Academic literature on the topic 'Expectancy value theory of achievement-related choices'

Inclusion in activity at recess can have important implications for the health and for the physical, social, and cognitive development of children, according to play theorists (Pellegrini, 1995). This study examined whether children described their decisions (and those of fictitious others) to engage in recess activities in achievement terms consistent with expectancy-value theory (Eccles, Wigfield & Schiefele, 1998). Ten Grade 3 children with different patterns of recess engagement did confirm that attainment, interest, utility, and cost values were salient to decisions to participate. Children distinguished among value components, and confirmed that expectancies and values contributed to activity choices, providing support for the conceptualization of recess as an achievement setting in which expectancy-value theory applies.

This study employed data from the 2015 Chilean sample of the Programme for International Student Assessment to examine the factors that influence science achievement and factors that may reduce the gender gap in science achievement. Our research was guided by Eccles’ Expectancy-Value Theory, which focused on motivational factors that influence gender differences in students’ achievement choices and performance. Our results indicate that socioeconomic status (SES), motivation, enjoyment of science, expected occupational status, school SES, and class size are related to higher science achievement. Also, anxiety was negatively associated with science achievement. Implications for Chilean policymakers and school administrators to improve Chilean girls’ science achievement are discussed.

Students compare their achievement to different standards in order to evaluate their ability. We built on the theoretical frameworks of situated expectancy-value theory, dimensional comparison theory, and the big-fish-little-pond effect literature to examine the role of social and dimensional comparisons for ability self-concept and subjective task value (STV) in secondary school and university major choice. We used two German longitudinal data sets from different cohorts with data collection in 12th grade and 2 years after high school graduation (Study 1: N = 2,207, Study 2: N = 1,710). Dimensional and social comparisons predicted students’ self-concept and domain-specific STV in school: Individual achievement was positively related to ability self-concept and STV in the corresponding domain and negatively related in the noncorresponding domain. School-level mean achievement was negatively related to ability self-concept and STV in the corresponding domain. Dimensional comparisons were directly related to university major choice, social comparisons were only indirectly related.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the picture of the motivators for information seeking by comparing two cognitive psychological approaches to motivation: self-determination theory (SDT) and expectancy-value theories (EVTs). Design/methodology/approach The study draws on the conceptual analysis of 31 key investigations characterizing the nature of the above theories. Their potential is examined in light of an illustrative example of seeking information about job opportunities. Findings SDT approaches motivation by examining the degree to which one can make volitional choices while meeting the needs of autonomy and competence. Information-seeking behaviour is most volitional when it is driven by intrinsic motivation, while such behaviours driven by extrinsic motivation and amotivation are less volitional. Modern EVTs approach the motivators for information seeking by examining the individual’s beliefs related to intrinsic enjoyment, attainment value, utility value and relative cost of information seeking. Both theories provide useful alternatives to traditional concepts such as information need in the study of the motivators for information seeking. Research limitations/implications As the study focusses on two cognitive psychological theories, the findings cannot be generalised to all represent all categories relevant to the characterisation of triggers and drivers of information seeking. Originality/value Drawing on the comparison of two cognitive psychological theories, the study goes beyond the traditional research approaches of information behaviour research confined to the analysis of information needs.

In their recently renamed theory, situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT), Eccles and Wigfield (2020) emphasized the importance of situations in influencing individuals’ motivational beliefs and academic choices. Adopting a novel approach—network analysis—this study aimed to examine how situations may impact the associations among expectancies, subjective task values, and achievement from a holistic perspective. In this study, situations were operationalized as grade levels (i.e., 6th –9th grade), subject domains (i.e., language arts and math), and countries (i.e., Finland and Germany). Adolescents from Finland (N = 4,062) and Germany (N = 449) were included in the study. Results showed that, overall, the networks are mostly subject bound, yearly varied, and country specific, supporting the situative nature of SEVT. We also found that expectancies were consistently the closest motivational beliefs to achievement, whereas utility values were the least close, implying that expectancies, not utility, might be the most desirable intervention targets for achievement improvement.

Institutional websites are powerful tools that communicate wide range of information. Providing access to higher education requires institutions to consider how services are communicated with a goal of engaging students from diverse populations. This study utilized a conceptual content analysis to review university and college websites to determine how information about support services for first-generation students is electronically communicated. The researchers constructed an evaluative study to assess 14 institutions to formulate a critique and extend the work of Eccles’s expectancy-value theory (1984), which suggests that achievement-related choices are motivated by students’ expectations for success. The results of this study found salient factors to indicate that institutions sought to provide support for first-generation students, but relevant information was not always explicitly conveyed on websites, particularly in ways most likely to engage diverse populations.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse site managers’ ICT preferences for monitoring resource use in refurbishment projects. Design/methodology/approach Information and communication technologies (ICT) developments for the construction industry are increasing the scope for more efficient planning and monitoring of refurbishment projects. The analysis is based on the unified theory of acceptance and the use of technology model. After a short initial survey, a Swedish web/postal questionnaire has received 78 responses from refurbishment site managers, implying a 34 per cent response rate. Findings Managerial choices related to ICT depend more on perceived performance expectancy than on effort expectancy. Large projects and larger firms are associated with more extensive ICT use. Site managers see little need to link to refurbishment clients’ ICT systems. Performance expectancy and age are found to influence ICT choices. Practical implications Site managers play a crucial role in everyday use of ICT tools in the construction industry. The outcome of this investigation is useful for developing digital support, including applications of building information modelling, to improve refurbishment site practices. Originality/value Much has been written about ICT support for new construction practices, but not much attention has been paid to refurbishment site managers’ media choices.

Implicit stereotypes associating science with male might play a role in the development of gender differences in students’ motivations for physical science. Particularly, the stereotypes of influential adults may induce students’ regulatory foci and subsequently their motivational beliefs. Drawing on expectancy-value theory, this study investigated whether teachers’ implicit science-is-male stereotypes predict between-teacher variation in males’ and females’ motivational beliefs regarding physical science. Results showed that teachers’ implicit science-is-male stereotypes are positively related with males’ self-concept and intrinsic value but negatively associated with females’ motivational beliefs. The findings of this study corroborate the notion that teachers’ implicit stereotypes can contribute to gender differences in motivational beliefs and probably also to gendered educational choices.

Purpose Internships play an important role in the choices engineering students make about future career pathways though there is little research about the messaging students receive regarding internships from academics. This messaging is important because it can contribute to the expectations students set for internships which in turn influences the interpretation of the experience and sense of appropriateness of that particular career pathway. Situated in Expectancy X Value theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the beliefs and behaviors of the academics with whom engineering students interact as related to internship experiences. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted and analyzed interviews with 13 career center employees and 14 academic advisers/faculty members across six demographically and geographically diverse schools. Interviews were coded, and within and across case patterns developed. Findings Across all six schools, interview participants believe internships are important for students with regard to three areas: enabling career discovery, providing opportunities for development of career skills and helping students with full-time job acquisition. However, participants describe few direct actions associated with these beliefs. The lack of recommended actions for making the most of the internship experience, despite a strong belief in their importance, is a major finding of this paper. Originality/value This study is original in that it examines an important perspective that is not often a focus of research related to internships: academic advisors, faculty or career center personnel. The multi-institution sample enhances the value of the study as commonalities were seen despite variation in schools, enabling recommendations useful to a variety of contexts.

Women in Australia have gone from being under-represented to being over-represented in university education, but they are still far less likely than men to engage in mathematically intensive science fields including engineering, information technology and the physical sciences. With a rapid growth of employment opportunities in these fields, women need quantitative skills to become competitive in technologically and science-oriented niches of the labour market. The persisting gender gap in mathematically intensive fields is important also because it may reinforce the stereotypical belief that males are naturally more talented in mathematics, abstract thinking and technical problem solving. The prevalence of such a belief drives adolescents to aspire to gender-typical occupations and thus reproduces gender inequality. Given this, there is an urgent need to systematically examine the extent to which socialisation influences and educational experiences in adolescence affect the participation in advanced high school mathematics and mathematically intensive university qualifications. The key question to consider is why engagement in advanced mathematics and cognate disciplines remains so strongly segregated by gender. This thesis offers a comprehensive examination of this issue in Australia by drawing on the theories of gender stratification and educational psychology. The scope of this examination is broader than any other Australian study of this issue to date. I adopt a life course perspective to study the impact of teenage educational experiences and occupational expectations on the gender differences in later pursuits of advanced mathematics subjects in Year 12 and mathematically intensive fields at university. To achieve this, I use multilevel logistic regression models to analyse the data from the 2003 cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth. The data comprise a nationally representative sample of adolescents who turned 15 around 2003 and entered the labour market in the following decade. Occupational expectations are crucial in explaining why boys are considerably more likely than girls to enrol in advanced mathematics subjects in Year 12. These expectations, however, are less influential than the combined effect of self-assessed mathematical competence of students and their achievement in mathematics. The gender gap in Year 12 advanced mathematics enrolment would disappear completely should we succeed in generating the same levels of self-assessed mathematical competence and in fostering similar levels of early achievement in mathematics across both genders. To achieve gender parity in the choice of a mathematically intensive university major, we would also have to persuade teenagers of both genders to aspire to similar careers and have similar confidence in their mathematical abilities. Apart from individual micro-social characteristics of students, single-sex schooling enhances the participation of girls in advanced high school mathematics and related fields of study at university. The advantage of all-girls education is evident in these analyses even after considering the pre-existing differences between single-sex and coeducational schools in school resources, teacher quality and the policy of selectivity in student admissions. These results suggest that all-girls secondary education provides an environment that somewhat counters gender stereotypes and fosters mathematically intensive studies, not only in high school but also at university.

Think of the last two hundred years. Incredible things were given to us by other human beings, in art, music, and social structure—who will question the value of War and Peace, or a Cezanne painting, a Beethoven quartet. Or the end of slavery, the empowerment of women. One should not compare the incommensurate, but there is no question that among the greatest achievements of these years is the gain in our understanding of the world within us and around us, the outcome of science. The achievements of science are of value to humanity in material and spiritual ways. Our own chemistry has so much to be proud of—the extension of life expectancy from forty years to seventy (in part of the world), birth control, synthetic fertilizers to feed twice as many people as could have been fed before, chemotherapy, synthetic fibers and plastics with their myriad of uses, a greater color palette for all. Science, coupled with technology, is democratizing in the deepest sense of the word—it makes available to a wider range of people the necessities and comforts that in a previous age were reserved for a privileged few. The achievement is also spiritual. I am not talking only about the indirect benefit of being able to hear Bob Marley and the Wailers, or a raga, Sind Bhairavi, on a CD. Anywhere in the world. I speak of the direct spiritual value, of knowledge gained of how genetic information is transmitted, stars are born, or how the color of a cornflower comes about. A knowledge that may not be of material value, will not make millions, but still makes the human spirit soar. Given this incredible gain in our knowledge, and the ever-so-clear material improvements in our life span and comfort (and that of much, not nearly all, of the world as well), it is clear as we stand at the beginning of the 21st century that (a) people are not any happier than they were, say, 100 years ago. And (b) that many do not praise the achievements of science and technology with enthusiasm, but question them. Or are suspicious of them.