Promises and Pitfalls of Adapting Utility Value Interventions for Online Math Courses

Abstract

A growing body of research suggests that interventions promoting students’ utility value for a subject can improve their academic outcomes. However, numerous questions remain regarding how much to adapt prior intervention materials to promote utility value in new educational contexts and how implementation constraints of an educational context may impact the success of these interventions. In this study, using a design-based process we developed and tested three utility value interventions in a new educational context (online high school math). We found that one of the interventions increased utility value compared to control conditions, but we also encountered constraints on intervention implementation that limited the effectiveness of our intervention and the conclusions we could draw from this work. We use our experience as a case study to illustrate the costs and benefits of making certain implementation choices when partnering with practitioners to administer utility value interventions in new contexts.

Keywords:

• Expectancy value theory
• motivation
• intervention
• mathematics education
• adolescence

Additional information

Funding

The writing of this article was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 1714481 and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship DGE 1322106 to the first author; by NSF awards 1534835 and 1252463 to the second author; by Grant R305B090002 to the fourth author from the Institute of Education Sciences, U. S. Department of Education through the University of Virginia; by Grant R305B150003 to the fifth author from the Institute of Education Science, U.S. Department of Education through the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and by support from the PERTS Research Center at Stanford University. Any findings expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or Institute for Education Sciences.