Children's autonomous and controlled motivation for mathematics rarely moderate the effects of task difficulty and instructional style¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2020 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Autonomous motivation moderated the difficulty-disengagement relation, with more disengagement under difficulty only among children low in autonomous motivation. → Baten 2020

Evidence¶

Baten 2020¶

Baten, E., Vansteenkiste, M., De Muynck, G., De Poortere, E., Desoete, A. (2020). How Can the Blow of Math Difficulty on Elementary School Children's Motivational, Cognitive and Affective Experiences be Dampened? The Critical Role of Autonomy-Supportive Instructions. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000444

q3 · i? · causal · r3

Moderation follow-up in the randomized experiment: autonomous motivation moderated the difficulty-disengagement relation (β = -.09, p = .037), with more disengagement under difficulty among children low (≤ M - 1SD) but not high (≥ M + 1SD) in autonomous motivation.

"First, autonomous motivation moderated the relation between difficulty level and cognitive 22 disengagement, β = -.09, p = .037 . More difficult exercises predicted more cognitive 23 disengagement among individuals with lower (≤ M - 1SD; p = .099; ηp ² = .03) but not among 24 participants with higher levels of autonomous motivation (≥ M + 1SD; p = .511; ηp ² = .01)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Difficult math exercises impair elementary children's motivational, cognitive and affective task experiences relative to easier exercises — related
• Learners' task-specific self-efficacy beliefs predict whether they initiate, persist through, and recover from difficulty on academic tasks. — related