Emotion and motivation are critical to students’ engagement in learning and achievement outcomes based on Pekrun’s control-value theory (CVT; Pekrun, 2006) and Eccles and Wigfield’s situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT; Eccles & Wigfield, 2020). Both theories point to the important roles that expectancy (i.e. expectation of success) and value (perceived importance of the learning task) play in students’ achievement emotions (f), but little is known about whether combinations of expectancy and value are related to specific emotions. Neither is known if variations in value (i.e. intrinsic, utility, cost) are associated with discrete achievement emotions. To address these questions, Berweger and colleagues (2022) conducted a study to explore the role of expectancy and value in university students’ achievement emotions in an online learning environment.
Berweger et al. (2022) recruited 95 freshmen from a German university who had to complete a maximum of 34 online tests over a semester as part of an online learning environment in a course. Students were given automated feedback on the learning tests varying in difficulty levels. Students completed a situational motivation and emotion questionnaire with 9 items each time they completed a learning test and before they received the performance feedback. The questionnaire included four items for assessing achievement emotions (enjoyment, hope, frustration, and boredom); four items for different facets of situational task value, including intrinsic value (interest in the task), attainment value (knowledge of the task content), utility value (for a future job), and opportunity cost (of doing the task), and an item measuring situational expectancy (expectations of success for the final exam). The results suggested that expectancy and value are positively related to positive emotions (enjoyment and hope) and negatively to negative emotions (boredom and frustration). Moreover, students reported positive emotions in learning situations with high intrinsic and utility value, but not in situations of high attainment value. Situations with high opportunity costs were related to more intensive negative emotions. Finally, students were more likely to be bored and frustrated in situations with high or average costs and low expectancy for success. They were also more likely to be bored in situations where the costs were low but the expectancy for success was high.
Berweger et al.’s (2022) study pointed to the situational nature of students’ motivation and emotions. The findings call for more attention to various qualitative features of a learning task (i.e. intrinsic or cost value) and their relationships with specific emotional reactions. The study also has practical implications for educators who can design appropriate interventions for students in various learning situations. In relation to EPIC’s research, Berweger et al.’s (2022) work emphasizes the importance of understanding the associations between distinct features of students’ learning setbacks, motivation, and emotion.
If you are interested in reading further about Berweger et al.’s (2022) study, please retrieve it at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475221001055
References:
Berweger, B., Born, S., & Dietrich, J. (2022). Expectancy-value appraisals and achievement emotions in an online learning environment: Within-and between-person relationships. Learning and Instruction, 77, 101546.
Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2020). From expectancy-value theory to situated expectancy-value theory: A developmental, social cognitive, and sociocultural perspective on motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101859. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101859
Pekrun, R. (2006). The Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18(4), 315–341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-006-9029-9
