Profiles of achievement motivation and instructional dissent

ABSTRACT

We integrated perspectives from achievement goal theory and expectancy-value theory to investigate how undergraduate students’ (N = 475) achievement motivation might influence their instructional dissent. A latent profile analysis of students’ achievement goals, performance self-efficacy, task value, and perceived cost revealed four distinct subgroups of students characterized by differences in their achievement motivation. Students between these latent profiles differed to some degree in their use of expressive and vengeful dissent but not rhetorical dissent. When examining instructor clarity as a triggering agent of dissent, lack of clarity was positively associated with all three types of instructional dissent; however, auxiliary moderation models revealed that latent profile membership did not moderate these effects. Our results suggest that although instructor clarity has similar effects on students’ instructional dissent—regardless of their latent profile membership—students still experience some differences in instructional dissent which can be explained by their achievement motivation profiles.

KEYWORDS:

• achievement goals
• task value
• self-efficacy
• clarity
• instructional dissent

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matt Shin

Matt Shin (M.A., California State University, Fullerton, 2020) is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University.

Scott A. Myers

Scott A. Myers (Ph.D., Kent State University, 1995) is a Professor and Peggy Rardin McConnell Teaching Chair of Communication Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University.

Zac D. Johnson

Zac D. Johnson (Ph.D., West Virginia University, 2013) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Communication Studies at California State University, Fullerton.