Understanding the conceptual interplay between learners’ motivation and patterns of personal meaning in the mathematics classroom: results from Germany and Finland

Abstract

The orientation of motivation plays an important role in the quality of students’ functioning in mathematics learning.In particular, autonomous (i.e., self-determined) motivation has multiple positive effects on their learning processes. Intrinsic motivation represents the hallmark of self-determination. However, not all students are intrinsically motivated; learners seek to fulfil their need for meaning in learning situations by referring to their concept of the personal relevance of studying mathematics.The conceptual relationship between the personal relevance attach to studying and their quality of motivation is not clarified yet.That is why the present investigation examines what patterns of personal relevance (termed as individual relevance systems) move learners to study mathematics and how the learner’s individually constructed personal relevance is interconnected with their motivation in the mathematics classroom. To this effect, two theoretical lenses, self-determination theory (SDT) and social constructivism, are adopted to jointly study why individuals show a certain motivational orientation in line with what kind of individual relevance system they construct in mathematics as a means of orienting themselves towards the social environment in the classroom. In this connection, the motivational construct of personal meaning reflects the personal relevance learners attach to studying mathematics in an academic context.To understand the interaction between both perspectives, I studied the interplay between data from German and Finnish ninth graders (aged 14–16) to contrast the results and refine the theoretical relationships between both affective constructs.The dissertation concludes with an in-depth discussion of how its findings relate to those of earlier studies, and of the potential for its future application in fields other than the specific area of study, i.e., mathematics-related motivation.