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Theoretical integration in motivation science brings both potential benefits and important shortcomings. For the past several years, motivation theories and constructs have proliferated. Given this growth, is integration within and across theoretical perspectives necessary? Rather than simply asking whether such integration should occur, scholars should consider a more nuanced set of questions: theoretical integration of what, for whom, and when? In asking these more nuanced questions, it becomes apparent that some integration of highly similar constructs may be advantageous at this juncture. However, prior to considering such large-scale integration, motivation scholars should first more directly and critically assess their theoretical assumptions.

Some motivation theories consider psychological needs to be central explanatory constructs. Two current need-based theories of motivation include self-determination theory and the unified theory of motivation, personality, and development. However, other motivation theories do not include psychological needs, and it is not clear if these motivation theories would gain greater explanatory power by adding the need construct to their frameworks. As the authors of this essay explain, this disagreement raises key questions, such as whether needs are universal, how many needs there are, and does the inclusion of these needs actually improve our understanding of human motivation and action?

Researchers characterize motivation as varying in both quantity and quality. Yet, depending on individuals’ intentions and the outcomes of actions, high-quantity and high-quality motivations can be thought of as either good or bad. Even good motivations in terms of both quantity and quality, such as high self-efficacy and high task value, can become bad motivations when done in the service of negative outcomes. Many similar examples may be found in popular television show, politics, and everyday life. Similarly, as the author of this essay explains, whether a motivation can be considered good or bad further depends on culture and the particular situation.

We review work on the development of children's and adolescents’ achievement motivation, focusing on recent advances in the empirical work in the field and commenting on the status of current theories prominent in the literature. We first focus on the main theories guiding the field and the development of motivational beliefs, values, and goals; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; identity and motivation; and motivation and emotion. We provide our views on future directions for theory development and what we believe are the critical next steps in developmental research. We then discuss the burgeoning intervention work designed to enhance different aspects of children's motivation: their competence beliefs and mindsets, intrinsic motivation, valuing of achievement, and growth mindsets. We also provide suggestions for next steps in this area in order to guide the field forward. We close with a brief consideration of neuroscience approaches to motivation.

Motivational interventions grounded in Eccles and colleagues’ situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT) can promote students’ motivational beliefs and academic performance. However, most prior work h...

In recent decades there has been a large increase in the number of researchers working to design motivational interventions, which are experimental programs that aim to improve students’ motivation in real-world learning contexts. This work has shown promising results, but in order to produce positive effects of interventions it is essential that researchers conduct, implement, and evaluate these programs carefully. This chapter synthesizes empirical intervention research across five major theories of motivation in the field of educational psychology, along with reviews of different facets of the motivational intervention literature, with a goal to discuss five key questions that researchers who wish to conduct a novel motivational intervention should consider prior to conducting a study. They are the following: (1) What is the theory of change guiding the intervention? (2) Should the intervention target a single motivational construct or multiple motivational constructs? (3) What methodological issues should I consider when designing the intervention? (4) Does the intervention have subgroup effects? (5) Is it ethical to implement the intervention in my chosen context? We discuss each topic and offer conclusions to help guide researchers in the design of future motivational interventions.

Grit is defined as passion and perseverance for achieving long-term goals and consists of two proposed subcomponents: consistency of interests and perseverance of effort. It has become a much-discussed construct even though research on its underlying factor structure has produced inconclusive results. Furthermore, grit as measured by its most frequently used measure, the Grit-S, does not clearly define “long term” or include the word passion. In addition, only a few studies have looked at factor structure variation and predictive validity of grit in different age and cultural groups. We examined, using state of the art multidimensional item response models and structural equation models, the factor structure of both the Grit-S and a newly developed scale (LT-Grit scale) that specifies what is meant by long term. Participants included 1,250 U.S. high school students, 600 U.S. college students, and 500 Korean college students. We found varying factor structures for the Grit-S and a stable one-factor structure for LT-Grit, across age and culture. Perseverance of effort as measured by the Grit-S was the strongest predictor of grades in the three samples. LT-Grit predicted grades only in the U.S. high school and Korean college samples. Thus, there is no evidence that a consistent grit factor or factors exist across age and culture. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

The authors connect Möller and Marsh’s dimensional comparison theory with Eccles, Wigfield, and colleagues’ expectancy-value theory of achievement performance and choice, to help explain the observed relations between key constructs in expectancy-value theory and their relations to individuals’ achievement outcomes by specifying processes that underlie those relations. Dimensional comparison processes concern individuals’ comparisons of their ability in one domain with their ability in another domain. The authors posit that these (along with social and temporal comparisons) play a critical role not just in the development of individuals’ self-concepts of ability but also in the development of their subjective task values for different activities, and the connections of these to performance and choice. Dimensional comparison theory and the evidence for the strong impact of dimensional comparisons on individuals’ self-concepts of ability is presented, followed by a brief overview of expectancy-value theory. The authors then discuss how dimensional comparisons can impact subjective task values but why the relations are weaker than for self-concepts of ability. They then describe how dimensional comparisons influence individuals’ interpretations of their achievement outcomes and their affective reactions to those outcomes and conclude with suggestions for future research.

This study compared two expectancy-value-theory-based interventions designed to promote college students’ motivation and performance in introductory college physics. The utility value intervention was adapted from prior research and focused on helping students relate course material to their lives in order to perceive the material as more useful. The cost reduction intervention was novel and aimed to help students perceive the challenges of their physics course as less psychologically costly to them. Students (N = 148) were randomly assigned to the utility value intervention, cost reduction intervention, or a control condition. Participants completed intervention or control activities online at 2 points during the semester. Their motivational beliefs and values were measured twice, once immediately after the intervention or control activities ended and again at the end of the semester. Both interventions improved students’ grades and exam scores relative to the control group (ds from 0.24–0.30), with stronger effects for students with lower initial course exam scores (ds from 0.72–0.90). Unexpectedly, both interventions’ effects were explained in part by initially lower performing students reporting higher competence-related beliefs and lower cost immediately after they received either intervention compared with lower performing students in the control condition. Results suggest that cost reduction and utility value interventions are both useful tools for improving students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics course performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

A growing body of research suggests that interventions promoting students’ utility value for a subject can improve their academic outcomes. However, numerous questions remain regarding how much to ...

Grit—individuals’ perseverance of effort and consistency of interests—was introduced in 2007 as new construct that predicts different achievement outcomes. To date, most studies examining grit’s prediction of achievement have not included other predictors in their analyses. Therefore, we assessed grit’s incremental validity for school achievement above theoretically and empirically related predictors, in two adolescent student samples from Germany. Study 1 (N = 227) examined grit’s relative importance for students’ school grades (GPA, math, German) when controlling for prior school grades, the Big Five personality traits, school engagement, values, expectancies for success, and self-efficacy. In Study 2 (N = 586), intelligence, conscientiousness, and established constructs from motivation and engagement literatures were controlled to investigate grit’s relative importance for GPA, math grades and test performance in math. In both studies, relative weight analyses revealed that the grit subscales added little explanatory power. Results question grit’s unique prediction of scholastic success.

Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, and Kelly (2007) defined grit as one’s passion and perseverance toward long-term goals. They proposed that it consists of 2 components: consistency of interests and perseverance of effort. In a high school and college student sample, we used a multidimensional item response theory approach to examine (a) the factor structure of grit, and (b) grit’s relations to and overlap with conceptually and operationally similar constructs in the personality, self-regulation, and engagement literatures, including self-control, conscientiousness, cognitive self-regulation, effort regulation, behavioral engagement, and behavioral disaffection. A series of multiple regression analyses with factor scores was used to examine (c) grit’s prediction of end-of-semester course grades. Findings indicated that grit’s factor structure differed to some degree across high school and college students. Students’ grit overlapped empirically with their concurrently reported self-control, self-regulation, and engagement. Students’ perseverance of effort (but not their consistency of interests) predicted their later grades, although other self-regulation and engagement variables were stronger predictors of students’ grades than was grit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Relations between 8th and 10th grade students’ perceptions of classroom goal structures, task values, anxiety, help-seeking behavior, and effort in mathematics classes were examined. The authors investigated whether the associations between perceived goal structures and anxiety, help-seeking behavior, and effort are mediated through students’ perceptions of the importance/utility value, cost, and intrinsic value of mathematics. Three hundred and nine Norwegian middle school students participated. Students’ perceptions that their mathematics classroom had a mastery goal structure directly and indirectly related to their math anxiety but only indirectly to students’ reports of their help-seeking behavior and effort. Their perceptions that their mathematics classroom had a performance goal structure directly and indirectly related to their math anxiety as well as effort and help-seeking behavior. Thus, the associations between perceived classroom goal structures and math anxiety, help-seeking behavior, and effort are, at least partly, mediated through students’ subjective task values.

The present research examined the joint effects of social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons on students’ academic self-concepts and parents’ beliefs about their children’s competencies during students’ transition phase from elementary school to junior high school. To this end, we tested the newly developed 2I/E model using longitudinal data including 2,417 students between Grades 6 and 7 and 1,846 parents. We found strong social comparison effects and moderate dimensional and temporal comparison effects on students’ self-concepts. In line with our assumption that students should be particularly sensitive to changes in their achievements during phases of school transition, the temporal comparison effects were stronger than in any prior study of the 2I/E model. Parents’ ratings of their children’s competencies were also predicted by social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons. However, whereas the social comparison effects on students’ and parents’ ratings were equally strong, the dimensional and temporal comparison effects were stronger on students’ ratings. We finally tested how social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons affected changes in students’ self-concepts and parents’ competence beliefs over 1 year. Although the effects of all 3 comparisons were still significant, we found drastic changes in their strengths, with the strongest effects on changes in competence beliefs occurring for temporal comparisons. Overall, our study provides a variety of new insights into the impact of comparison processes on the formation of competence beliefs. In particular, it emphasizes the role of temporal comparisons. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

We discuss the development of Eccles, Wigfield, and colleagues' expectancy-value model of achievement motivation (now called SEVT for situated expectancy value theory) and review the research on the part of the model that concerns the development of children's expectancies and values and their relations to performance and activity choice. We focus primarily on subjective task value (STV), first discussing the definition of its different components (intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, and perceived cost) and how they develop across the childhood and adolescent years. We discuss relations among these components and the notion of “hierarchies of values” as being especially important for activity choice. We next turn to discussion of sources of influences on task values and processes by which individuals' STVs take shape. Next is a discussion of how individuals' values and expectancies relate to their activity choice; we discuss both variable-centered and person centered research addressing this issue. Then we discuss expectancy-value theory based interventions that have focused primarily on enhancing individuals' utility values. We close with suggestions for future research.

Different cross-domain trajectories in the development of students' ability self-concepts (ASCs) and their intrinsic valuing of math and language arts were examined in a cross-sequential study spanning Grades 1 through 12 (n = 1,069). Growth mixture modeling analyses identified a Moderate Math Decline/Stable High Language Arts class and a Moderate Math Decline/Strong Language Arts Decline class for students' ASC trajectories. Students' intrinsic value trajectories included a Strong Math Decline/Language Arts Decline Leveling Off, a Moderate Math Decline/Strong Language Arts Decline, and a Stable Math and Language Arts Trajectories class. These classes differed with regard to student characteristics, including gender, family background, and math and reading aptitudes. They also resulted in different high school math course enrollments, career aspirations, and adult careers.

This chapter begins with a discussion of the nature of children’s achievement motivation and how it develops over the school years, with a focus on the competence-related belief, value, goal, interest, and intrinsic motivation aspects of motivation that have been emphasized in much recent research on motivation. Following is a discussion of how different aspects of classroom and school practices influence motivation and how teacher–student relationships and peer relationships impact students’ motivation. Next is a consideration of how school transitions influence students’ motivation, describing important differences in the structure and organization of schools at different levels of schooling. The chapter describes some recent intervention work to boost children’s motivation in different ways. The final section concerns how recommendations from motivation researchers align with, or in some cases do not align with, state and national policies for improving student achievement. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research, such as the need for more research on motivation in diverse groups of children and the next steps in motivation intervention research, and provides further thoughts on motivation research–educational policy links.

We discuss the development of achievement motivation from the perspective of Eccles and colleagues’ expectancy-value theory (EVT), focusing on the importance of children developing positive expectancies for success and valuing of achievement to help them cope with change and uncertainty. Although research has shown that, overall, children’s expectancies and values decline, recent studies show many different trajectories in the overall pattern. Children’s expectancies and values predict their school performance and choices of which activities to pursue in and out of school, with these relations getting stronger as children get older. When children’s expectancies and values stay more positive, they can better cope with change and uncertainty, such as the increasing difficulty of many school subjects, or broader changes such as immigrating to a new country. Parents can buffer children’s experiences of change and uncertainty by encouraging them to engage in different activities and by providing them opportunities to do so. Parents’ positive beliefs about their children’s abilities and discussing with them the importance of school can moderate the observed decline in children’s ability beliefs and values. For immigrant and minority children, parents’ emphasis on the importance of school and encouragement of the development of a positive sense of their racial/ethnic identity are critical buffers. Positive teacher–child relations also are a strong buffer, although research indicates that immigrant and minority children often have less positive relations with their teachers. We close with a discussion on recent EVT-based intervention research that shows how children’s beliefs and values for different school subjects can be fostered.

Interventions can enhance students' motivation for reading, but few researchers have assessed the effects of the specific motivation-enhancing practices that comprise these interventions. Even fewer have evaluated how students' perceptions of different intervention practices impact their later motivation and academic outcomes. In this study, we utilized data from a study of Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction, a program designed to enhance seventh-grade students' reading comprehension and motivation. We examined the effects of students perceiving one practice from this intervention, emphasizing the importance of reading, which was designed to enhance their task values for reading (Eccles-Parsons et al, 1983). Unexpectedly, structural equation modeling analyses showed that students' perceptions of importance support predicted their later competence-related beliefs, but not their task values. Students' competence-related beliefs predicted their reading comprehension and behavioral engagement, whereas students' task values predicted reading engagement. However, there were no significant indirect effects of perceiving importance support on students' reading outcomes.

The authors review research on children’s reading motivation and its relation to their reading comprehension. They begin by discussing work on the development of school motivation in general and reading motivation in particular, reviewing work showing that many children’s reading motivation declines over the school years. Girls tend to have more positive motivation for reading than do boys, and there are ethnic differences in children’s reading motivation. Over the last 15 years researchers have identified in both laboratory and classroom-based research instructional practices that positively impact students’ reading motivation and ultimately their reading comprehension. There is a strong need for researchers to build on this work and develop and study in different age groups of children effective classroom-based reading motivation instructional programs for a variety of narrative and informational materials.

One way to increase students’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is to target their motivation. Researchers have conducted a growing number of interventions addressing students’ motivation in STEM; however, this body of work has not been adequately reviewed. We systematically reviewed experimental and quasi-experimental studies (n = 53) targeting adolescent students’ motivation for STEM subjects. While some interventions showed positive effects on a variety of motivational constructs and academic outcomes, others showed mixed or non-significant effects. We recommend that researchers more frequently examine moderating variables that might limit interventions’ results, including individual-level variables such as gender, contextual-level variables such as the subject in which an intervention was conducted, and design-level variables such as intervention length. Additionally, researchers might better align their interventions with motivation theory. Future resear...

When grit was first introduced, it gained popularity before basic psychometric questions were fully explored. One critical issue is how distinct grit is from the Big Five personality trait conscientiousness. Most studies have examined correlations between grit and conscientiousness, rather than conducting item-level factor analysis. This study examined the extent to which grit and conscientiousness are empirically distinct, and which predict students’ grades. A diverse sample of adolescents completed measures of grit and conscientiousness. MIRT-based confirmatory factor analyses showed that grit and conscientiousness’ factor structures strongly overlap. Structural equation modeling showed that conscientiousness and the perseverance of effort component of grit predicted students’ grades more strongly than consistency of interest. These findings indicate that grit and conscientiousness are not unique constructs.

We conclude this special issue with our perspective on theoretical convergences and distinctions among the theories included in the special issue; how the theory article authors answered our questions on diversity, methodology, and motivation interventions; and sense of how the motivation field has advanced over the last 20 years. The convergences include multiple theorists holding the view that motivation is bidirectional and dynamic, that contextual influences on motivation are crucial, and that there are “hierarchies” of motivational beliefs rather than isolated, specific ones. Distinctions include the theories’ scope or range, constructs included in some theories but not others, breadth of antecedents influencing motivation, and consequences of certain processes (i.e., social comparisons) on motivational beliefs. We believe that each of the theorists discussed important ways in how their model incorporates diversity but argue that a consideration of how experiences of racism and discrimination impact motivation needs further consideration. Both commentators and theorists made interesting suggestions regarding methodologies to use as research on motivation moves forward. Theory article authors also documented the success of interventions based in their theories and several made good suggestions for next step interventions. Taken together, we strongly believe that the academic motivation field is in an excellent position to move past its current critical juncture and it will continue to make major advances in our understanding of students’ motivation.

Eccles and colleagues’ expectancy-value theory of achievement choice has guided much research over the last 40+ years. In this article, we discuss five “macro” level issues concerning the theory. Our broad purposes in taking this approach are to clarify some issues regarding the current status of the theory, make suggestions for next steps for research based in the theory, and justify our decision to call the theory Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT). First, we note how visual representations of the model make it appear static, linear, and monolithic, something that was not intended from its inception. Second, we discuss definitions of the major psychological constructs in the model, focusing on our and others’ elaboration of the task value component, particularly the “cost” component. In this section we also discuss research on the development of expectancies and values. Third, we discuss the often-neglected middle part of the model focused on how individuals understand and interpret their own performance as well as the many messages they receive from different socializers regarding their activity participation and performance. In the fourth section we discuss the situative and culturally-focused aspects of the model, stressing the impact of the situation and cultural background on children’s developing expectancy and value hierarchies. The fifth issue (one that we mention in several of the previous sections) concerns the importance of understanding the development of individuals’ hierarchies of expectancies of success and subjective task values and how they relate to performance, choice, and engagement.

In the present study, we investigated how students’ expectancies and values can be predicted by their achievements in multiple domains. Our major aim was to extend previous findings on dimensional comparison processes for expectancies to task values while systematically comparing multiple value facets defined in expectancy-value theory. We assessed the expectancies, values, and achievements of N = 857 students in Grades 5–12 from two German academic track schools in five academic domains. The results for students’ expectancies largely supported the predictions that were derived from dimensional comparison theory: We found strong evidence for negative cross-domain paths between achievements and expectancies in “far” domains such as math and languages, indicating contrast effects. There were also some positive cross-domain paths between achievements and expectancies in “near” domains such as math and physics, indicating assimilation effects. We also found similar patterns of cross-domain paths for students’ values. However, the results varied substantially across the nine value facets under investigation. We found the strongest evidence for dimensional comparison processes for the value facets most closely related to expectancy (e.g., intrinsic value and cost facets), whereas we found only a little evidence for dimensional comparison processes for the facets of utility value.

This chapter provides basic concepts of motivation and engagement accompanied by a theoretical framework for organizing them. It discusses several perspectives that teachers often seem to use to initiate motivation support in the classroom. The chapter also provides empirically based appraisals of each of these teaching perspectives. It presents some assessment concepts and samples of scales that have been used in measuring motivation and engagement. A central feature of our model of motivation and engagement is a focus on classroom processes and contexts that can impact each positively and negatively. For instance, social motivation to read leads students into deeper reading for the purpose of exchanging, sharing, and communicating fully. The chapter also suggests that teachers take at least five approaches to thinking about motivation, organizing for it in the classroom, and introducing students to exciting literacy departures. Prominent among a teacher's benefits for fostering engagement is the sheer pleasure of seeing students delightfully absorbed in literacy.

Many affirming and undermining motivational constructs affect students as they read information texts, but few researchers have explored how these motivations are patterned within students. In this study we used cluster analysis to classify middle school students (n = 1,134) based on their patterns of self-efficacy, perceived difficulty, value, and devalue for reading school information texts. We then compared how the patterns predicted students' language arts grades, science information text comprehension, and dedication to reading school information texts. We found and validated a four-cluster solution. One cluster included a pattern of high affirming and low undermining motivations, and another included low affirming and high undermining motivations. Students with these patterns earned the highest and lowest scores, respectively, on all outcomes. A third pattern showed high self-efficacy/low difficulty with low value/high devalue, and a fourth showed moderate levels of all four motivational constructs. Students with the high efficacy and devalue pattern showed high information text comprehension but relatively low dedication. Students with the moderate pattern showed high dedication but low initial information text comprehension. Students with these two patterns earned similar grades. We discuss the implications of our findings for motivation theories and for school instruction that involves information text reading.

The authors examine two kinds of factors that affect students’ motivation to engage in critical-analytic thinking. The first, which includes ability beliefs, achievement values, and achievement goal orientations, influences the quantitative relation between motivation and critical-analytic thinking; that is, whether students are sufficiently motivated to put forth the high levels of mental effort needed for critical-analytic thinking. The second, which includes the promotion and prevention orientations posited by regulatory focus theory (Higgins 1997), influences the qualitative relation between motivation and critical-analytic thinking; that is, whether students prefer to engage in critical-analytic thinking over qualitatively distinct modes of processing (such as associative or divergent thinking), which at times may be just as effortful. After describing both kinds of factors, we examine how they are influenced and shaped by a variety of contextual variables. We also consider potential tradeoffs between analytic and associative processing in academic settings and explore the possibility of creating a temporary fit between students’ motivations and the processing demands of a particular task. Finally, we discuss future directions for research, such as further exploring the relations between specific aspects of motivation and the various cognitive processes that underlie critical-analytic thinking.

This study examined elementary school students’ perceived support for recreational reading from their mothers, fathers, and friends. Participants, including 130 fourth graders and 172 fifth graders, completed the researcher-developed Reading Support Survey, which assesses how often children experience and how greatly they enjoy multiple types of reading-supportive behaviors. The survey was based on a synthesis of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research on older children’s experiences of support for recreational reading. Theories emphasizing the importance of social factors in the development of reading motivation and attitudes and domain-general theories of motivation and social support also influenced the survey design and study hypotheses. Perceived reading support showed four underlying dimensions, two reflecting source of support and two reflecting type of support as the organizing element. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that perceived parent and friend support each contributed uniquely to the prediction of multiple dimensions of self-reported reading motivation and frequency, controlling for reading achievement, gender, and grade level. Children perceived greater reading support from their mothers than from their fathers or friends. There were few differences in perceived reading support, reading motivation, or habits by gender or grade level. The findings of this study expand the research base on the relations of children’s experiences of parental support for reading with reading motivation and activity, which has largely focused on preschool and primary-grade children, to older children.

Students’ achievement task values, goal orientations, and interest are motivation-related constructs which concern students’ purposes and reasons for doing achievement activities. The authors review the extant research on these constructs and describe and compare many of the most frequently used measures of these constructs. They also discuss their development during childhood and adolescence. They review the research on the relations of these constructs to achievement outcomes, and their relations to each other both contiguously and over time. Suggestions for future research include testing theoretically derived predictions about how students’ achievement values, goal orientations, and interest together predict various achievement outcomes; and examining how their relations with one another become established and change over time.

Previous research has investigated motivations for reading by examining positive, or affirming, motivations including intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. Related to them, we examined two negative, or undermining, motivations consisting of avoidance and perceived difficulty. We proposed that the motivations of intrinsic motivation and avoidance are relatively independent, and thus, can be combined to form meaningful profiles consisting of: avid, ambivalent, apathetic, and averse readers. With Grade 5 students we found that these motivations were relatively independent for both Caucasian and African American students. The two motivations uniquely explained a significant proportion of variance in reading comprehension and other cognitive reading variables. Although intrinsic motivation was stronger for Caucasians, avoidance was stronger for African Americans. The profile of the African American students contained higher proportions of averse and ambivalent readers than the Caucasian profile. The profile of avid readers showed higher reading achievement than the other profiles.

The authors examined how math track placement and gender affected 7th-grade students' self-esteem, self-concepts, and social comparisons. Participants were 170 students who completed surveys that assessed their self-esteem, academic self-concepts of ability, and the kinds of social comparisons they make. Results showed that higher track students had significantly higher ability self-concepts in math and school. Math track did not influence students' self-esteem. After controlling for students' grades in math, track placement no longer affected students' self-concepts of ability. Students stated that they most frequently compare themselves with other students who perform similarly to them in the same track. Direction of comparison did not affect students' academic self-concepts or general self-esteem, regardless of whether they compared upward or downward.

The engagement model of reading development suggests that instruction improves students’ reading comprehension to the extent that it increases students’ engagement processes in reading. We compared how Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) (support for cognitive and motivational processes in reading), strategy instruction (support for cognitive strategies in reading), and traditional instruction in fourth-grade classrooms differentially influenced students’ reading comprehension, strategy use, and engagement in reading. Students experiencing CORI were significantly higher than both comparison groups on reading comprehension, reading strategies, and reading engagement. When students’ level of reading engagement was statistically controlled, the differences between the treatment groups were not significant. We infer that the level of students’ reading engagement during classroom work mediated the instructional effects on reading outcomes. C � 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The engagement model of reading comprehension development proposes that engagement in reading is the joint functioning of motivational processes and cognitive strategies during reading comprehension (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000). In this perspective, highly engaged readers are both internally motivated and strategic, and less engaged readers show lower motivation and less use of strategies for comprehending text. Consistent with this perspective, Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris (2004) proposed that engagement is a multidimensional attribute including behavioral engagement (actively performing academic learning tasks), cognitive engagement (using high-level strategies to foster deep learning), and emotional engagement (enjoying academic tasks and expressing enthusiasm about learning). In this investigation, we examined the construct of engaged reading as a mediating variable that may account for the effect of integrated instruction on reading comprehension of elementary school students. Relatively few studies have attempted to increase reading engagement of elementary students experimentally or to examine the role of reading engagement in interventions that increase reading achievement. The few existing experimental studies of this age group have shown that at least four variables influence students’ reading motivation: (a) autonomy support and choice, (b) use of interesting texts in classroom instruction, (c) having conceptual goals for reading instruction, and (d) supporting collaboration in reading. Guthrie and Humenick (2004) conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of these variables on reading motivation, identifying 22 studies that enabled 131 experimental comparisons to be made. Average effect sizes were 0.95 for choice, 0.72 for conceptual goals, 1.15 for providing interesting text, and 0.52 for collaboration. However, these studies were short term (1–6 hours), laboratory based (nonclassroom), with high teacher–pupil ratio (1–5) and limited materials (e.g., three 500-word passages), and thus have limited applicability to typical classroom conditions. Although there have been studies of classroom practices related to engagement, the investigations have been related to achievement generally (Assor, Kaplan, & Roth, 2002; Skinner, Wellborn, & Connell, 1990), mathematics in middle school (Ryan & Patrick, 2001), or to how teacher–student and parent–student relationships relate to young children’s reading achievement (Hughes & Kwok