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Student Motivation and Self-Beliefs

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International Handbook of Comparative Large-Scale Studies in Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

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Abstract

Student motivation and self-beliefs in relation to school are important constructs when it comes to student learning and achievement. Adaptive motivational dispositions can be valued not only as predictors of performance but also as outcomes of schooling. Thus, it is not surprising that ILSAs from the very start have attempted to assess aspects related to student motivation and self-beliefs in addition to scholastic proficiency and literacy.

In this chapter, the motivational frameworks used in different ILSAs, with emphasis on those used in PISA and TIMSS/PIRLS, are briefly described together with the characteristics of contemporary motivation theory in order to give a context to research that has been published on the topic.

The main part of this chapter is then devoted to a review of findings from studies using ILSA data to explore motivational aspects such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, self-concept, and self-efficacy. The ambition is not to cover all existing research across time and ILSAs but rather to provide a representative and informative overview of salient research questions and main findings in relation to student motivation and beliefs in ILSA studies. In particular, findings regarding the relevance of motivational constructs for student achievement are reviewed across studies and contexts.

On a more general level, an attempt is also made to situate the ILSA motivation research within the larger achievement motivation research field. It will be argued that provided that the measured motivational constructs are properly defined and operationalized, secondary analyses using ILSA data can contribute to motivation research, in particular regarding the generalizability and universality of theoretical assumption and corroboration of findings using large-scale data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Hanna Eklöf

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  1. Hanna Eklöf
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Correspondence to Hanna Eklöf .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo, Norway

    Trude Nilsen

  2. IEA Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Agnes Stancel-Piątak

  3. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Jan-Eric Gustafsson

Section Editor information

  1. CEMO, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Ronny Scherer

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Eklöf, H. (2021). Student Motivation and Self-Beliefs. In: Nilsen, T., Stancel-Piątak, A., Gustafsson, JE. (eds) International Handbook of Comparative Large-Scale Studies in Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38298-8_44-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38298-8_44-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38298-8

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