From Motivation to Engagement: Examining Situated Expectancy-Value Constructs in Relation to Undergraduate STEM Engagement

Abstract

In the last thirty years, student engagement has received attention as a critical contributor to students’ school success. Given the positive links between engagement and academic outcomes, it is critical to understand antecedents of student engagement. Guided by Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT), this study examined how competence-related beliefs, task values (attainment, intrinsic, and utility values), and cost perceptions (task effort, outside effort, loss of valued alternatives, and emotional cost) were associated with five dimensions of engagement — behavioral, cognitive, emotional, social, and agentic—over two time points in undergraduate introductory math and science courses. Path analyses with motivation constructs at time one predicting engagement dimensions at time two ( N  = 247) revealed that while competence-related beliefs were primarily associated with cognitive and emotional engagement, task values were significantly associated with behavioral, cognitive, emotional, social, and agentic engagement. Notably, when evaluated independently, different facets of cost exhibited both positive and negative associations with various engagement dimensions. The findings underscore the complex relationships between motivational constructs and engagement dimensions in STEM education. The study highlights the need for tailored motivational strategies to enhance student engagement in introductory math and science courses.