Supporting Students’ Intrinsic Motivation for Online Learning Tasks

November 25, 2024

00:00

Motivation

Online Learning

This study aimed to explore how task instructions, framed with need-supportive statements, can support motivation and the mechanisms that could explain the potential effect of such motivation on task performance. Specifically, the authors examined whether need-supportive task instructions can enhance the situational intrinsic motivation of secondary school students on an online language learning task.

Intrinsic Motivation is Inherently Present in Most People

Self-determination theory (SDT) posits that individuals are inherently driven by curiosity and a desire for learning, meaning people are naturally intrinsically motivated. Studies have shown that when students’ basic psychological needs are supported in digital learning environments, they are more likely to persist and remain motivated in their learning tasks. One approach to achieving this is by framing task instructions in a way that supports students’ needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy.

Intrinsic motivation acts as a self-directed drive behind behavior. Research indicates that self-regulated learning strategies, such as self-assessment, serve as mediators linking motivation to achievement and are considered essential 21st-century skills.

Increased Intrinsic Motivation is Linked to Increased Task Performance

The study involved 106 secondary school students from a public science high school in Central Luzon, Philippines. Participants attended a brief Zoom meeting outlining the procedure, followed by completing a Qualtrics survey. They were asked about self-assessment, intrinsic motivation for the assignment, and the extent to which their basic psychological needs were met. The study tested a theoretically informed intervention to foster intrinsic motivation for an online learning task in two ways: (a) by including need-supportive statements within task instructions and (b) by assessing whether increased intrinsic motivation improves task performance, directly or indirectly, through self-assessment practice.

The results demonstrated that students who received need-supportive task instructions showed significantly higher intrinsic motivation than those with default instructions. The effect size of the need-supportive task instructions on intrinsic motivation was medium, while accounting for pre-test intrinsic motivation.

Although intrinsic motivation did not directly affect task performance, the study found that intrinsic motivation had an indirect effect through self-assessment practice. Specifically, increased intrinsic motivation led to more frequent self-assessment, which in turn improved task performance.

These findings suggest that while intrinsic motivation alone may not directly improve performance, self-assessment practices as a learning strategy can leverage intrinsic motivation to indirectly enhance task performance. In conclusion, need-supportive task instructions positively influence students’ intrinsic motivation for online learning tasks, offering new insights into the integration of self-determination theory, wise interventions, and self-assessment practice in online learning.

Online Task Instructions Can Be Modified to Respond to Students’ Needs

A key implication of this study is that online task instructions can be adjusted to be more responsive to students’ basic psychological needs. Reading plain, default task instructions may negatively impact students’ intrinsic motivation, especially outside traditional classroom settings. Based on the study’s findings, task instructions could be modified to:

1. Provide a clear task rationale
2. Use invitational language
3. Offer encouragement
4. Acknowledge students’ perspectives
5. Show unconditional positive regard

Another practical takeaway is the importance of fostering self-assessment practices among students. Students can be taught to:

1. Understand the assessment criteria or how their work will be evaluated
2. Observe the overall task and seek feedback from external sources
3. Ask questions or request clarifications
4. Revisit and revise their tasks to find areas for improvement

Notable Quotes: 

“Although such intrinsic motivation had no direct effect on task performance, it yielded significant indirect effects via self-assessment practice.”

“Evidence suggests that students’ perception of a need-supportive learning context optimizes various students’ learning outcomes (e.g., achievement, motivation, engagement, well-being.”

“First, given that the intervention is brief and minimal scale, its effectiveness in increasing students’ intrinsic motivation can be put into question. It could be argued that merely adding phrases designed to communicate support for autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs may not consistently and sustainably impact intrinsic motivation.”

Personal Takeaway: 

While the research offers useful insights into how need-supportive task instructions can boost intrinsic motivation, much of it aligns with what we already know about motivation and self-assessment. One thing that stood out is that self-assessment tends to be most effective for older students, which makes sense given the demographic in this study. Also, research shows that teacher feedback and modeling are key when it comes to self-assessment, though that wasn’t explored much here. —Matt Browne

Mendoza, N. B., Yan, Z., & King, R. B. (2023). Supporting students’ intrinsic motivation for online learning tasks: The effect of need-supportive task instructions on motivation, self-assessment, and task performance. Computers & Education, 193, 104663.