CHANGES IN STUDENTS’ BELIEFS, VALUES, AND GOALS IN LANGUAGE ART ACROSS GRADES SEVEN TO ELEVEN

1. Normand Roy, PhDStudent Roch Chouinard, PhD University of Montreal CHANGES IN STUDENTS’ BELIEFS, VALUES, AND GOALS IN LANGUAGE ART ACROSS GRADES SEVEN TO ELEVEN

2. With an alarming 35% drop-out rate of our students in Canada, institutions must have a closer look on different factors of engagement at school (Bowlby and McMullen, 2002). Achievement motivation and success in language arts are key elements of students’ engagement. Context

3. According to Expectancy-value theories, engagement and achievement are best predicted by the combination of students’ expectations and the value attributed to success Motivation researchers have also become interested in students’ achievement goals. Three goals model was retained for this research : mastery (approach) goals, performance (approach) goals and work-avoidance goals Achievement motivation

4. Most researchers observed a drop of achievement motivation through high school years for both gender (Fredrick and Eccles, 2002; Jacobs, Lanza, Osgood, Eccles, & Wigfield, 2002; Watt, 2004). Generally, they also observed that girls seems more motivated than boys in language arts. Context

5. However, results of those studies diverge on the trajectories of boys and girls (Jacobs, Lanza, Osgood, Eccles, & Wigfield, 2002; Watt, 2004). Watt (2004) found no evidence of a gender intensification or gender convergence on motivational variables. The authors concluded that: “…magnitude of gender differences remained stable, with differently shaped trajectories for boys and girls on only three constructs of the full set.” In counterpart, Jacob et al. (2002) concluded that: “If anygenderdifferencegetsmagnifiedduring adolescence, itis in language arts, with boys’ feelings of competence and values decreasing more rapidlythan girls during the middle school or junior highyears”. Context

6. Examine the development of boys and girls’ achievement motivation toward language arts during adolescence. Objectives

7. Sample: 1313 French-Canadian Students in an accelerated cross-sequential sample design (2 cohorts) 7th to 9th grade : n = 358 boys, 387 girls; Meanage = 12.96 9th to 11th grade : n = 216 boys, 351 girls; Meanage = 15.02 14 high-schools in Montreal area (Canada) (similar Social Economical Background) Instrument: Self-reported attitudinal questionnaire at the beginning and the end of the 3 academic years. Method

8. Items from most scales were rated on a five-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (‘Strongly disagree’) to 5 (‘Strongly agree’). Competence beliefs were measured on a four-point scale ranging from ‘Totally like me’ to ‘Totally unlike me’. Competence Beliefs (Harter, 1982): 6 items, α = .845 ”Some students think that they are very good in language arts” Control Beliefs (Fennema-Sherman, 1976): 6 items, α = .817 “I am certain I can succeed in language arts” INSTRUMENT

9. Utility value (Fennema-Sherman, 1976): 6 items, α = .859 “What I learn in language arts will be useful in my adult life” Mastery-Approach Goals (Bouffard et al, 1998) : 8 items, α = .911 “In language arts, I like difficult activities that permit me to acquire new knowledge” Performance-Approach Goals (Bouffard et al, 1998) : 8 items, α = .749 “In language arts, I compete with others to get higher marks” Work-Avoidance Goals (Bouffard et al, 1998): 7 items, α = .752 “In language arts, I do not work much on activities that are not considered for the final grades”

10. Multilevel procedure (HLM) (Bryk & Raudenbush, 2002) was used to model changes in males and females achievement motivation in language arts over time Level 1 expresses the dependent variable in relation to the explanatory variable that varies within-individuals (time of measurement) (β0 = 9th grade) Level 2 consists of explanatory variables that do not change over time because they are inherently stable (gender and cohort). DATA TREATMENT

11. Results

12. Gender (β0 = +0.175***). Competencebeliefs

13. Gender β0 = -0.253*** Interaction m = -0.302*** Control Beliefs

14. Gender β0 = +0.347*** Interaction m = -0.277** Utility Value

15. Time (7th to 9th) boys and girls m = -0.320*** Interaction (9th to 11th) boys: m = -0.369*** girls: m = -0.020*** Mastery-approach Goals

16. Time (7th to 9th) boys and girls m = -0.172** Performance-approach Goals

17. Gender β0 = +0.200*** Interaction m = +0.329*** Work-avoidance Goals

18. Examine the development of boys and girls’ achievement motivation toward language arts during adolescence. Gender effect Time effect Time x Gender effect Objectives

19. Gender effect Girls feel more competent, feel having a better control on their chance of success, and have more interest, more mastery-approach goals and reported less work-avoidance goals in language arts than boys. Discussion

20. Overall, we did observed a general decline of achievement motivation over time, also observe by Fredrick and Eccles (2002), Jacobs et al. (2002) and Watt (2004). Moreover, our results showed a gender gap intensification Girls’ motivation stay relatively stable or slightly decline between grade 7 to 11. Boys’ motivation decline significantly, mainly between grade 9 to 11, in language arts Time and Time x Gendereffect

21. Future research should have a closer look on motivation for boys between grade 9 to 11 to determine underlying process that negatively impact achievement motivation in language arts. Conclusion

22. Kiitoshyvinpaljon ThankyouverymucH