Personalizing real-world problems: Posing own problems increases self-efficacy expectations, intrinsic value, attainment value, and utility value

Abstract

Background: Real-world problems are important in math instruction, but they do not necessarily trigger students' task motivation. Personalizing real-world problems by (1) matching problems to students' shared living environment (context personalization) and (2) asking students to pose their own problems (active personalization) might be two interventions to increase students' task motivation. Aim: In the current study, we investigated the effects of context personalization and active personalization on students' self-efficacy expectations, intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, and cost. Sample: The participants were 28 fifth- and sixth-grade students who voluntarily took part in a six-month afterschool program in which they posed problems with the aim of creating a math walk in their hometown. Method: Using a within-subjects design, at the end of the afterschool program, the students rated their self-efficacy expectations and task values for four self-developed problems associated with their hometown, four peer-developed problems associated with their hometown, and four instructor-provided problems associated with unfamiliar locations. Results: Students reported higher self-efficacy expectations, intrinsic value, attainment value, and utility value for active-personalized than non-personalized problems. To a lesser extent, context personalization promoted intrinsic value and attainment value. No effect was found for cost. Conclusions: Active personalization (i.e. asking students to pose their own real-world problems) is suited to enhance students' task motivation, specifically their self-efficacy expectations, intrinsic value, attainment value, and utility value. Context personalization still boosts students' intrinsic value and attainment value. Implementation in classroom instruction is discussed.