What do I want to do and how do I get there? : A possible selves approach to motivation in education : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
Loading...
Date
2013
DOI
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Massey University
Rights
The Author
Abstract
Although access to education is young person’s right, the rates of school disengagement in
industrialised nations such as New Zealand continues to be a matter of concern. Research that
provides new information on how the schools and government departments can reach out to those
students at risk is needed. In order to modify a student’s school disengagement pathway it is crucial
to identify students at risk (Study 1) and intervene (Study 2). The possible selves theory has been
found useful to approach students’ motivation. The theory suggests that the students’ visions of
themselves in the future act as a cognitive schema through which they interpret the relevance of
present events, such as their performance at school. In turn, student’s ability to see an alignment
between their visions of their future and the outcomes offer by school qualifications or skills learnt
has the potential to enhance their school engagement. In the first study an alternative measure of
school engagement was developed to aid in the identification of at-risk students. Unlike other
measures of school engagement, the Goals and Perception of School Scale (GPSS) focuses on the
students’ view of their future, the role that they perceive school has on it, and their perception of
school. The exploratory factor analysis conducted revealed the presence of the predicted three
component structure, corroborating a strong relationship between having goals and school
engagement. In this study, participants who reported having education-related goals (e.g., “I intend
to get NCEA level 3”) were found to have higher school engagement scores. Thus, these findings
support the idea that school engagement is enhanced by the alignment between students’ personal
goals (the students’ vision of themselves in the future) and the outcomes offered by school (skills
and qualifications). In addition, those who reported short-term academic goals were less likely to
report in-school misbehaviour. Therefore, without having to ask about school performance and inschool
behaviour the Goals and Perception of School Scale is a measure of school engagement
which can aid the early identification of those students who are disengaging from school.
In a subsequent study a possible selves intervention was adapted and delivered as a school
workshop. The Possible Selves Workshop was found to be a feasible brief group intervention, that
iv
targets 14 to 15 year-olds consisting of four 60-minute weekly sessions. The content of the
intervention includes the adolescents’ identification and enhancement of their possible selves. In
addition, it also included psycho-education, goal-setting and problem solving skills training to
facilitate the students’ pursuit of their long-term goals. The intervention provides a suitable
environment to discuss the relevance of the outcomes offered by school with regards to the students’
vision of their future. The results of this study revealed an improvement on participants’ academic
possible selves and plausibility of the strategies being enlisted to pursue the academic possible
selves after the intervention. This change was particularly noticeable in participants who had lower
baseline scores on school engagement and self-efficacy. Furthermore, there was also an
improvement in the time that participants reported doing homework or studying, and on their
perceived efficacy and endurance on these activities.
Although the workshop showed promise as an intervention there was not quantitative
evidence to demonstrate that the improvement in participants’ possible selves translates into greater
school engagement (as measured by the scales utilised) and performance (i.e., better grades and
harder work). The limitations of this study and suggestions for further research on the efficacy of this
intervention are discussed. The studies that comprise this research contribute towards more
effective identification and prevention of school disengagement and propose the Possible Selves
workshop as a potentially effective intervention that needs to be investigated further.
Description
Keywords
Motivation in education, Secondary school students, High school students, Students at risk, Academic achievement, School engagement