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A cultural heuristic approach to the study of J amaican undergraduate students' achievement motivation
Author(s) -
Clayton Karen E.,
Zusho Akane
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/bjep.12081
Subject(s) - psychology , sociocultural evolution , conceptualization , extant taxon , sociocultural perspective , perspective (graphical) , cognition , academic achievement , social psychology , mathematics education , developmental psychology , sociology , evolutionary biology , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , anthropology , computer science , biology
Background In recent years, there have been increasing calls to develop a more contextually based sociocultural perspective of achievement motivation. Aim This mixed‐methods study examined why J amaican undergraduate students are motivated or unmotivated and how this relates to the extant literature on achievement motivation. Sample(s) This study was conducted in two phases and consisted of 175 and 189 J amaican undergraduate students across phases one and two, respectively. Methods First, a qualitative investigation using open‐ended questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews explored J amaican undergraduate students’ conceptualization of motivation and the factors that positively or negatively impacted their motivation. The second phase consisted of using prototype theory to capture a hierarchical cognitive representation of J amaican students’ motivation using coded themes derived from phase one of the study. Results and conclusions The overall results indicated that personal, cognitive, contextual, and sociocultural factors are important determinants of J amaican undergraduate students’ academic motivation and that sociocultural (e.g., familial, economic, religious) factors appear to play a more critical role in impacting their motivation.