Mean Level Changes in Maths Motivation

A third research question the current study addressed was how the maths motivation of various cohorts of Australian high school students changes across time. While each facet of motivation showed fairly strong stability across the one-year interval, these findings provide information about relative rankings and do not tell us about the level of motivation students experienced. Therefore, tests of mean

differences between the two time-points, as well as cohort and gender differences in mean ratings were required to gain a fuller picture of motivation across the two years. This was to explore if Australian high school students on average experience an

increasingly maladaptive orientation towards maths and to examine the nature of any differences between boys and girls. The ANOVA analyses showed that students’ maths motivation generally became more negative, with ratings of all adaptive constructs decreasing across the year interval, while disengagement increased. They also revealed that girls tended to experience greater maladaptive cognitions, despite reporting more mastery orientation and study planning. However, most of the effect sizes represented by partial eta-squared were small according to Cohen’s (1988) recommendations. Only the time trend for valuing and the gender effect for anxiety and uncertain control showed moderate effect sizes. Consequently, interpretation of these results must take into account the effect sizes to keep the results in perspective.

The current results are consistent with research applying an EVT and goal- orientation approach that report decreases in students’ competency beliefs (Jacobs et al., 2002; Wigifield et al., 1991), values (Fredricks & Eccles, 2002; Gottfried et al., 2001; Ma & Cartwright, 2003; Watt, 2004) and mastery goals (Chouinard & Roy, 2008) during high school. However in contrast to some (Fredricks & Eccles, 2002; Marsh, 1989), the current study found no evidence of a curvilinear trend during later grades, as ratings of

adaptive constructs decreased steadily for all cohorts. The absence of a later recovery in adaptive motivation may be due to the range of grades sampled in the current study. Previous studies reporting curvilinear trends for adaptive cognitions have included all the secondary year levels (Fredricks & Eccles, 2002; Marsh, 1989; Watt, 2004). Therefore it is unclear if students’ ratings would have continued to decline or begin to increase during their senior grades. Nevertheless, in the current study adaptive cognitions and behaviours decreased steadily from Grade 7 to Grade 10.

Some have suggested developmental vulnerabilities in academic motivation (Watt, 2004). However, maths motivation generally changed in a similar way for each of the three cohorts. Only utility valuing showed a different rate of change between the cohorts, with older students’ ratings decreasing more steeply than the youngest cohort. This is consistent with Watt (2004), as well as Chouinard and Roy (2008) who observed metropolitan Australian and Canadian students’ maths utility values to become increasingly negative after Year 7. Consequently, the decrease in perceptions of maths as useful appears to accelerate during the middle grades of high school for Australian rural students as well.

The decrease in utility value and intrinsic interest could reflect the natural progression of students’ interests developing and becoming more specific as their sense of self establishes with age. Unfortunately for maths, other disciplines may hold a greater importance, while also appearing less abstract (Watt, 2004) and difficult (Anderman & Midgley, 1997) as students progress through high school. Alternatively, considering the strong associations amongst self-efficacy and value beliefs (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Eccles 1983), if students feel decreasingly competent, their subjective values and behavioural engagement are likely to show a similar trend. This could reflect a self-worth protective strategy, as having ability and value beliefs aligned maintains students’ sense of worth (Harter, 1990), whereas feeling incapable but recognising maths is important can create feelings of distress.

Although adaptive behaviours may be expected to follow the trend of adaptive cognitions, no other study has empirically tested this assumption. The current results showed that decreases in mean ratings of adaptive cognitions also extended to

adaptive behaviours representing self-regulation. This is noteworthy because students’ are expected to do more independent learning and study as they progress through secondary school. This decrease in effortful behaviour is concerning because it is contradictory to the learning demands of school during this period.

The current study also looked at how maladaptive constructs change across high school. Unexpectedly, no significant changes in ratings of anxiety, uncertain control, failure avoidance or self-handicapping were observed. This is in contrast to others who have found ratings of maths anxiety to increase during high school, particularly in grade 9 and towards the senior grades (Ma & Cartwright, 2003; Smith, 2004; Wigfield & Meece, 1988). Although the current study found a positive trend for anxiety, this was not significant. Consequently, there was no evidence to suggest that students experienced more cognitive stress and worry about their performance in maths as they progressed towards the senior grades. This apparent lack of increasing stress however, did not reflect the development of a more autonomous self across time (see Allen et al., 1989). When autonomy increases, students’ self-worth becomes more independent of others’ judgements regarding their abilities. In this sense, ratings of failure avoidance and self-handicapping should decrease with the development of autonomy. However, the current results showed that mean ratings of failure avoidance and self-handicapping remained steady.

There was also no increase in students’ feelings of control across time. This may indicate that the extent to which students understand the feedback they receive from their teachers that shape their perceptions of control is maintained throughout high school. Ideally however, students’ sense of control over their performance outcomes would increase with time as they learn from accumulated experience and feedback. Smith (2004) provides an alternative explanation by applying social-cognitive theory to link students’ perceptions of uncertainty with their expectations. From this

perspective, anxiety and distress arise when students feel a poor sense of control and uncertainty about future events (Bandura, 1986, 1997). It is possible that by the end of their first year of high school students have received feedback about their

experience as their first year of high school leaves them satisfied with their

understanding of how to influence outcomes, whereas others may feel bewildered and in a failure accepting manner, develop a low concern regarding their maths

achievement. Regardless of whether an individual student perceives low or high control, this could explain why overall mean ratings of uncertain control did not change across time.

In contrast to suggestions that students disengage from maths because they experience increasing academic pressure and stress as they move towards senior high school (Smith, 2004), these demands were not reflected in the current ratings of maladaptive constructs. It is possible that changes in these constructs may not be particularly relevant during junior and middle high school. Pressures on students to achieve may become more explicit during the senior grades (Watt, 2004), which would make developmental differences in anxiety-based constructs more observable in these later grades. An alternate interpretation of the nonsignificant time effect for the maladaptive cognitions and self-handicapping is that they demonstrate students’ indifference towards maths. This level of amotivation may already be present from the end of Grade 7. Furthermore, ratings of disengagement mirrored those of the adaptive constructs, to increase across time. While ratings of anxiety-based beliefs and

behaviours remained stable, feelings of detachment and amotivation increased. This may indicate a growing apathy towards learning maths as students progress through high school. Nevertheless, the finding that maladaptive cognitions behaved in a similar way across time as each other is consistent with control and need achievement

perspectives that suggest these constructs are highly inter-related.

Although the significant changes in mean ratings were somewhat weak, they are concerning because they indicate that throughout high school students’ adaptive attitudes towards maths become more negative, as do their effortful behaviours. It appears that these students developed amotivation rather than a self-protective response to increased stress and external pressures. Consequently, declining behavioural engagement and participation in maths may be related to declining adaptive attitudes, rather than increasing maladaptive cognitions. The changes in adaptive constructs, particularly in utility valuing, are a concern because in NSW Year

10 is the last year of compulsory maths enrolment. At the end of Grade 10 students make important decisions that will influence their post-school opportunities, such as electing the subjects and level of difficulty they want for senior high school. It is unlikely that a student experiencing a long-term decrease in adaptive maths motivation will voluntarily choose to study maths thereafter, particularly at an advanced level.