Supportive hints in a digital learning environment: Effects on students' motivation

Reading skills are developed across the lifespan. However, little is known about the development of reading comprehension skills and materials in secondary education, where students do not learn to read, but read to learn. When students read informational textbooks, domain knowledge (e.g., about reading strategies) and topic knowledge become increasingly interconnected. Students’ motivation is also of influence on reading achievement. Students need to recognize the task value or decrease the perceived difficulty of a task in order to be motivated to read a text (Guthrie, Klauda & Ho, 2013). Reading motivation is a problem many content area teachers face. Research has shown that incorporating cognitive, metacognitive and motivational support during instruction increases students’ motivation towards learning from text (Souvignier & Mokhlesgerami, 2006). This semesters’ research uses a digital learning environment (DLE) with two types of support for informational text reading: cognitive and metacognitive hints. In a quasi-experimental design, a total of 228 first grade students from 3 secondary schools were able to use cognitive and metacognitive hints during history lessons (school A: N=80), during geography lessons (school B: N=92) or were unable to use hints during these lessons (school C: N=56). Students’ task value and self-efficacy was measured for all groups using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The effectiveness of available hints on students’ motivation was analyzed using ANOVA, GLM and paired samples t-tests. Results showed a significant increase in the pretest and posttest scores for self-efficacy in geography in the control group. There was also a significant decrease in pretest and posttest scores for task value in history in the experimental group. These findings are not in line with previous research on the effects of reading strategy instruction on students’ motivation: The addition of motivational hints in the next semester might elicit more positive and significant effects.