Student Motivation and the Cognitive Complexity of Mathematics Instruction in Six Middle Grades Classrooms

As young adolescents begin their education in middle level schools, many also begin a pattern of negative motivation to learn. Research suggests that major contributors to the negative motivation are the structure and components of the classroom environment. This study investigated the relationship between the cognitive demands of instruction (i.e., the learning environments) and student motivation in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade mathematics classrooms.Two fifth grade, two sixth grade, and two seventh grade math classrooms constituted the sample. Over five lessons, observational data on higher-order thinking and survey data concerning student motivation for the observed lessons were collected.Results indicate that the sixth and seventh grade math lessons were characterized by significantly fewer elements of higher-order thinking than the fifth grade math lessons. Moreover, sixth and seventh grade students reported significantly lower mastery orientation (intrinsic motivation) than did the fifth grade students.