MEASURING MOTIVATION IN CHILDREN SERVED BY HEAD START

University Of Miami Rosenteil School, Miami FL

Investigators

Abstract

A long standing research partnership between the University of Miami and one of the largest Head Start (HS) programs in the nation, serving an urban population of at-risk young children in Miami-Dade County, has facilitated collaborative research focused on narrowing the academic achievement gap between children from low- and middle-income families. This project leverages the Miami partnership's focus on improving domain-general school readiness skills, such as motivation, persistence, and preference for challenge, which are critical for improving school readiness, and support learning regardless of content area. Interventions targeting motivation orientation (encompasses mastery and performance motivations) have successfully improved academic outcomes in older children; however, attempts to extend this research downward to early childhood have yielded mixed results due to the absence of developmentally appropriate measures. The current study will build upon prior research to fill a gap in this literature by assessing a newly developed measure of motivation orientation specifically designed to be sensitive and appropriate for pre-school children from low-income families. Results will allow for evaluation of early childhood interventions that aim to close the national school readiness achievement gap by targeting this powerful domain-general skill. Sample: 350 children across 35 HS classrooms from the Miami-Data County Head Start program will be randomly selected, stratified by age and gender. Measures: STEM ? Lens on Science assessment (Lens) Language ? The Preschool Computerized Language Assessment (PCLA) Approaches to learning ? The Learning-to-Learn Scales (LTLS) Motivation orientation ? The Computer Administered Battery of Observable Motivation (CABoOM)