White, Whitney The Effects of Motivation and Training Schedule on Self-Efficacy and Knowledge. 2014. Radford University, Thesis. Radford University Scholars' Repository.
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Abstract
It is estimated that 15,000 children under the age of five are experiencing homelessness in the Commonwealth of Virginia (Virginia Department of Education, 2011). Project Sprout (PS) is a prevention and awareness program designed to empower parents and families to help their children develop and learn regardless of the environment in which they live. Graduate student coordinators recruit and train undergraduate and leveling students as PS advocates. The advocate’s role is to provide information, activities, and resources to families that target the development of early cognitive, language, literacy, and socio-emotional skills in children birth to five years old. To teach these concepts, a ten-hour training program was developed by first-year Communication Sciences and Disorders graduate students. The training program was offered twice at separately scheduled times, referred to as the distributed schedule and the massed schedule. Once trained, advocates visit families in pairs to target child development. Evidence based research is lacking with regards to the efficacy of protocols and schedules needed to train undergraduate students specifically in the provision of prevention and awareness activities. To ensure quality and efficiency of the pilot PS Advocate Training Program (PS-ATP), the author investigated the effects of training schedule and type of motivation on level of self-efficacy and change in knowledge. The author sought to answer the following questions: (a) did the PS-ATP lead to a change in knowledge, (b) was the change in knowledge different for distributed versus massed schedules, (c) did the PS-ATP lead to a change in self-efficacy, (d) was the change in self-efficacy different for distributed versus massed schedules, and (e) was intrinsic motivation associated with change in knowledge? The study included Radford University undergraduate and leveling students (n = 16) from five departments with an average age of 21 years. A quasi-experimental design, with pre-post quantitative surveys, was used for this study. Data was obtained from quality control surveys embedded into the pilot PS-ATP. Undergraduate students who participated in the pilot PS-ATP demonstrated significant changes in knowledge (t(15) = -8.18, p = .00, 2-tailed). Participants also demonstrated significant changes in level of self-efficacy (t(15) = -2.81, p = .013, 2-tailed). Results of the study did not reveal significant differences in change in knowledge or level of self-efficacy between distributed and massed practice, supporting the claim made by Mumford et al. (1994) that many studies have failed to demonstrate the distributed practice effect. Intrinsic motivation was found to be positively associated with change in participant knowledge, extending previous findings that intrinsic motivation is predictive of greater progress and higher levels of mastery (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2008). Not only did the participants demonstrate a change in knowledge, the increase in self-efficacy validates that what they learned made them feel capable of becoming Project Sprout advocates. The participants who identified as being intrinsically motivated at the outset of the study demonstrated greater changes in knowledge. This supports the existing literature which suggests that for service learning projects, intrinsic motivation leads to greater levels of progress and sustained volunteer engagement.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | L Education > L Education (General) |
| Divisions: | Radford University > Waldron College of Health and Human Services > Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Nov 2014 14:00 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Apr 2023 18:36 |
| URI: | http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/163 |
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