ERIC Number: EJ1407970
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1040-726X
EISSN: EISSN-1573-336X
When Is Learning "Effortful"? Scrutinizing the Concept of Mental Effort in Cognitively Oriented Research from a Motivational Perspective
Axel Grund; Stefan Fries; Matthias Nückles; Alexander Renkl; Julian Roelle
Educational Psychology Review, v36 n1 Article 11 2024
In the context of instructional design and self-regulated learning research, the notion of mental effort allocation, monitoring, and control has gained increasing attention. Bringing together a cognitive perspective, focusing on Cognitive Load Theory, and a motivational perspective, merging central accounts from Situated Expectancy Value Theory and Self-Determination Theory, we plea for a three-fold conception of effort that clearly distinguishes the different psychological sources of experiencing and allocating effort in learning environments: effort-by-complexity, effort-by-need frustration, and effort-by-allocation. Such a detailed conception has important implications for how effort should be studied and how it can be influenced by instructional support or by the learning individual itself. A first conclusion we draw is that cognitively oriented research needs to be careful when taking students' self-reports on the "effortfulness" of a task as an indication of the object-level cognitive requirements of the task, as such appraisals may also reflect the affective-emotional requirements of task execution as well as motivational beliefs regarding the likelihood of success and meaningfulness of a task. A second conclusion is that instructional procedures rooted in cognition-oriented theory ideally are complemented by motivation theory to support student learning optimally.
Descriptors: Cognitive Processes, Metacognition, Performance, Academic Achievement, Student Behavior, Educational Environment, Learning Motivation, Educational Psychology, Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A