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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort good
Parker Wiebe
University of North Carolina - Wilmington
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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
For thousands of United States residents, a college or university education seems
necessary for advancement in a professional career and expanding knowledge. As a college or
university student typically strives for graduation, one of the main factors deciding their success
in college is the grade point average. If there were no grades, students probably would not even
attend class (Van Etten, Pressley, McInerney, & Liem, 2008 excellent!!). Becker’s study (as
cited in Van Etten et al, 2008) found that grades are the chief institutionalized valuable of the
college. In order to reach a grade point average that reflects improved knowledge, students’ must
attain WC academic motivation. Academic effort comes from motivation to learn I thought you
just said to attain a high GPA for future use and/or an enjoyment of learning about certain fields
of study or topics (Miller, DeBacker, & Greene, 2000). Motivation can be described as the
stimulation that initiates a process in which individuals make choices that follow a certain
purpose or direction, requiring personal involvement (Gorham & Millette, 1997). A student’s
choice to engage in activities that will contribute to doing well getting good grades in a class is
frequently considered a measure of motivated behavior in the classroom (Gorham et al, 1997).
Although necessary, motivation is not the only factor ensuring college academic success. There
are several other factors that may positively or negatively affect an individual student’s
perception of success in a college or university setting: future goals, environment, and social
interactions with peers, family, and professors. You make some outstanding points in this first
paragraph…but, it doesn’t hold together quite perfectly..the logic is jumping around a little.
The purpose of this literature review is to describe the affects that future goals,
environment, and social interactions have on academic effort, specifically in an undergraduate
environment. These descriptions will also help to explain perceived student achievement, task-
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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
valuing, and perceived academic success. Achievement may be defined as graduating from
college, attaining personal growth, or deepening knowledge to advance in a career ( these seem
quite different in quality , to me) . Task-valuing is a term used to describe instrumentality in a
classroom setting. Instrumentality is the perception that the assignment holds utility value.
Eccle’s and Wigfield’s study (as cited in Miller et al, 2000) found that the perceived utility value,
or the student’s incentive value of the task, is related to the student’s future goals. Perceived
academic success is the individual’s idea of whether or not the undergraduate experience holds
major importance for the future. Once an education is deemed to be highly valuable for a student,
motivation will increase in many required tasks associated with classroom success (Miller et al,
2000). Good
These required tasks indef will only be completed if the individual student is aware of
their own goals, and of their own behaviors. Bandura’s study (as cited in Miller et al, 2000)
found that there are three main areas of self-regulation, which are necessary for each individual
student to behave in accordance with their academic goals: behavioral monitoring, selfevaluation of progress, and self-reaction. A student must be aware of their behaviors inside the
classroom and outside the classroom, must be able to understand their own progress, and must be
able to make the vital changes in order to achieve their goals (Miller et al, 2000) very good!.
These specific criteria, once implemented, suggest that a student may have future goals that
involve an education. ?? One possible future goal is college graduation, and this goal becomes a
motivation factor for excelling in proximal goals, such as in-class assignments. Recent research
has shown that a student’s aspiration of attaining future goals has a strong relationship with the
student’s well-being, the quality of task engagement, and achievement (Tabachnick, Miller, &
Relyea, 2008). Also, the individual student must have already identified their intrinsic and
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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
extrinsic future goals. Examples of intrinsic goals include aspirations for benefitting the
community or personal growth, while examples of extrinsic goals include aspirations for wealth
or an improved personal appearance (Tabachnick et al, 2008). The process of attaining intrinsic
and extrinsic future goals leads students towards making subgoals, such as college graduation,
thus creating proximal goals of completing assignments for an individual class. Miller and
Brickman (2004) described the importance of proximal goals as task-instrumentality. This is the
perception that work on academic tasks is instrumental to one’s future (Tabachnick et al, 2008).
Very good
The connection between distal future goals and students grade point average was strongly
related in a study done by Shutz and Lanehart (1994), and again in a study done by Shutz (1997)
(Tabachnick et al, 2008). If the attainment of intrinsic and extrinsic future goals is necessary to
facilitate motivated behavior towards academic work, then which of the two is the best in
predicting a higher level of success? When a student has more intrinsic future goals, that is
reflected by higher levels of interest and confidence, longer levels of persistence through
academic work, using deeper learning strategies, and having better exam scores (Tabachnick et
al, 2008). Theorists place personal, distant future goals at the center of thinking about motivation
and action (Miller et al, 2000). These future goals represent important incentives for present
action, but only when current tasks are perceived as instrumental to attainment of those future
goals (Miller et al, 2000). The main argument here stems from an understanding that personal
future goals are necessary, if success is expected in proximal tasks. But these goals may be
affected by the student’s university or college environment.
Students search for environments that will let them exercise their skills and abilities,
express their attitudes and values, and take on agreeable problems and roles (Smart, 1997). a
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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
college student’s academic environments, social environments, and the general college
environment are important factors in… (Van Etten et al, 2008). For a student, comfort within
these environments is essential for a positive academic experience. The environments must allow
the student to feel a general sense of belonging, teacher or adult support, or acceptance from
peers (Freeman, Anderman, & Jensen, 2007). Students’ choices dictate their environments, and
whether or not these environments will encourage, reinforce, and reward different interests,
attitudes, competencies, and behavior patterns (Smart, 1997). ? These choices may reflect the
personality of the individual student, but future research is necessary in determining any
relationship between personality types and the type or reinforcement of those behavior patterns
associated with the characteristics of the environment (Smart, 1997). If people are motivated
enough to put themselves in rewarding environments, does that reflect a motivation to reward
themselves with an education?? Another environment that may affect student motivation is the
classroom. Research in this area is dense wc, and this review will focus on the relationship
between student and professors inside the department of their major awk. But you seem to
emphasize, teacher, classroom and peer more or less equally
There is generally greater motivation to do well in courses within the student’s major or
concentration (Van Etten et al, 2008). Thus, the professors within the department of the student’s
major are going to become important in the students perception of their motivation. Research
shows that certain types of feedback given from professors to students on a regular basis, affects
the students motivation in that specific course. Positive informational feedback is the best
approach in maintaining student motivation, because the professor not only positively assesses
the student’s ability, but also gives reason as to why the student’s response was exemplary (Van
Etten et al, 2008). But if the student’s response is not satisfactory, the best approach of the
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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
professor is to negatively assess the student’s performance, but then proceed to give the student
an explanation as to why the response was not correct (Van Etten et al, 2008). These are only
two types of feedback given in a discussion-oriented classroom, and individual teachers’ will all
have unique styles of teaching, but research has generalized these types of feedback, and
students’ receiving explanations from teachers, exhibit greater knowledge of course materials.
Awk/ss But what is there to be said about the physical environment of the classroom? This
factor has been researched, and there is evidence that room size, lighting, temperature, and
cleanliness can affect student motivation (Van Etten et al, 2008). good
One of the more important factors in determining academic motivation is peer
interaction. If the classroom is filled with people the student knows, it can affect motivation to
attend or skip class (Van Etten et al, 2008). Many large classroom populations leave the
probability greater of students already knowing each other on a social level AWK. Inside larger
classrooms, the space may make it difficult for students to hear the professor or other students
(Van Etten et al, 2008). Not being able to understand classmates or professors blocks a student’s
ability to understand the different educational and social growth of the overall class awk.
Examples of educational and social growth include: “interest in pursuing a graduate/professional
degree,” “confidence in academic ability,” “acceptance of people from different races/cultures,”
and “tolerance of persons with different beliefs” (Smart, 1997). Seems off-track These factors
may elevate classroom comfort if the majority of students are in a higher level, ?? and if the
classroom size is suitable?? for productive learning. paragraph Many factors affect student
motivation. Some people drop-out, some people continue teir acad involvement for a lifetime,
some go to school for higher degrees, some go to school for family reasons, some go to school to
learn how to make money, and others go to school to get married. Every situation of every
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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
student involves careful consideration before they are classified as having high or low academic
effortI might disagree…is there a standard that must be met? There are exams, evaluations that
reflect whether aedequate effort has been given , but commonalities between people remain
central to researchers trying to define common observations in the complex college system.
Assuming that most college students completed a high-school education, this suggests
that academic effort is already a part of their personalities OH! I think this is a big question!.
Based on the literature, once a student reaches the college level, they must continue to be
academically motivated if they aspire to graduate. Factors affecting student motivation are
researched by educational psychologists, educators, and other professionals. These findings give
rise to new teaching strategies, new living and learning communities, and new ways of
interacting with students. Nothing can be proven to always work with every student, but the
research can be generalized to the majority of students. Academic motivation is the sole
responsibility of the individual student ?? EXPAND??, but with research, the environment
surrounding the student can be changed to affect their academic motivation.
Much here is of outstanding nature…Glitches exist that reduce the cohesiveness of your effort.
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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
References
Freeman, T.M., Anderman, L.H., & Jensen, J.M. (2007). Sense of belonging in college freshmen
at the classroom and campus levels. The Journal of Experimental Education, 75, 203220.
Gorham, J., & Millette, D.M. (1997) A comparative analysis of teacher and student perceptions
of sources of motivation and demotivation in college classes. Communication Education,
46, 245-261.
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Running Header: Literature Review: Collegiate Academic Effort
Jordan, A.E. (2001). College student cheating: The role of motivation, perceived norms,
attitudes, and knowledge of institutional policy. Ethics & Behavior, 11, 233-247.
Miller, R.B., DeBacker, T.K., & Greene, B.A. (2000). Perceived instrumentality and academics:
The link to task valuing. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 26, 250-260.
Smart, J.C. (1997). Academic subenvironments and differential patterns of self-perceived growth
during college: A test of Holland’s theory. Journal of College Student Development, 38,
68-78.
Tabachnick, S.E., Miller, R.B., & Relyea, G.E. (2008). The relationship among students’ futureoriented goals and subgoals, perceived task instrumentality, and task-oriented selfregulation strategies in an academic environment. Journal of Educational Psychology,
100, 629-642.
Van Etten, S., Pressley, M., McInerney, D.M., & Liem, A.D. (2008). College seniors’ theory of
their academic motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 812-828.