Boring but important: a self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation

David S Yeager, Marlone D Henderson, David Paunesku, Gregory M Walton, Sidney D'Mello, Brian J Spitzer, Angela Lee Duckworth, David S Yeager, Marlone D Henderson, David Paunesku, Gregory M Walton, Sidney D'Mello, Brian J Spitzer, Angela Lee Duckworth

Abstract

Many important learning tasks feel uninteresting and tedious to learners. This research proposed that promoting a prosocial, self-transcendent purpose could improve academic self-regulation on such tasks. This proposal was supported in 4 studies with over 2,000 adolescents and young adults. Study 1 documented a correlation between a self-transcendent purpose for learning and self-reported trait measures of academic self-regulation. Those with more of a purpose for learning also persisted longer on a boring task rather than giving in to a tempting alternative and, many months later, were less likely to drop out of college. Study 2 addressed causality. It showed that a brief, one-time psychological intervention promoting a self-transcendent purpose for learning could improve high school science and math grade point average (GPA) over several months. Studies 3 and 4 were short-term experiments that explored possible mechanisms. They showed that the self-transcendent purpose manipulation could increase deeper learning behavior on tedious test review materials (Study 3), and sustain self-regulation over the course of an increasingly boring task (Study 4). More self-oriented motives for learning--such as the desire to have an interesting or enjoyable career--did not, on their own, consistently produce these benefits (Studies 1 and 4).

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Figures

Figure 1. Sample item for assessing the…
Figure 1. Sample item for assessing the meaningfulness of schoolwork
Figure 2. The “diligence task:” A behavioral…
Figure 2. The “diligence task:” A behavioral measure of academic self-regulation
Figure 3. A self-transcendent purpose for learning…
Figure 3. A self-transcendent purpose for learning predicts long-term persistence toward an academic goal (enrollment at a four-year college 6-10 months post-assessment, among college-going high school graduates) in Study 1
Note: Predicted values that adjusted for cognitive ability, gender, racial minority status, and high school grade point average. All participants are high school graduates who stated that their goal was to graduate from college.
Figure 4. A self-transcendent purpose for learning…
Figure 4. A self-transcendent purpose for learning intervention raises grades in math and science for all students but especially for poor performers in Study 2 (students with a GPA below 3.0 in the pre-intervention quarter)
Error bars: 1 standard error.
Figure 5. A self-transcendent purpose for learning…
Figure 5. A self-transcendent purpose for learning intervention sustains self-regulation on the “diligence task” in Study 4
Error bars: 1 standard error.

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Source: PubMed

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