A course syllabus can affect students' perceptions of the motivational climate within a course. Yet, few researchers have conducted experimental studies of students' perceptions of syllabi in courses in which they were currently enrolled. The purpose of the present studies was to assess the extent to which syllabi language and organization…

The aim of this article is to explain a faculty development approach used with faculty who teach general education courses. The purpose of the professional development was to help faculty intentionally create a class environment that engages students. Key to this process was introducing faculty to a research-based motivation model that they could…

The purposes of this study were to investigate the extent to which students' course perceptions of the components of the MUSIC Model of Motivation (Jones, 2009, 2018) were related to their engagement in college courses and their instructor and course ratings. Participants included 285 college students who completed questionnaires once or twice…

Because of the success of the Reggio Emilia Approach in early childhood education, it could be useful to researchers and practitioners to identify and explicate components of the approach that make it effective in motivating students. In this paper, we examine the Reggio Emilia Approach through the lens of the MUSIC® Model of Motivation, a model…

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which (1) a domain identification model could be used to predict students' engineering major and career intentions and (2) the MUSIC Model of Motivation components could be used to predict domain identification. The data for this study were collected from first-year engineering students. We…

One purpose of this study was to determine whether patterns existed in pre-high school students' motivation-related perceptions of their science classes. Another purpose was to examine the extent to which these patterns were related to their science identification, gender, grade level, class effort, and intentions to persist in science. We…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether students' perceptions in a first-year university engineering course affected their engineering identification, motivational beliefs, and engineering major and career goals. Based on current motivation models and theories, we hypothesized that students' perceptions of the components of the MUSIC…

We investigated students' perceptions related to psychological constructs in their science classes and the influence of these perceptions on their science identification and science career goals. Participants included 575 middle school students from two countries (334 students in the U.S. and 241 students in Iceland). Students completed a…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether any of the six motivational constructs in the expectancy-value model of motivation (i.e., expectancy, ability perceptions, intrinsic interest value, attainment value, social utility value, and cost) would predict whether students intended to have a career teaching classroom music or…

We examined how students' motivation differed when they participated in three different types of mind mapping activities: one activity that was completed individually outside of class time, one that was completed individually in class with the instructor available for help, and one that was completed in class with other students and the instructor…

We identified and examined how the instructional elements of problem-based learning capstone engineering courses affected students' motivation to engage in the courses. We employed a two-phase, sequential, explanatory, mixed methods research design. For the quantitative phase, 47 undergraduate students at a large public university completed a…

Introduction: The MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation consists of psychological components (i.e., empowerment, usefulness, success, interest, and caring) that have been derived from research and theory as ones that are critical to student engagement in academic settings. The purpose of this study was to: (1) determine whether men and women rate…

The purpose of this article is to present a model of academic motivation that can be used by instructors to design courses that will engage students in learning. The model, based on research and theory, consists of five components that an instructor should consider when designing instruction: (1) empowerment, (2) usefulness, (3) success, (4)…