rueda reading_psychology_teacherbeliefs_accepted_final[1].pdf
TRANSCRIPT
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Matthew Quirk, University of California, Santa Barbara; Norman Unrau, California State
University, Los Angeles; Gisele Ragusa, Robert Rueda, and Hyo Lim, University of SouthernCalifornia; Erica Bowers, California State University, Fullerton; Alejandra Velasco, and Kayoko
Fujii, University of Southern California; Ann Nemerouf, Montebello Unified School District;
Gustavo Loera, National Mental Health Association of Greater Los Angeles.
This research was conducted by the Motivation, Instruction, Cognition, Literacy andLearning (MICLL) research group, which is a multi-institution research team.
Correspondence regarding this manuscript should be addressed to Matthew Quirk,Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1329 Phelps
Hall, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9490. Phone: (805)893-5914, E-mail:
Teacher Beliefs about Reading Motivation and Their Enactment in Classrooms:
The Development of a Survey Questionnaire
Revised and re-submitted to Reading Psychology for publication on September 15, 2008
Running Head: Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 1
Abstract
This study examined teacher’s beliefs about motivating students to read through the development
of a new survey questionnaire. The current investigation reports on initial tests of the scale’s
reliability and validity. The items for this measure were developed from an engagement
perspective to reflect the motivational constructs represented in an established measure of
student motivation for reading. Tests of internal consistency revealed that teachers’ beliefs about
motivating students to read can be reliably measured. In addition, significant relationships were
found between teachers’ beliefs about motivating their students to read and their teaching self-
efficacy providing initial evidence of the scale’s validity.
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 2
Teacher Beliefs about Reading Motivation and Their Enactment in Classrooms:
The Development of a Survey Questionnaire
Concern about students’ reading performance and their development as readers has
contributed to research that focuses on students’ motivation for reading and reading engagement.
That research has led to the development of a series of instruments, including self-report surveys
and questionnaires that measure students’ motivation for reading. One such measure is the
Motivation for Reading Questionnaire or MRQ (Guthrie, McGough, & Wigfield, 1994; Wigfield
& Guthrie, 1995; Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997; Wigfield, Guthrie, and McGough, 1996). Studies
using the MRQ and other survey instruments have provided evidence for the relationship
between motivation for reading, reading engagement, and reading comprehension among
students (Gottfried, 1990; Guthrie, Wigfield, Metsala, and Cox, 1999; Wang & Guthrie, 2004).
These studies have expanded our knowledge and understanding of factors to which students
attribute their motivation for reading and how we might begin to affect that motivation through
instruction. Although interest in and attention to student motivation and engagement has
increased over the past fifteen years, few studies have explored teachers’ knowledge and beliefs
about motivation and the application of their motivational knowledge and beliefs. In a study of
beginning teachers, Chant (2002) discovered that teachers’ beliefs influenced their teaching
practice and their students learning behaviors. Therefore, our research team designed a
questionnaire, the Teacher Beliefs about Student Motivation to Read Questionnaire (TBSMRQ),
to discover teachers’ beliefs about motivation for reading and the application of those beliefs in
order to begin to close that gap in understanding.
Teachers’ Knowledge and Beliefs about Motivation and Engagement
In one of the few studies that have focused on teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 3
motivation for reading, researchers (Sweet, Guthrie, & Ng, 1998) investigated teacher
perceptions of students’ intrinsic motivation for reading from the perspective of self-
determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) and reading achievement. While the Sweet,
Guthrie, and Ng (1998) study did not directly assess teachers’ beliefs about students’ motivation
for reading, inferences about those beliefs can be made based on the study. Teachers in grades 3
through 6 rated their students on six features of motivation for reading. These included
individual, topical, activity-based, autonomy-supported, socially supported, and writing related
features. The individual motivational construct, which represented intrinsic motivation in SDT,
referred to teachers attributing students’ motivation for reading to an internal or intrinsic
orientation. The topic construct referred to students’ interest in reading about a preferred topic.
The autonomy construct referred to teachers’ view that students were motivated by opportunities
for choice. The activity-based construct described teacher perceptions that students were
motivated by activity-based supports for reading. The writing construct referred to the teachers’
perceptions that some students were motivated by a desire to write about texts they read. The
researchers wanted to discover the magnitude of importance that teachers attributed to the six
features of student motivation for reading, a finding that would help the researchers understand
teachers’ beliefs about motivation for reading among their students.
Both quantitative and qualitative studies that Sweet and her associates conducted revealed
that the teachers saw higher achieving readers to have relatively higher intrinsic motivation than
extrinsic reading motivation. This finding provided indirect evidence of teachers’ beliefs about
students’ motivation to read. Statistical analyses based on the whole sample of teachers revealed
a main effect for motivation across all grade levels (3 through 6) with the individual category
significantly below the means for topical, activity-based, autonomy-supported, and socially
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 4
supported categories. However, an analysis using students’ data whose reading achievement was
in the upper and lower 20%, revealed that all six categories were perceived to have been more
strongly exhibited in a positive direction among students in the upper 20%. Furthermore, the
individual category that represented intrinsic motivation and a self-determination perspective and
the topic category that reflected students’ interests were significantly higher in relative strength
compared with the other four constructs. Lower achievers, however, were perceived to be more
motivated by external factors, such as autonomy support, activity-based instruction, and social
scaffolding.
Based on these findings, the researchers argued that teachers hold implicit theories and
beliefs about motivation that align with a self-determination perspective of motivation and
reading achievement. Teachers believed that students experience literacy growth more rapidly if
they become “agents” of their own literacy development. Furthermore, the study confirmed
Gottfried’s (1985) conclusion that teachers’ perception of intrinsic motivation and achievement
in reading were positively related. It also supported the findings of Nolen and Nicholls (1994)
who found that experienced teachers believed motivation can be increased through providing
choices, promoting cooperation, providing stimulating tasks, and giving student responsibility
for their learning. In sum, Sweet, Guthrie, and Ng (1998) concluded that teachers in the study
appeared to hold an implicit theory of association of self-determination and achievement that the
researchers considered to be “remarkably compatible” (p. 220) with self-determination theory
(Deci & Ryan, 1985).
Development of the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ)
Research on motivation for reading by the National Reading Research Center (NRRC)
(Guthrie, McGough, & Wigfield, 1994; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1995, 1997; Wigfield, Guthrie, &
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 5
McGough, 1996) served as a base for the development of our teacher questionnaire. We believe
that developing a measure of teacher beliefs about reading motivation that aligned theoretically
with a measure of student motivation for reading would enable us to examine and interpret these
relationships in later studies. Inquiry related to motivation at NRRC was grounded in an
engagement perspective integrating cognitive, motivational, and social aspects of reading with
achievement motivation theory, which includes readers’ competence and their beliefs about their
own efficacy as readers, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and purposes for
achievement. Using those domains of research and theory as resources and building on previous
related investigations, Guthrie, Wigfield, and associates developed the Motivation for Reading
Questionnaire (MRQ), which consists of 11 dimensions of reading motivation: (a) self-efficacy,
(b) challenge, (c) work avoidance, (d) curiosity, (e) involvement, (f) importance, (g) recognition,
(h) grades, (i) competition, (j) social motives and (k) compliance. The MRQ was initially
designed to assess upper elementary school students motivation for reading through self-reports.
Combining theoretical and empirical perspectives, Wigfield and Guthrie (1997) created intrinsic
and extrinsic composites of reading motivation based on their research using the MRQ scales.
Although intrinsic and extrinsic composites were adapted through the years (Guthrie, et al.,
1999), the intrinsic composite proposed by Wang and Guthrie (2004) consisted of the curiosity,
involvement, and challenge scales from the MRQ, whereas their extrinsic composite included the
recognition, grades, social, competition, and compliance scales. The research that has been
conducted using the MRQ has led to the understanding that students’ motivation to read is
comprised of a multifaceted system of interrelated constructs and is related to a number of
student outcomes including the amount of reading that children engage in and various aspects of
their reading achievement (Guthrie, et al., 1999; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997; Wigfield, 1997). The
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 6
instrument designed for our study was constructed to closely align to the constructs in the
elementary school students’ MRQ.
Autonomy Support
Although the MRQ includes scales sensitive to many dimensions of motivation for reading,
one dimension not explicitly developed in the questionnaire is that of autonomy support.
Autonomy is our capacity to make independent decisions, have our actions arise from within
ourselves, and feel that those actions are our own rather than arising from some external source
(Deci & Ryan, 1985). When students are autonomously motivated, they report that the cause for
their actions comes from within themselves and sense they have a choice over those actions
(Reeve, Jang, Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004). They feel uninhibited during the self-chosen
activities and are able to make decisions about when, how, and whether to pursue them.
Inflexible, externally controlled assignments exemplify the flip side of autonomy.
Autonomy support occurs when a teacher nurtures student’s internally centered, freely
chosen actions. Nurturing may take many forms in school settings. It occurs when teachers ask
students what or how they want to learn. Whenever teachers find ways to identify and increase
their students’ internally initiated acts of learning, whether those acts entail a choice over
curriculum or the independence to ask and answer their own questions, they are engaged in
autonomy support (Reeve & Jang, 2006; Stefanou, Perenceivich, DiCintio, & Turner, 2004).
The significance of teachers’ belief in autonomy support and in their acting on that belief
in classrooms is apparent in recent studies demonstrating the impact that autonomy support has
on student motivation. Researchers (Reeve et al., 2004) interested in the effects of autonomy
support trained high school teachers across content areas to nurture student interest, provide
rationales for assignments, and use non-controlling language. The more teachers used autonomy
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 7
support during instruction, the more their students were engaged (Reeve & Jang, 2006).
Evidence suggests that literacy programs emphasizing autonomy support, including a wide range
of choices in learning opportunities, can promote intrinsic motivation, conceptual understanding,
and perceived confidence, all of which enable students to engage more deeply in the
development of their literacies (Stefanou et al., 2004). This dimension may be especially
important for students in urban schools. One common response to low achievement in urban
school settings is to reduce autonomy in terms of curriculum and activities by enforcing
standardization of practice and materials. This enforced standardization has the perhaps
unintended motivational effect of reducing autonomy for both students and teachers.
Although instruments, such as the MRQ, have been developed to provide rich
information on students’ motivation for reading and studies conducted to discover students’
motivational responses to teachers’ autonomy support, little is known about teachers’ knowledge
of students’ motivation for reading and how that knowledge is applied in classrooms. This gap in
the research provided the impetus for creation of our teacher questionnaire.
In spite of a few exceptions, the limited attention to the study of teachers’ knowledge and
application of motivation may, in part, be a result of recent educational emphasis on standards-
based curriculum developed at the state level, the realization of those standards, and the
assessment of students to discover their progress toward meeting state standards. Two
questionable assumptions that educators embrace may also contribute to limited attention to
motivational issues (Bartholomew, 2007). One of these is the belief that curriculum and
instruction will adequately and automatically address the motivational needs of students.
However, curriculum and instruction may not address what is driving students’ interests, what
makes them curious, what gives them a sense of challenge—all of which lead to deeper student
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 8
engagement. A second questionable assumption is a belief among educators that classroom
management is likely to address students’ motivation and engagement. While teacher credential
programs commonly include at least one course in classroom management which is often viewed
as the solution to student engagement and learning issues, such courses rarely include significant
exposure to motivational theory and its practical classroom application, especially from a
diagnostic perspective that would encourage a close look at individual student and class-wide
motivational needs.
One of the early challenges we faced in our investigation was the development of an
instrument that would be sensitive enough to detect and measure teachers’ beliefs about
motivation and their enactment of those beliefs during instruction. To develop this instrument,
we turned to the MRQ because of its being based on an engagement view of motivation for
reading and its role in the study of reading motivation. Essentially, we used the MRQ as a
foundation to design the Teacher Beliefs about Students’ Motivation for Reading Questionnaire
(TBSMRQ).
Teacher Efficacy and Teacher Performance
Although few studies have investigated teachers’ beliefs about students’ motivation and
the teaching behaviors they base on those beliefs, a number of studies have explored teachers’
own self-efficacy and its effects on teaching. Because we intended to explore relationships
between the results of our TBSMRQ and teachers’ beliefs about their own self-efficacy, we also
sought instruments that would measure teacher self-efficacy independent of our own TBSMRQ.
Grounded in social cognitive theory, the construct of self-efficacy was primarily
developed by Albert Bandura (1994) within the context of self-regulatory processes that affect a
person’s selection and construction of environments. Self-efficacy beliefs affect one’s cognitive,
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 9
motivational, affective, and selection processes. Self-efficacy may be defined as one’s judgments
of his/her capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated
performance (Bandura, 1994). Efficacy is primarily associated with judgments of how one can
perform with the skills one possesses. Self-efficacy plays a role in the effort a person devotes to
accomplishing a specific outcome as it relates to the person’s beliefs about his or her capabilities
to achieve that outcome (Garcia, 2004). Efficacy has been found to be situational and contextual
(Bandura, 1994; Pintrich and Schunk, 2002).
Teacher self-beliefs in the form of expectations and predispositions about themselves and
their students are important mediators of teachers' experiences and teaching behavior, (Ashton
and Webb, 1986; Clark & Peterson, 1986; Pajares, 1992; Yeh, 2006). This self-belief, when
measured in teachers, is often referred to as teacher efficacy (Dembo & Gibson, 1985; Pajares &
Bengston, 1995). Research has revealed that teachers with higher levels of teaching efficacy use
techniques and strategies that are more challenging and enhance student mastery of cognitive and
affective goals in their classrooms (Puchner & Taylor, 2006). It is well documented that teachers'
self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes toward teaching change during the course of their years of
teaching (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). Efficacy beliefs of preservice and
beginning teachers have been linked to attitudes towards children and control (Woolfolk & Hoy,
1990). Teachers with a low sense of teaching efficacy have been found to have an orientation
toward control, taking a pessimistic view of students’ motivation, relying on strict classroom
regulations, extrinsic rewards, and punishments to make students engage in school work (Egyed
& Short, 2006; Zimmerman, 1995).
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 10
Purpose for This Study
In light of our limited knowledge of teachers’ beliefs about student motivation for
reading and their use in classrooms, we designed a survey questionnaire to explore the scope and
depth of knowledge about motivation that teachers bring to their classrooms and how they use
that knowledge when planning lessons and interacting with students. To ascertain that
information, we developed and administered the TBSMRQ, a teacher-oriented survey based
upon the MRQ that focused on teachers’ beliefs about students’ motivation for reading. The
current study aimed to answer the following research questions:
1)
Can teachers’ beliefs about student motivation for reading be reliably measured?
2) What are teachers’ beliefs about student motivation for reading?
3) What is the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about student motivation for
reading and their teaching self-efficacy?
Method
Participants and Procedures
Participants for this study included 86 teachers of urban classrooms in the southwestern
United States. The respondents’ teaching experience ranged from less than 1 year to 37 years (M
= 10.38, SD = 7.82), with 30.6% having taught for 5 years or less, 23.5% having taught for 6-10
years, 28.2% having taught for 11-15 years, and 17.6% having taught more than 15 years. Of the
participating teachers, 42% were Caucasian, 36.4% Hispanic, 5.7% African-American, 6.8%
Asian-American, 6.8% multiracial, and 2.3% other. All of the participating teachers taught in
either the upper elementary or middle school grade range (grades 3-8), with 66.3% of teachers
reporting that they taught all or most school subjects, 18.8% taught only English/language arts,
6.2% team taught and were responsible for the language arts instruction, 6.2% didn’t teach
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 11
language arts, and 2.5% reported that they integrated language arts instruction into their content
area teaching. A battery of three surveys was administered to gather data on 1) teachers’ beliefs
about student motivation for reading, 2) teachers’ teaching self-efficacy, and 3)
background/demographic information. The surveys were delivered to participating teachers
either in hard copy or electronically using Survey Monkey™, a web-based survey generating
platform via a web link to the questionnaires. The online survey platform provides a convenient
and secure user interface for data collection. Two methods of data collection were utilized to
maximize the potential for teacher participation. Data collection was accomplished over a four
week period through the platform. Responses were collected in a database which was
downloaded and cleaned of cases with missing data (total N = 86).
Measures
Teachers’ Beliefs about Students’ Motivation for Reading. The Teacher Beliefs about
Students’ Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (TBSMRQ) was developed from a theoretical
base resulting from Wigfield, Gurthie, and McGough’s (1996) research on the Motivation for
Reading Questionnaire (MRQ), which is a measure designed to assess upper elementary school
students’ self-reported motivation for reading. This work has led to the understanding that
students’ motivation to read is comprised of a multifaceted system of interrelated constructs and
is related to a number of student outcomes including the amount of reading that children engage
in and various aspects of their reading achievement (Guthrie, et al., 1999; Wigfield & Guthrie,
1997; Wigfield, 1997). The TBSMRQ was constructed to closely align to the constructs in the
elementary school student’s Motivation to Read Questionnaire (MRQ).
Our reasons for choosing the student MRQ as a model for the development of the
TBSMRQ were threefold. First, when we examined the existing research base for all published
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 12
instruments designed to assess students’ reading motivation, the MRQ’s was the most
extensively used including a number of studies that have primarily focused on its psychometric
development/validation (Baker & Wigfield, 1999; Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997; Wigfield,
Guthrie, and McGough, 1996). Second, our group holds a shared belief in the multi-faceted and
interrelated nature of academic motivation; therefore, the breadth of the MRQ (spanning a wide
range of motivational constructs) was particularly appealing. Third, our interest in examining
teachers’ beliefs about student motivation is driven, at least in part, by our curiosity regarding
how these beliefs relate to student outcomes. Therefore, we determined that having a measure of
teacher beliefs that aligned theoretically with a measure of student motivation could strengthen
our ability to examine and interpret these relationships in subsequent research.
To develop the TBSMRQ, a team of researchers from four urban universities with
expertise in educational psychology, literacy, teacher practice, and teacher education came
together with a shared interest in studying teacher belief systems and reading motivation. Our
team thoroughly analyzed the MRQ and its constructs and carefully crafted parallel survey items
that addressed the major constructs measured in the MRQ. Several iterations of the TBSMRQ
were vetted within the team over a 9 month time period. The resulting 64 item survey was
designed to asked teachers to rate the importance of addressing various aspects of their students’
motivation for reading including reading self-efficacy (4 items), challenge (6 items), work
avoidance (6 items), curiosity (9 items), involvement (5 items), importance (2 items), recognition
(5 items), grades (6 items), competition (5 items), social reasons for reading (6 items),
compliance (3 items), and autonomy support (7 items).
Reading self-efficacy items were designed to assess the importance that teachers place on
helping students come to see themselves as a good reader. Challenge items were developed to
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 13
assess the importance teachers place on using challenging reading materials to motivate their
students to read. The work avoidance subscale items were written to measure teachers’
awareness level regarding why students persist or give up when reading challenging materials.
Items from the curiosity subscale were designed to assess the importance that teachers place on
piquing student curiosity to increase their reading motivation. The items on the involvement
subscale were written to assess whether teachers believed it was important to encourage students
to become deeply involved in what they are reading. Items on the importance subscale were
written to assess whether teachers perceived it was necessary to establish the importance of
becoming a good reader to their students. The items from the recognition subscale were designed
to assess whether teachers emphasized the use of recognition to motivate their students to read.
The grades subscale consisted of items that were developed to assess whether teachers felt that
grades were an important motivator for students. Items from the competition subscale were
written to capture whether teachers believed it was important to use competition to motivate their
students to read. The social subscale items were developed to assess whether teachers felt it was
important to motivate students to read through emphasizing the many ways you can socialize
around reading material. Finally, the compliance subscale was designed to assess whether
teachers believed that students were motivated to read by feelings of wanting to comply with the
wishes of authority figures. In addition to the 11 subscales that were developed from the original
MRQ framework, a twelfth subscale consisting of 7 items was added to assess the perceived
importance that teachers place on supporting their students’ autonomy in reading.
All items on the TBSMRQ were scored on a 7 point Likert-type scale with a 1 indicating
“not at all like me” and a 7 indicating “very much like me.” A pilot test screening procedure was
completed by having two teachers complete the survey and then complete an interview whereby
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 14
they answered questions about the survey related to item clarity, variation, ease of completion,
and mutual intelligibility.
Teacher Efficacy. Teachers’ sense of teaching efficacy, or their confidence in their ability
to teach effectively, was assessed using 8 items selected from a 12 item scale developed by
Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001; Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale-OSTES: Short
Form). The original OSTES: Short Form was a 12 item scale; however, our research team
removed the four items associated with the instruments’ classroom management subscale as this
subscale was not a focus of the study. The remaining items assessed teachers’ efficacy in student
engagement (4 items) and efficacy in instructional strategies (4 items). They were scored on a 9
point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from 1 (Nothing) to 9 (A Great Deal). The items
asked teachers to rate their confidence in their ability to effectively teach students with items
such as, “How much can you do to get students to believe they can do well in school?” Internal
consistency reliability (coefficient alpha) for the instructional and engagement efficacy subscales
was .73 and .76 respectively. The teacher efficacy composite (combining both subscales) had an
overall coefficient alpha of .85.
Teacher Background. Demographic and relevant background information was obtained
from the participating teachers using items that were selected or adapted from the NAEP’s
Teacher Background Questionnaire (White, 1994). The selected items asked teachers to identify
their ethnic background, years of teaching experience, highest academic degree held, any
specialized training they have completed in either undergraduate or post-graduate studies, the
type(s) of teaching credentials/certificates held, type of classroom organization they teach
(number of students per class), and the amount of time that they spend focusing on
reading/language arts during instruction. They were also asked to identify any instructional
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 15
practices they used (from a list of 15 potential reading instructional practices) if they taught
reading/language arts.
Results
Item Analysis: Development of the Final Scales
Various analyses were conducted in an attempt to identify whether the same constructs
identified empirically in research on student motivation to read (using the MRQ) could be
empirically identified in teachers’ beliefs about student motivation to read. To this end, our
initial task was to examine how well the newly developed TBSMRQ items were functioning
across the twelve hypothesized subscales. Therefore, we conducted a series of item-analyses on
the 64 item TBSMRQ including an examination of subscale internal consistency (using
coefficient alpha), inter-item and item-total correlations, and relationships between the various
subscales.
Internal consistency. Coefficient alpha was computed for each of the twelve hypothesized
subscales on the TBSMRQ. Reliability coefficients for each of the subscales can be found in the
left half of Table 1. The most reliable scales included the self-efficacy, competition, importance,
grades, and autonomy subscales, all of which had alpha coefficients greater than .77. The internal
consistency coefficients for the remaining subscales were not as strong, indicating that there
were some items that did not cohere with one another on each of the remaining subscales. Item-
total correlations were subsequently investigated to identify these potentially problematic items.
Item-total correlations. After closer examination of the item-total correlations for
items on each individual subscale, it was clear that most items were moderately to highly
correlated with their respective subscale’s total score. It was common to find that one or two
items on each subscale were the primary cause of the relatively low subscale internal consistency
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 16
found in our previous analysis. Any item that had an item-total correlation below the
conventionally acceptable level (r < .30) was considered for removal from the revised scales.
This process resulted in the identification of 12 items with low item-total correlations, including
items from the social (3 items), compliance (1 item), grades (1 item), curiosity (2 items),
involvement (2 items), challenge (2 items), and autonomy (1 item) subscales. In addition, this
analysis revealed that there were more significant problems with the recognition and avoidance
subscales, which were removed from subsequent analyses. While disappointing, the difficulties
with these subscales were not completely surprising, given that previous research has shown
these subscales are often among the least reliable on the student version of the MRQ (Wigfield &
Guthrie, 1997).
Following the removal of items with low item-total correlations, the alpha coefficients for
each revised subscale increased significantly. Internal consistency coefficients for the revised
subscales ranged from .79 to .91 and the overall internal consistency of the TBSMRQ increased
from .90 to .94. A listing of the internal consistency coefficients for the revised scales can be
found in the right half of Table 1.
Examination of content validity. To guard against the elimination of items that might
compromise the content validity of the instrument, our research group convened periodically
throughout the revision process to discuss the implications of suggested revisions. This process
helped to guard against the strictly statistical decision to remove items that are theoretically
important to the construct being assessed. In fact, these discussions resulted in the retention of 5
items that would have been removed if the decision were based solely on their statistical
significance to their respective subscale. This included the retention of items which had low
item-total correlations on the grades (1 item), self-efficacy (2 items), curiosity (1 item), and
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 17
competition (1 item) subscales. The internal consistency coefficients reported in Table 1 reflect
the revised subscales including these retained items. Sample items from each subscale on the
revised 41-item TBSMRQ can be found in the Appendix.
Correlations of the motivation scales. Correlations between the subscales on the
TBSMRQ were examined to see if their relationships were similar to those found in research on
the student MRQ. Correlations between all of the motivation scales are presented in Table 2. In
particular, the relationships between subscales hypothesized to represent intrinsic motivational
variables and those hypothesized to represent extrinsic motivational variables were important to
examine. Using the works of Wigfield and Guthrie (Guthrie, et al., 1999; Wang and Guthrie,
2004; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997) as a guide, we determined that the grades and competition
subscales represented extrinsic constructs and the efficacy, challenge, curiosity, involvement,
and autonomy subscales represented intrinsic constructs. An examination of Table 2 reveals that
the grades and competition subscales were significantly correlated with one another (r = .48, p <
.01). All of the subscales from the intrinsic composite were moderately to highly correlated, with
the correlation coefficients ranging from .60 to .82 ( p < .01). As expected, no significant
correlations existed between subscales from the extrinsic and intrinsic composites, providing
discriminant validity evidence for the intrinsic and extrinsic composites used in subsequent
analyses.
Subscales not included in either the intrinsic or extrinsic groups were also significantly
correlated with most of the other scales on the TBSMRQ. The social scale correlated
significantly with all of the subscales (r = .28 to .65, p < .01) except for the competition scale (r
= .16, N.S.). The compliance subscale was significantly correlated with both the competition (r =
.34, p < .01) and grades (r = .45, p < .01) subscales which was expected given that it is
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 18
considered to be a somewhat extrinsic indicator of motivation. In addition, the importance
subscale, which is viewed to be somewhat intrinsic, was moderately to highly correlated with all
of the intrinsic subscales with correlation coefficients ranging from .57 to .81 ( p < .01). On the
other hand, the involvement subscale, which is a component of the intrinsic composite, was not
significantly correlated with competition and grades. These results provide preliminary evidence
to support the construct validity of the various subscales measured on the TBSMRQ.
Teachers’ Beliefs Regarding Student Motivation to Read
We computed means and standard deviations for the motivation scales on the TBSMRQ
to get a preliminary picture of what teachers believed about the importance of fostering various
aspects of student motivation to read. These descriptive statistics are presented in Table 4.
Overall, the self-efficacy (M=6.59), challenge (M=6.38), and importance (M=6.38) subscales
received the highest mean ratings by the teachers. These results indicated that the teachers
believed it was most important to foster students’ reading motivation by creating an environment
where students feel they can succeed, by using materials that challenge their reading skills, and
by establishing the importance of becoming a good reader. On the other hand, the teachers’
lowest mean ratings were on the competition (M=2.57), grades (M=3.85), and compliance
(M=4.53) subscales. These results indicated that the teachers believed it was least important to
foster student motivation by creating competitive environments, by using grades, and by utilizing
students’ feelings that they need to comply with the orders given by authority figures. Overall,
the teachers tended to rate the relatively intrinsic motivational scales the highest and the
relatively extrinsic motivational scales the lowest.
Following our examination of subscale means for all of the teachers surveyed we
conducted a series of analyses to examine whether there were significant differences in their
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 19
beliefs across meaningful subgroups of teachers. These analyses showed no significant
differences in teachers’ beliefs about student motivation for reading across 1) years of teaching
experience, 2) role in teaching language arts, and 3) teachers with high vs. low teaching self-
efficacy.
Examining the Relationship between the TBSMRQ and Teachers’ Self-Efficacy
The correlations of the TBSMRQ subscales to the teacher efficacy subscales
(instructional efficacy and engagement efficacy) are located at the bottom of Table 2. Both of the
teacher efficacy subscales correlated significantly with the social, involvement, autonomy,
curiosity, and challenge subscales of the TBSMRQ. All of these subscales, except social, were
included in the intrinsic motivation composite. Perhaps more compelling is the finding that
neither of the teacher efficacy subscales correlated significantly with the extrinsically oriented
subscales of the TBSMRQ (competition and grades).
To follow-up on these initial findings, we subsequently examined the relationships
between the two scales of teacher efficacy (instructional and engagement efficacy) with the
intrinsic composite (comprised of the efficacy, challenge, curiosity, involvement, and autonomy
subscales of the TBSMRQ). The results of this analysis are presented in Table 3. Similar to the
results of the previous analyses, both of the teacher efficacy subscales (instructional efficacy and
engagement efficacy) were positively correlated with the intrinsic composite of the TBSMRQ (r
= .37 and .41, p < .01, respectively). Again, neither of the teacher efficacy subscales correlated
significantly with the extrinsic composite of the TBSMRQ.
Discussion
Development of the TBSMRQ
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 20
An important result of this study is the finding that teachers’ beliefs about student
motivation to read can be reliably measured across a range of motivational constructs. Following
revision of the TBSMRQ, ten of the twelve subscales revealed good to excellent internal
consistency, with the exception of the Avoidance and Recognition subscales. Most importantly,
the ten adequately functioning subscales captured teachers’ beliefs regarding aspects of
motivation that have been identified in previous research to relate to key aspects of students’
reading development, such as reading amount and reading comprehension growth (Wigfield &
Guthrie, 1997; Guthrie, Hoa, Wigfield, Tonks, Humenick, & Littles, 2007). Additionally, the
adequately functioning subscales included all of the motivational constructs in the intrinsic
(efficacy, challenge, curiosity, involvement, and autonomy support) and extrinsic (grades and
competition) composites which were the primary focus of our subsequent examinations of the
relationship between teachers’ motivational beliefs and their teaching self-efficacy.
The low internal consistency of the Avoidance and Recognition subscales was not
surprising given that they have been among the least reliable subscales in several studies on the
student MRQ (Baker & Wigfield, 1999, Guthrie et al., 2007; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997).
However, we believe that understanding teachers’ beliefs about students’ avoidance behaviors
has potentially important implications for classroom practice; therefore, we have decided to re-
examine the Avoidance construct in future versions of the TBSMRQ. As Baker & Wigfield
(1999) suggest, it is possible that the Avoidance construct manifests itself within multiple aspects
of motivation, which might explain the difficulty in measuring it as a unified construct. For
example, it may be that students avoid reading due to low self-efficacy, lack of interest, and/or
fear of competition.
Teachers’ Beliefs about Student Motivation to Read
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 21
Our inquiry affirmed the existence of a clear belief among the teachers in our sample that
the development of intrinsic motives for reading warrants far greater attention than extrinsic
ones. Research conducted by Sweet and her colleagues (1998) led them to argue that teachers
hold implicit theories and beliefs about motivation for reading that align with a self-
determination perspective (Deci & Ryan, 1985) of motivation and reading achievement.
Teachers in their study believed that students tend to experience more literacy growth when they
become agents of their own literacy development. In our investigation, the belief that intrinsic
motivation can propel reading and ought to be developed in students found confirmation in the
self-reports of the teachers we surveyed. This belief was manifested in their relatively higher
rating of TBSMRQ subscales that contributed to the questionnaire’s intrinsic composite, namely,
efficacy, challenge, curiosity, involvement, and autonomy. Meanwhile, scores for subscales
composing aspects of extrinsic motivation were among the lowest ratings on the TBSMRQ:
competition, grades, and compliance. The implications of this motivational orientation for
instructional practices in classrooms of students who may not be motivated to read for intrinsic
reasons could be far-reaching.
In studies using the MRQ with elementary and middle schools (Wigfield & Guthrie,
1997; Unrau & Schlackman, 2006), students frequently reported that they view themselves
moved to read far more by extrinsic factors, such as grades, than by intrinsic ones, such as
curiosity and challenge. If teachers’ beliefs about intrinsic motivation override attention to
extrinsic motivators in their instructional programs or lead to the derision of extrinsic motives for
reading, that could have implications for student engagement in reading. Undoubtedly, the
gradual internalization of intrinsic motives for reading while providing extrinsic rewards and
support would seem to be a productive developmental path to follow and one encouraged in
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 22
studies of self-determination theory (Deci, Eghrari, & Patrick, 1994; Lepper & Henderlong,
2000).
As we have discovered, our knowledge of the relationship between teachers’ beliefs
about motivation to read and the actions they take in classrooms based on those beliefs is quite
limited. However, Guthrie (2008) has designed questionnaires to identify adolescent students’
motivation for reading and to clarify middle and high school teachers’ own efforts to motivate
their students by providing meaningful reading instruction, choice, social support, growth in self-
efficacy, and connections between personal interests and reading. Teachers in secondary schools
can use these instruments to measure their students’ levels of engagement and to clarify their
own beliefs and practices regarding reading motivation. Further development, testing, and
implementation of instruments like these could enable teachers at all grade levels to deepen their
understanding of the role that motivation for reading plays in the lives of their students and how
that motivation might be increased.
Relationship between Teachers’ Beliefs and their Teaching Self-Efficacy
The results of our study revealed a clear relationship between teachers’ beliefs about
student motivation to read and their teaching self-efficacy. Specifically, our results indicated that
teachers whose ratings favored intrinsic approaches to fostering student motivation felt more
confident in their abilities to instruct and engage students in their classroom. This finding is
consistent with previous research which has indicated that teachers with higher levels of efficacy
use teaching techniques and strategies that are more challenging and enhance student mastery of
cognitive and affective goals (Puchner & Taylor, 2006). Our results also indicated that there was
no relationship between teachers’ ratings on the extrinsic motivational factors and their teaching
self-efficacy. This finding is consistent with previous research which has indicated that teachers
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 23
with a low sense of teaching efficacy have an orientation toward control, taking a pessimistic
view of students’ motivation, relying on strict classroom regulations, extrinsic rewards, and
punishments to make students engage in school work (Egyed & Short, 2006; Zimmerman, 1995).
The fact that our results align with the results of previous research on teachers’ sense of self-
efficacy and their classroom practices was an important source of initial criterion-validity
evidence for our newly developed measure.
Implications for Future Research
The development of a reliable measure of teachers’ beliefs regarding student motivation
to read is an important first step in conducting additional research examining how these beliefs
might influence important student outcomes in the area of reading. In particular, additional
research is needed to examine how the structure of teachers’ beliefs about student motivation to
read is similar to or different from the structure of student’s motivation to read. While we began
the process of addressing this issue in the current investigation, we acknowledge that studies
with larger samples of teachers are needed so that factor analysis can be used to examine this
issue more deeply. In addition, the relatively small sample of teachers in this study limited our
ability to examine potential differences in teachers’ beliefs about student motivation for reading
across potentially meaningful subgroups of teachers. Accordingly, additional research utilizing
classroom observations are necessary to explore the relationship between teachers’ self-reported
beliefs of student motivation and their actual classroom practices. This type of research would
provide crucial information needed to better understand the accuracy of teachers’ self-reported
beliefs and their connection to instructional practices and student outcomes. Finally, we hope
that continued research in these areas will inform the development of teacher preservice and
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 24
inservice programs aimed at increasing teachers’ awareness of and ability to activate student
motivation through their instruction and thus deepen reading engagement.
Our review of the literature related to teachers’ beliefs about students’ motivation for
reading and how those beliefs are enacted in the classroom confirmed our belief that little has
been done to investigate this important and rich domain. We suspect that further investigation
into teacher’s beliefs about motivation for reading holds significant promise, especially in an era
in which emphasis on direct or “scripted” reading instruction has limited teachers’ autonomy and
their support of their students’ autonomy in literacy development. This study initiated our efforts
to deepen our knowledge of teachers’ beliefs about reading motivation and how they act on those
beliefs in classrooms.
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motivation 25
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Table 1
Internal consistency (alpha coefficients) for each subscale: Full and revised
N (full) Alpha (full) N (revised) Alpha (revised) Increase in Alpha
social 6 .50 3 .85 .35
compliance 3 .66 2 .79 .13
importance 2 .82 2 .82 n/a
self-efficacy 4 .91 4 .91 n/a
competition 5 .88 5 .88 n/a
involvement 5 .37 3 .82 .45
autonomy 7 .78 6 .81 .03
curiosity 9 .53 7 .81 .28
grades 6 .80 5 .89 .09
challenge
avoidance*
recognition*
6
6
5
.53
.16
.32
4
6*
4*
.84
.46*
.60*
.31
.30
.28
TMRQ (total) 64 .90 41 .94 .04
Note. The avoidance subscale’s revision involved the elimination of the reverse scoring for items 59 and 60 but
did not include the elimination of any items; * signifies that the avoidance and recognition subscales were
dropped from all other correlational analyses due to low reliability (thus they are not included in the TBSMRQ
total for the revised scale numbers); n/a signifies not applicable.
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Teachers’ Beliefs about Reading Motiv
Table 2
Correlations between TMRQ motivation scales
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. Social -
2. Compliance .28** -
3. Importance .63** .28* -
4. Efficacy .61** .26* .81** -
5. Competition .16 .34** .07 -.04 -
6. Involvement .65** .15 .57** .62** .05 -
7. Autonomy .63** .22* .66** .74** -.03 .82** -
8. Curiosity .55** .12 .64** .70** -.05 .74** .75** -
9. Grades .31** .45** .23* .15 .48** .11 .16 .14 -
10. Challenge .61** .33** .71** .77** .01 .72** .79** .70** .19 -
11. TE-Instructional .29** .11 .33** .31* -.11 .34** .34** .27* .09 .40** -
12. TE- Engagement .25* .09 .21 .27 -.17 .42** .43** .28* .13 .39** .7
* p < .05, two-tailed. ** p < .01, two-tailed.
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Teachers’ Beliefs About Reading Motivation 31
Table 3
Correlations between the intrinsic and extrinsic composites
of the TBSMRQ and the teacher efficacy (TE) subscales
1 2 3 4
1. Intrinsic --
2. Extrinsic .09 --
3. Instruction TE .37** -.01 --
4. Engage TE .41** -.02 .75** --
______________________________________________
** p < .01, two-tailed
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Teachers’ Beliefs About Reading Motivation 32
Table 4
Means and Standard Deviations for Teachers’ Beliefs on the TBSMRQ Subscales
N Mean
Standard
Deviation
social 86 6.18 1.03
compliance 86 4.53 1.53
importance 76 6.38 .92
self-efficacy 86 6.59 .81
competition 86 2.57 1.44
involvement 86 6.24 .95
autonomy 86 6.20 .86
curiosity 86 5.98 .83
grades 86 3.85 1.44
challenge 86 6.38 .87
TBSMRQ total 86 5.39 .72
Note. Teachers’ mean ratings across subscales are based on a scale from 1-7 with a rating of 1 indicating the aspect
of student motivation as less important and a rating of 7 indicating the aspect of motivation as very important.
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Appendix
Items from the TBSMRQ (41-Item Revised Scale)
Note. Items were randomized on the instrument that was administered to teachers
Self-Efficacy
1. I believe it is important for students to feel that they can improve as readers while they
are in my class.
2. I believe it is important for students to feel that they can learn from reading in class.
3. I believe it is important that students see themselves as a good reader.
4.
I believe it is important for students to feel that they can succeed in reading in the
classroom.
Challenge
1. I believe it is important for students to have access to readings that challenge them at
their level.
2. I believe it is important to give students questions about their reading that make them
think.
3. I believe students will read more difficult material when it is interesting to them.
4. I believe it is important to give students opportunities to learn difficult things through
reading.
Curiosity
1. I believe it is important for students to read new information about topics that interest
them.
2. I believe it is important to verbally encourage students to find out what interests them.
3. I believe it is important for students to read about new things that interest them.
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Teachers’ Beliefs About Reading Motivation 34
4. I believe it is important for students to be so interested in what they are reading that they
lose track of time.
5. I believe it is important for students to read about a wide variety of topics.
6. When I don’t know students’ interests, I believe it is important to choose readings on
topics that will arouse their interests.
7. When I see that a student has an interest in a topic, I believe it is important to give that
student readings that are centrally related to that topic.
Involvement
1.
I believe it is important to select readings that are likely to draw students into a story’s
narrative.
2. I believe it is important to encourage students to enter the world that the author has
created.
3. I believe it is important to encourage students to make pictures in their minds when they
read.
Grades
1. I believe it is important that students read to improve their grades compared to other
reasons for reading.
2. I believe it is important that students look forward to finding out their reading grades.
3. I believe it is important that students think that grades are a good way of finding out how
they are doing in reading.
4. I believe it is important that students’ parents ask about their reading grades.
5. I believe grading is an important way to foster reading development for students.
Competition
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Teachers’ Beliefs About Reading Motivation 35
1. I believe that it is important for students to enjoy being the only one who knows an
answer in something they read.
2. I believe that it is important for students to strive to get more answers right than their
friends.
3. I believe that it is important for students to like finishing their reading before other
students in the class.
4. I believe that it is important that students are driven to work hard in order to get better at
reading than their friends.
5.
I believe that it is important to use competitive activities to promote reading growth.
Social
1. I believe it is important that students read to their brother(s) or sister(s).
2. I believe it is important that students tell their family about what they are reading.
3. I believe it is important that students visit the library often with their family.
Compliance
1. I believe it is important that students try to finish their reading on time.
2. I believe it is important that students value finishing every reading assignment.
Importance
1. I believe it is necessary for students to think it is important to be good readers.
2. I believe it is necessary for students to view reading as one of the most important activity
that they do.
Autonomy Support
1. I believe it is important to ask students what they want to read.
7/27/2019 Rueda Reading_Psychology_Teacherbeliefs_Accepted_Final[1].pdf
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rueda-readingpsychologyteacherbeliefsacceptedfinal1pdf 37/37
Teachers’ Beliefs About Reading Motivation 36
2. I believe it is important to acknowledge students’ perspective even though it may differ
from the teacher’s perspective.
3. I believe it is important to provide time for students to read independently.
4. I believe it is important to explain to students why a strategy being taught to them will be
useful.
5. I believe it is important to explain to students why they are reading a particular book.
6. I believe it is important to encourage students to generate questions rather than answer
the teacher’s questions.