHODS

Half of the children were given instructions designed to evoke learning goals, while the remainder received performance goal instructions. Children attempted a difficult puzzle task on two occasions, when measures were made of self-regulatory behaviours.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Children assigned to the learning goal instruction were more likely to persist at the task until the end of the allotted time, displayed more on-task behaviour and engaged in more autonomous help-seeking. These effects were more pronounced following the first task, which all children had been unable to complete. Dispositional task orientation did not predict individual differences on these measures. The findings are interpreted in terms of learned helplessness and self-worth theory.