Students’ motivation in secondary and post-secondary education

Educational Psychology focuses on the research on psychological issues in education, ranging from pre-school to tertiary education. This current issue deals with psychological aspects related to students’ motivation in secondary school and post-secondary education. Research into motivation concerns the study of why students behave the way they do (Graham & Weiner, 2012; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). What instigates their actions and behaviours? What directs them, helps them persist, or will eventually put an end to their actions? Motivation is one of the most studied concepts in educational research. However, many questions remain, such as the generalizability of research findings relating to motivation theories in different educational contexts, across culture, and time. The articles in this issue give new insights into these questions.

Two articles in this issue examine psychological aspects related to the motivation of 16+-year old students in vocational education settings. Studies have reported motivational problems of students in vocational education, yet there is little research on this topic (Cents-Boonstra et al., 2019; Glerum et al., 2018). Therefore, the investigation of students’ motivation in a vocational context is essential. Van der Veen and Peetsma (2020) added new insight into the development of first-year students’ academic delay of gratification and motivational beliefs after they transitioned to senior secondary vocational education in the Netherlands. Overall, they found little change in students’ achievement goal orientation and academic self-efficacy during the first year. However, a decrease in students’ delay of gratification was observed after the transition to senior secondary vocational education.

Moè and Putwain (2020) examined the effects of evaluative versus non-evaluative messages on vocational students’ performance, affect, and intrinsic motivation in mathematics. In the evaluative message, the importance of obtaining high marks was stressed, whereas the non-evaluative message emphasised the importance of investing effort to succeed. Their study revealed that only the performance of male students was increased by receiving an evaluative message compared to a non-evaluative massage, which suggests a stereotype lift effect because maths is often viewed as a masculine subject. They further found that female students showed decreased intrinsic motivation after receiving the evaluative message when compared to the non-evaluative message, which suggests they may have experienced stereotype threat.

The subsequent two articles in this issue discuss national data that were collected as part of broader cross-national studies (Diseth et al., 2020; Niehues et al., 2020). Both studies give insight into the cross-national validity of motivational measures and theories. Diseth et al. (2020) used the Norwegian data from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children: WHO Collaborative Cross-National survey (see Roberts et al., 2009). They investigated if the factorial structure of the Norwegian version of the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Scale found in prior research in the United States (US) could be replicated (Lepper et al., 2005) and its association with academic achievement. Niehues et al. (2020) examined how family socioeconomic status, parents’ education-related beliefs, and the school’s performance level were associated with students’ motivational beliefs and maths achievement in Turkey using PISA 2012 data (OECD, 2014). Particularly, they investigated the applicability of Expectancy Value-Theory (EVT) in Turkey, which is more collectivist-oriented than countries such as the US, where EVT was initially developed (Tonks et al., 2019). Furthermore, the US and Turkey have different school systems.

Both Diseth et al. (2020) and Niehues et al. (2020) found similarities and differences with results from prior research. For example, Diseth et al. (2020) replicated the factor structure of the measure but found that some relationships between motivation and academic achievement were different from their expectations. Interestingly, and in contrast to EVT, Niehues et al. (2020) showed that higher interest in maths was associated with lower maths achievement. However, in line with EVT, competence beliefs were positively associated with achievement. Results further showed that attending higher-performing schools was associated with higher maths achievement, both directly and indirectly through competence beliefs. Together the studies by Diseth et al. (2020) and Niehues et al. (2020) indicate the relevance of examining cross-national differences, such as differences in the school system, that may impact motivation and its association with other student outcomes.

Two other articles in this issue investigate problems surrounding self-handicapping and other deceptive student behaviours. Coudevylle et al. (2020) investigated the effect of experimentally manipulated performance, mastery, and need-supportive motivational climates on perceived competence and claimed self-handicapping strategies in physical education. An example of claimed self-handicapping is reporting an injury in physical education before performing an activity to protect or reward one’s self-image (Hirt et al., 1991). Coudevylle et al. (2020) showed that students claimed fewer handicaps in the need-supportive relative to the performance motivational climate, indicating that supporting students’ need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is beneficial in preventing self-reported self-handicapping.

Boskovic (2020) investigated malingering, a form of deceptive behaviour whereby students intentionally fabricate psychological or physical symptoms to obtain an external incentive (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In this study, university students read a vignette about a student who performed poorly on an exam. They were incentivized to malinger with a positive (i.e. receiving a recommendation) or negative incentive (i.e. being publicly known for bad exam performance). Results demonstrated that 94% of students were willing to malinger to a certain degree, such as telling the professor they had a fever or experienced stomach problem during the exam, regardless of the incentive.

Finally, Duchesne and Ratelle (2020) conducted a longitudinal study in which they investigated the predictive role of mastery-approach and performance-avoidance goals on social adjustment in high school two years later, mediated through academic motivation. Mastery-approach and performance-avoidance goals indirectly affected emotional adjustment through introjected motivation and amotivation. Mastery-approach goals positively affected emotional adjustment through lowered amotivation. However, mastery-approach goals had a negative effect when students experienced introjected motivation (e.g. studying out of guilt or shame). Performance-avoidance negatively affected emotional adjustment through increased amotivation and introjected motivation. Results further showed that performance-avoidance goals were a direct, negative predictor of social adjustment.

To sum up, the articles selected for this issue make a significant contribution to our understanding of the factors surrounding motivation in (post-)secondary education. A theme that runs through all the studies is the importance of considering the context in which psychological aspects surrounding students’ motivation takes place. This context could refer to the country or school system in which the study was conducted (Diseth et al., 2020; Niehues et al., 2020; Van der Veen & Peetsma, 2020), the timing of the measurements (Duchesne & Ratelle, 2020; Van der Veen & Peetsma, 2020), or the motivational climate, messages, or incentives students received (Boskovic, 2020; Coudevylle et al., 2020; Moè & Putwain, 2020). My sincere gratitude goes out to the many volunteer reviewers and the team of Educational Psychology for their time and expertise to strengthen the quality of the articles.