CHILDREN'S MOTIVATION IN DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS

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The proposed research is designed to assess the immediate and long-term (two years) effects of three different instructional approaches on preschool and kindergarten-age children's academic achievement and their social-emotional and motivational development--including their perceptions of their abilities, dependency and need for approval, emotional reactions in achievement contexts, intrinsic interest in academic tasks, and preference for challenge. The study will assess the independent and interactive effects of instructional practices in the school, and parents' beliefs and learning-related activities with their children at home. Altogether, 288 children will participate--half from poor, minority families and half from ethnically diverse middle-class families. Three types of data will be collected. (1) Children will be assessed in both an experimental and a semi-naturalistic context; (2) parents will complete a questionnaire; and (3) parents will be observed in their homes engaged in a teaching task with their children. All assessments will be repeated a year later for half of the sample. The proposed study will provide longitudinal data on theoretically derived relationships between instructional approaches and child outcomes and between social-motivational variables and achievement. It also has practical significance. It will provide systematic evidence on the effect of instructional practices on children's social-motivational development that can be used to inform early childhood education program decisions and those who advise parents about appropriate learning-related interactions with their children. These social-motivational effects have important implications for how well children learn and for their emotional well being.