What motivates A-level students to achieve?: Exploring the role of expectations and task values

Based on Eccles’ expectancy-value model of achievement motivation this study used questionnaires to explore the relationships between expectations, task values and A-level achievement in 930 students from 12 Oxfordshire schools. Understanding the relationship between these variables is important given the significance of these qualifications for future life pathways. Students expected to do well in their A-levels and attached value to them. Findings showed that high expectations for A-level achievement correlated positively with students’ outcomes. Expectations were related to the value placed on A-levels and students achieveved more highly when they valued their A-levels. Achievement was related more closely to attainment value than utility value or intrinsic value; so they attached more value to doing well than the usefulness or enjoyment of A-levels