Running Head: MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
The Effect of Motivational Interviewing on Middle School Students’ Academic
Motivation
Marion Smith Oliver
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
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Abstract
This single-subject research project looks at the relationship between motivational
interviewing and academic motivation. Motivation can be defined in many ways and
have many different sources, and as a result this study focuses on academic motivation as
defined in the paper below. This study proposes using data from three primary sources to
assess the effectiveness of the intervention: data on the student’s grades, perception data
from the student, and perception survey data from the teachers. The author hypothesizes
that motivational interviewing will have a positive effect on academic motivation in
middle school students.
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
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The Impact of Motivational Interviewing on Middle School Students’ Academic
Motivation
Motivation is a topic that is of incredible importance to students’ connection to
school, as well as their ability and desire to stay in school (McNeely & Falci, 2004), thus
making it a strength that school counselors should promote in students. Research has
well-documented the influence of teachers and classroom environment on motivation,
and one example of such is Ryan and Patrick’s 2001 study that found that students have
higher levels of perceived engagement and motivation when feel supported by teachers
and believe their ideas are respected in the classroom. Wentzel (1997) also found a
positive relationship between a student’s perceived caring from the teacher and academic
effort. However, there has been less research on the impact of the work of school
counselors on adolescent middle school students’ motivation. Thus, this single subject
study is centered around investigating the influence that the school counselor can have on
motivation in middle school students via the technique of motivational interviewing.
Miller and Rollinick (2002) described motivational interviewing as a counseling
technique that is client-centered in nature and used to motivate people for behavioral
change. It is a counseling technique that a large body of research has found to be
successful for treating alcohol abuse, eating disorders, dieting, among other target
behaviors; yet most of this research focuses on adults, and as such there is a gap in the
literature around motivational interviewing for adolescents, and in particular its use in
academic settings (Strait et al., 2012). In one study, however, Strait et al. (2012) found
that even a single motivational interviewing session “had positive effects on math grades
and some academic behaviors for middle school students that should increase academic
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
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performance, namely, class participation and overall positive academic behavior” (p.
1037). However, this study also stated that further research and replication of findings
was needed before establishing efficacy, thus prompting the research study at hand as
further investigation into this topic.
Methods
The research question of this single subject study is “What effect can
motivational interviewing have on the academic motivation of middle school students?”
Academic motivation, for the purpose of this study, is operationally defined and adapted
from Pascarella (2007) as “a willingness to work hard to learn material even if it
doesn’t lead to a higher grade, the importance of getting good grades… and enjoyment of
academic challenge” (p. 13). Motivational interviewing is operationally defined as the
counseling technique to be used by the school counselor as the intervention (to be
described in further detail in the next section of this paper). The author hypothesizes that
motivational interviewing will have a positive effect on academic motivation based on
previous empirical research.
This single subject study will have a subject of one individual student. The sample
for this study, the student, will be selected through a non-probability convenience sample
due to the limitations of the track out calendar in a year long school as well as the
permission slip which must be returned in order for the student to participate. The student
will be identified by his/her teacher as lacking in motivation and corroborated with data
supporting this lack of motivation (for example, a high number of absences or course
failures). The intervention will be individual counseling using the techniques and
principles of motivational interviewing for the client. There will be four counseling
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
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sessions taking place over a two to three week period, with each session lasting for about
20 to 25 minutes. The primary principle of motivational interviewing (MI) is “to guide
the student through the Stages of Change… making an assessment of where the
student might be considered to be within the Stages of Change model [pre-contemplation,
contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, or relapse] according to
statements they make during MI interactions” (Atkinson & Woods, 2003, p. 51). The
motivation to change should be elicited from within the student and should not be
imposed (Atkinson & Woods, 2003). The techniques of motivational interviewing used
will include listening reflectively, eliciting self-motivational statements, assessing the
importance and confidence of change for the client, and techniques for working with
resistance such as amplified reflection, double-sided reflection, and agreement with a
twist (Sopko, class notes, 2013).
The measurement plan for this study includes the collection of both qualitative
and quantitative data collected from pre- and post- surveys, as well as during the course
of the intervention. The overall design of this study is ABA design, with three primary
sources of data: baseline and outcome/follow-up data of the student’s grades, perception
data consisting of student responses to survey measuring motivation before, during, and
after the intervention, and perception data from teachers measuring student motivation
before and after the intervention. There will also be withdrawal phase data collected one
month after the intervention is ended, consisting of both student and teacher responses to
the survey measuring motivation. The baseline data of the student’s grades will be
collected before the intervention begins from the Powerschools database; the follow-up
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MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
data collection of student’s grades, for the purposes of this study, will be hypothetical due
to the limitation of time and the university calendar.
The instrument used to collect the perception data (and measure motivation) will
be adapted and modified from other surveys on academic motivation used by the Wabash
National Study of Liberal Arts Education and the Student Opinion Survey used by James
Madison University. Although reliability information is not available for the Student
Opinion Survey used by James Madison University, the Academic Motivation Scale used
by the Wabash National Study had internal consistency reliability ranging from .69 to .74
(Pascarella, 2007). This instrument was adapted to make the language developmentally
appropriate for middle school students. It consists of seven questions on a five-point
Likert scale. The specific questions are listed in Figure 1 below. This instrument will be
given to the student before the intervention, once during the intervention, and then again
after the last counseling session. There will also be a withdrawal phase measurement
taken one month after the withdrawal of the motivational interviewing intervention. This
schedule of collecting data is based on the timeframe of the three-week period for
implementation. The same instrument will be given to the student’s teachers before the
intervention and after the intervention (and again during the withdrawal phase), with two
additional open-ended questions to gauge the teacher’s general perception of the
student’s academic motivation (the qualitative data mentioned previously).
A.
B.
C.
I am willing to work hard in a course to learn
the material even if it won’t lead to a higher
grade.
When I do well on a test, it is usually because
I am well-prepared, not because the test is
easy.
I frequently do more reading/work in a class
than is required because it interests me.
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
7
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
D.
E.
F.
G.
I frequently talk to teachers outside of class
about what we learned in class.
Getting the best grades I can is very
important to me.
I enjoy the challenge of learning complicated
new material.
I give my best effort in school.
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 1: Student Motivation Survey, adapted from Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education
Results
The timeline for completion of this study is based on the inherent limits of a yearround school tracking calendar, as well as the university calendar. This study timeline
includes two weeks for selection of the sample and getting the permission slip for data
collection returned from the student. The next step, the intervention itself, will last for
two to three weeks, depending on student attendance and availability for the four
counseling sessions. Ideally, the student will receive the intervention twice a week for
two weeks. Outcome and withdrawal data will be collected a month after the intervention
concludes. If the limitations of the public school and university calendar were not
present, then a timeline with the intervention taking place once a week for four weeks
would be more ideal.
Given the limitations and restrictions of the time and the calendar listed above, the
data collection below is hypothetical. The hypothetical data suggests that motivational
interviewing has a positive effect on student motivation, as the average score on the
motivation survey before the intervention was 1.29, during the intervention the average
score was 2.43, and after the intervention the average score was 4.71. Since student
motivation scores more than tripled from before the intervention to immediately after it,
this suggests that the intervention had a positive effect. See Table 1 for more information.
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MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
Question
Pre-Intervention
1
During
Intervention
3
After
Intervention
4
Withdrawal
Phase
4
1
2
1
2
5
4
3
2
2
5
4
4
2
2
5
3
5
1
2
4
3
6
1
3
5
4
7
1
3
5
4
Average
1.29
2.43
4.71
3.71
Table 1: Student Motivation Survey Responses
Student Motivation Over Time
Pre
During
After
Withdrawal
Motivation Score
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q7
Question
Figure 2: Graphical Representation of Student Motivation Survey Reponses
In terms of the administration plan, the data will be collected from the student and
teachers by completing a hard-copy version of the Student Motivation Survey. These will
be locked in a file-cabinet in the school counseling office. All analysis of the survey data
will be kept in a password protected Excel spreadsheet. The baseline and outcome data
on student grades will be retrieved from Powerschools, a secure website, and also stored
in a password protected Excel spreadsheet. No names or identifying information will be
stored with the surveys or the data analysis.
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
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Discussion and Conclusion
Using the hypothetical data given above, the hypothesis is confirmed and
motivational interviewing can have a positive effect on the academic motivation of
middle school students. The implications for school counselors are that motivational
interviewing is a counseling technique that can be used successfully in the school setting
and should be further explored. Although further research is needed to confirm these
findings, the implications are that motivational interviewing does offer promise as a
technique that can successfully increase students’ academic motivation and as such
practicing school counselors could benefit from learning and practicing the techniques of
motivational interviewing for working with students for whom motivation seems to be an
issue. A limitation of this proposed study is the small sample size, and as such the
generalizability of the findings will be limited. Overall, this study hopes to contribute to
the existing body of research about the effect of motivational interviewing on students’
academic motivation in middle school.
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
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References
Atkinson, C., & Woods, K. (2003). Motivational interviewing strategies for
disaffected secondary school students: A case example. Educational
Psychology In Practice, 19(1), 49-64.
James Madison University Center for Assessment and Research. Student Opinion Survey.
Retrieved from
http://www.jmu.edu/assessment/resources/resource_files/sos2001.pdf
McNeely, C., & Falci, C. (2004). School connectedness and the transition into and out
of health-risk behavior among adolescents: A Comparison of Social Belonging
and Teacher Support. Journal Of School Health, 74(7), 284-292.
Miller, W., & Rollinick, S. (2002). Motivational interviewing (2nd ed.) New York, NY:
The Guilford Press.
Pascarella, E. T. (2007). Methodological Report for Wabash National Study of Liberal
Arts Education. Retrieved from
http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/storage/WNSLAE_Research_Methods_March
_2008.pdf
Ryan, A. M., & Patrick, H. (2001). The classroom social environment and changes in
adolescents' motivation and engagement during middle school. American
Educational Research Journal, 38(2), 437-460.
Strait, G., Smith, B. H., McQuillin, S., Terry, J., Swan, S., & Malone, P. S. (2012). A
randomized trial of motivational interviewing to improve middle school
students' academic performance. Journal Of Community Psychology, 40(8),
1032-1039.
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education. 2006-2009. Academic Motivation
Scale. Retrieved from http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/studyinstruments/#motivation
Wentzel, K. R. (1997). Student motivation in middle school: The role of perceived
pedagogical caring. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 89(3), 411-419.
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