EPET Brownbag Series (October 15, 2018): Patrick Beymer, Exploring Relationships Between Instructional Climate, Control, Value, and Emotions | Dr. You-kyung Lee, Latent Interactions Between Expectancy and Values in Predicting Engineering Outcomes
Post date: Oct 15, 2018 2:12:49 PM
Patrick Beymer, Exploring Relationships Between Instructional Climate, Control, Value, and Emotions
Abstract: We investigated the relationships between instructional climate and students’ appraisals of control, value, and emotions in Out-of-School Time (OST) programs focused on STEM content. Results of structural equation modeling suggest that most instructional climate variables explored were not predictive of students’ appraisals of control and value; however, state emotions did vary based on instructional climate. Students experienced less boredom when higher order thinking, agency, and active participation was rated as high by trained observers. Students experienced high levels of frustration when observers rated STEM skill building as high. Students also experienced high excitement when higher order thinking was rated as high. Students’ reporting high appraisals of control experienced high levels of happiness and excitement and low levels of frustration, while students’ reporting high appraisals of value reported high levels of frustration. Results provide an important test of control-value theory’s posited role of context in a novel learning environment, with implications for supporting students’ motivation and emotions during science learning activities.
Dr. You-kyung Lee, Latent Interactions Between Expectancy and Values in Predicting Engineering Outcomes
Abstract: Classic expectancy-value theory posits that the relations between expectancies for success and motivated behavior depend on individuals’ task values and vice versa (i.e., a multiplicative function). The present study tested this theoretical assumption using structural equation modeling with latent interactions for first-year engineering undergraduates (N = 2,420) to examine how engineering perceived competence, task value/perceived cost, and their interaction predicted career intentions, educational aspirations, and retention the following semester, and GPA in engineering-related courses for the first year of college. Three different task values (i.e., interest, attainment, and utility values) and perceived costs (i.e., opportunity, effort, and psychological costs) were investigated in separate models. The results provide evidence for the multiplicative function of perceived competence and task values in engineering outcomes, but such relations did not hold for perceived costs. The current study contributes to expectancy-value theory by providing a more precise understanding of the role of each type of value and cost in predicting multiple distal outcomes, and to practice by highlighting the importance of supporting both perceived competence and value when intervening to support engineering persistence via motivation.