Beyond utility value interventions: The why, when, and how for next steps in expectancy-value intervention research

Abstract

Motivational interventions grounded in Eccles and colleagues’ situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT) can promote students’ motivational beliefs and academic performance. However, most prior work has focused on one construct, perceived utility value. SEVT includes multiple constructs found to influence students’ academic motivation, performance, and choices. We therefore believe it is time to move beyond a sole focus on utility value by exploring interventions that are designed to impact the other central constructs in the theory. In this article we provide theoretical and research-based recommendations for the design of such interventions, focusing on the why, when, and how of their implementation. We discuss interventions to target students’ attainment value, intrinsic value, perceived cost, expectancies for success and/or ability beliefs, and different combinations of SEVT constructs. We conclude by discussing ideas for SEVT-based interventions that can address the situated, synergistic, and dynamic nature of motivation.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia and three anonymous reviewers for their particularly helpful feedback in structuring and organizing this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The writing of this article was supported in part by NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship [1714471] to Emily Q. Rosenzweig.