Assessing Students' Course-Related Attitudes Using Keller's Model of Academic Motivation.

Abstract

Most end-of-course evaluation instruments elicit students' attitudes about instructors and the role that they play in the teaching/learning process. As thinking about university teaching becomes more student-centered, assessment must focus more on student learning outcomes and students' attitudes about what they are learning and their role in the teaching and learning process. This paper uses Keller's ARCS model of academic motivation as a theoretical base for exploring the assessment of students' end-of-course attitudes. The development of the Academic Motivation Profile (AMP) along with research on the viability and utility of the instrument are described. Readers are then introduced to several adaptations of the AMP for different subject matter and then guided through a process for developing their own theory-based instrument for assessing their students' academic motivation.

Introduction

The focus on course outcomes, use of data for continuous course and program improvement, and accountability in higher education have become major emphases in recent standards from both regional accreditation agencies and professional societies. The two course outcomes that have traditionally been used for systematic assessment of course quality are students' achievement levels and their attitudes at the conclusion of a course. Most measures of students' attitudes in higher education are about the instructor and the course, rather than the students themselves; and the primary use for such measures has been for annual review of faculty for promotion, tenure, and merit pay. This approach to measuring attitudes serves administrative purposes, but it does not assess students' motivation for learning, an ingredient of the teaching/learning process thought to be critical by most cognitive, developmental, and constructivist psychologists (Covington, 1998; Lambert & McCombs, 1998).

In addition to satisfying administrative needs, a valuable purpose for collecting information about a course is for formative evaluation (Dick, Carey & Carey, 2001). In formative evaluation, data are collected for the purpose of improving a course through revising course management, pedagogy, and content. Formative evaluation is most efficient when the data collected relate directly to the important pedagogical aspects of the course. For example, if an instructor views student motivation as an important aspect of learning, then formative data should provide information for the instructor that will confirm strong and detect weak student motivation. Further, if the instruments used for formative data collection are anchored in the theoretical foundations that underlie one's views of teaching and learning, then shortcomings in a course can be addressed systematically from theoretical knowledge of the effects that revisions should have on course outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical base for measuring students' academic motivation and to describe the Academic Motivation Profile (AMP), an instrument developed from that theory for use in an undergraduate course in classroom assessment (Carey, 1991). Then research that has been conducted on the AMP will be summarized and examples will be given of adaptations of the instrument for use with other courses in different subject matter. The paper will conclude by taking readers through a template for developing a theory-based instrument for measuring students' academic motivation in courses and subject matter of their choice.

Background and Theoretical Underpinnings of Keller's ARCS Model of Academic Motivation