Are all Pupils Equally Motivated to do Their Best on all Tests? Differences in Reported Test-Taking Motivation within and between Tests with Different Stakes

ABSTRACT

This study investigated changes in reported test-taking motivation from a low-stakes to a high-stakes test and if there are differences in reported test-taking motivation between school classes. A questionnaire including scales assessing reported effort, expectancies, perceived importance, interest, and test anxiety was administered to a sample of pupils (n = 375) in 9th grade in direct connection to a national test field trial and then again to the same sample in connection to the regular national test in science. Two-level second-order latent growth modelling was used to analyse data. In summary, the results show a significant increase in reported test-taking motivation from the field trial to the regular test and a significant variability in test-taking motivation between classes.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilevel modelling
• test-taking motivation
• test stakes
• class effect

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 “It was fun to do this test”.

2 Observed variance at class level divided by total observed variance.

3 Kurtosis for “I did my best on this test” on the regular test was 6.0.

4 They used a combined effort and importance scale.

5 The highest stake condition was “However, your test scores may be released to faculty in your college or to potential employers to evaluate your academic ability.”

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council [grant number 2012-5075].