Enthusiastic but Inconsistent: Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Perceptions of Their Role in the CURE Classroom

Expectancy-value theory was used to explore how graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) value for teaching a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) impacts their motivation and perceptions of their role as CURE mentors. GTAs have varying perceptions of their role that do not closely correspond to their value for teaching CUREs.

Critical Civic Motivation of Marginalized Youth: An Expectancy-Value Approach

The present study advances a model of critical civic motivation grounded in expectancy-value theory and highlights diverse manifestations of motivation among marginalized adolescents. The participants were 447 high school youth (85.0% Latinx; 62.9% low-income). Two complementary methodological approaches were employed to examine civic motivation, conceptualized as expectancies (individual and collective), and values (interest and attainment). First, regression analyses found that civic expectancies and values differentially predicted behavioral outcomes of service and activism. Expectancies and values interactively predicted activism, whereas only main effects of individual and collective efficacy and interest value positively predicted service. Second, person-centered analyses yielded a five-cluster solution, with one-third of the participants exhibiting discrepancies between expectancies and values. Distinct patterns in the manifestations of civic motivation components may inform practices that support civic engagement of marginalized youth. Overall, the findings illustrate the utility of a holistic, critical framework that integrates established literatures on political efficacy and interest.

Utilizing the Expectancy Value Theory to Predict Lecturer Motivation to Apply Culturally Responsive Pedagogies in Universities in Botswana

The expectancy value theory (EVT) has been used in many studies to predict the motivation processes of individuals with regard to how they think and act in particular ways. Critical to how individuals think and act are the three elements of the EVT, namely the expectancy cognition (expectancy), instrumentality cognition (instrumentality) and valence. This study therefore seeks to establish whether the EVT could be used to predict and explain the motivation of lecturers to apply culturally responsive pedagogies (CRPs) in the teaching of culturally heterogeneous classes in universities in Botswana. Using a sample of 291 lecturers from three selected universities, the study employed a structured questionnaire for data collection. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used for data purification. Structural equation modelling (SEM) using AMOS version 22 was used for data analysis. The study established that the expectancy (β = .419; p < .001) and instrumentality (β = .315; p < .001) cognitions of lecturers as well as the valence (β = .268; p < .001) had a significant influence on the motivation of lecturers to apply CRPs in the teaching of culturally heterogeneous classes in universities. These results also showed significant relationships between expectancy cognition and valence (β = .316; p < .001) and also between instrumentality cognition and valence (β = .301; p < .001). These results therefore demonstrate that the EVT could be used to predict the motivation of lecturers in universities to apply CRPs in their teaching of culturally diverse university students.