Motivation is seen as the foundation for learning. According to Pintrich (2003), motivation is important for all educational-related activities and is directly related to learning and performance as well as the behaviour shown by the students (Pintrich, 2003). In relation, Knekta (2017) mentions that motivation can affect, how, when why and what we learn differs between individuals and within individuals across different subjects and activities due to both personal and contextual factors. Motivation derives from the Latin verb movere (to move) (Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece, 2010) and one which according to Knekta (2017) implies that motivation makes us move, and keeps us moving. Schunk et al. (2010) and Wigfield et al (2009) also define motivation as ‘the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained’ and as the energy (students) brings to this tasks, beliefs, values, and goal that determine which task they pursue and their persistence in achieving them, and the standards they set to determine when a task has been accomplished. One such theory which explains motivation within education is the expectancy-value theory (Knekta, 2017). According to Wigfield & Eccles (2000), the expectancy-value theory is a social cognitive motivation theory that assumes that motivation involves cognition that directs action, as well as depending upon the individual as well as social and contextual variables. Knekta (2017) suggest that expectancy-value theory is used to understand domain-specific motivation as well as situation-specific motivation with Eccles (2000) highlighting that a student’s performance, effort, persistence, and task choice all depend upon their expectations of the success of the task in hand as well as the value they placed upon the task (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Eccles (2000) also expresses that the expectancies and values the student places upon the task are directly influenced by the student's own goals, general self-schemas, and experiences. Pintrich and Schunk (2002) defined test-taking motivation as the “student‟s engagement and expenditure of energy toward the goal of attaining the highest possible score on the test” Wise & DeMars, (2005) expands upon this and suggest that the expectancy aspect of achievement motivation is directly related to the individual’s beliefs about how well they will do on upcoming tasks. The value component of the expectancy-value theory for test taking is according to Wigfield and Eccles (2002) all about the extent to which an individual values a task, for example, ‘Why should I do this task? In general, research regarding test-taking motivation has taken a broad view of this definition by including varied measures of motivation such as effort, interest, usefulness, value, and importance (Cole & Bergin, 2006; Wise & DeMars, 2005). Wigfield and Eccles (2002) have also defined the perceived value of a task in terms of four major aspects: (1) the task’s attainment value or importance, (2) the interest value of the task, (3) the task’s future utility value, and (4) cost of the task. Wigfield and Eccles (2002) also suggest that the students' immediate enjoyment one gets from engaging in an activity, the importance of the task for some future goal, such as admission to a desired future outcome, the loss of time that could be used to engage in other valued activities, the psychological cost of failure, and the effort needed to succeed all impact the value a student places against the task being carried out. Within education any test that is performed to reflect a student’s ability to understand the information that has been presented is seen as the gold standard for understanding, however, as suggested above the ability for a student to become motivated to carry out any test to their best ability is governed by their expectancy values. Knekta (2017) suggest that the amount of effort that the student thinks will be necessary to get a good result is the effort needed for success and contributes to the cost. In turn, the effort the student puts into the test, and the invested effort are related to the outcome of the student’s expectation of success and the value they place on the task (Knekta, 2017). Wigfield & Eccles (2002): Eccles et al (1983) mention that expectancies and values must be understood by the student and teacher to predict students’ willingness to engage in a task. Wigfield & Eccles (2002) suggest that even if a student finds a task interesting and valuable, they may not engage with it if she doesn’t expect to do well at it. And relation a student may be confident of doing well at a task but chooses not to engage as they see no value in it (Eccles et al, 1983). It has been suggested by Cole (2007) that research is consistently showing that consequences (low and high stakes) are correlated with test-taking motivation and/or test performance, this means that a student score higher on high-stakes exams, compared to performance on low-stakes exams. The suggestion by Cole (2007) relates to prior research outlined by Wigfield & Eccles (2002) who demonstrated that students generally exhibit lower motivation for a low-stakes exam and that low motivation is associated with decreased test motivation and performance. One possible explanation could be that students experience low-stakes exams as a low-interest task and have very little meaning in the outcome of their academic achievement (Cole & Bergin, 2006). In relation, researchers have also found that the more difficult, a task that is new and has little experience, one that is time-consuming, boring, and/or cognitively demanding an item is, the fewer motivation test-takers have to invest effort into it (Barry, et al., 2010) leading to a lack of motivation when carrying it out, be this unfinished questions, not stating the test and making unneeded mistakes due to being hasty and rushed just to finish the test (DeMars, Bashkov, and Socha.2013). In concussion further empirical investigations into test-taking motivation in ecologically valid and varied achievement test situations are needed as the academic performance the student develops and achieves is very much dependent upon the motivation they have within their own educational journey.
Comments