Construct validity issues in the measurement of Motivation to Learn. Paper presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence

Motivation plays a critical role in student learning and achievement; it is intimately related to the ways students think, feel, and act in schools. Evidence from research on student learning in general (see Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Pintrich & Maehr, 2004), and mathematics and science in particular (e.g., Fennema, 1989; Schoenfeld, 1992), demonstrates that students’ motivation, affect, strategies, and beliefs about knowledge in these disciplines can influence their learning and performance. Furthermore, research suggests that students ’ motivation and related outcomes are sensitive to characteristics of the learning context, including teachers ’ instructional practices as well as school and classroom climate (Ames, 1992; Anderman & Maehr, 1999; Eccles & Midgley, 1989). It is important, therefore, for reform efforts to determine how their programs affect student motivation, especially since such changes can precede, or even occur in the absence of, targeted cognitive outcomes. The primary goal of the research reported on here was to develop and make available reliable, valid, and practical tools to assess student motivational beliefs for mathematics and science. These tools are being used with different math and science reform projects to support evidence-based claims about the effects of their interventions, and to explore the role of motivation-related outcomes as mediators an