Can classrooms be both motivating and demanding? The role of academic press.

Abstract

Educators are increasing standards in efforts with the assumption that this press leads to improved academic outcomes and motivation. This assumption may be too simplistic when interpreted from achievement goal theory. In contrast to performance goals, task goals have been related to adaptive educational beliefs and behaviors. This suggests that academic press may work in conjunction with goals to have different effects on students. The research questions posed are: are there different types and sources of academic press, how does press work in conjunction with achievement goals, and what is the impact of press on students? A conceptual paper distinguishes among types of academic press, such as press for understanding, for completion, and for performance; levels of press, such as the school and classroom; sources of press, such as the teacher, peers, and tasks; and locus of press, such as subjective or objective. This chapter also relates achievement goals and academic press by drawing distinctions between them and suggesting how they might interact. A quantitative study of 586 middle school math students examines whether perceived press for understanding contributes to educational beliefs and behaviors beyond the effects of personal achievement goals. Factor analysis indicated that a perceived press for understanding was distinct from students' goal orientations. When controlling for goal orientations, press for understanding positively predicted reports of self-regulated learning and academic efficacy and negatively predicted avoiding seeking help. Girls were less likely to avoid help-seeking than were boys as academic press for understanding increased. In Study 2, qualitative descriptions of four middle school science classrooms suggest that different types of press occur in consistent patterns within each classroom but from different sources. In classroom in which press for understanding was predominant, students showed greater achievement gains and reported greater interest, motivation, and self-regulation. Overall, results suggest that different types of academic press do exist in classrooms, that press for understanding is related to beneficial academic outcomes, and that achievement goals and press work together to enhance educational beliefs and behaviors.