Ellen A. Skinner

Bio: Ellen A. Skinner is an academic researcher from Portland State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Coping (psychology) & Student engagement. The author has an hindex of 45, co-authored 122 publications receiving 18375 citations. Previous affiliations of Ellen A. Skinner include Max Planck Society & University of Rochester.

Motivation in the classroom: Reciprocal effects of teacher behavior and student engagement across the school year.

Abstract: On the basis of a new model of motivation, we examined the effects of 3 dimensions of teacher (n = 14) behavior (involvement, structure, and autonomy support) on 144 children's (Grades 3-5) behavioral and emotional engagement across a school year. Correlational and path analyses revealed that teacher involvement was central to children's experiences in the classroom and that teacher provision of both autonomy support and optimal structure predicted children's motivation across the school year. Reciprocal effects of student motivation on teacher behavior were also found. Students who showed higher initial behavioral engagement received subsequently more of all 3 teacher behaviors. These findings suggest that students who are behaviorally disengaged receive teacher responses that should further undermine their motivation. The importance of the student-teacher relationship, especially interpersonal involvement, in optimizing student motivation is highlighted. What are the factors that motivate children to learn? Educators and parents value motivation in school for its own sake as well as for its long-term contribution to children's learning and self-esteem. Highly motivated children are easy to identify: They are enthusiastic, interested, involved, and curious; they try hard and persist; and they actively cope with challenges and setbacks. These are the children who should stay in school longer, learn more, feel better about themselves, and continue their education after high school. Recent research has borne this out (Ames & Ames, 1984, 1985; Pintrich, 1991; Stipek, 1988). Although motivated students are easy to recognize, they are difficult to find. Research shows that across the preschool to high school years, children's intrinsic motivation decreases and they feel increasingly alienated from learning (Harter, 1981). Why is it so difficult to optimize student motivation? Decades of psychological and educational research

Searching for the structure of coping: a review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping.

Abstract: From analyzing 100 assessments of coping, the authors critiqued strategies and identified best practices for constructing category systems. From current systems, a list of 400 ways of coping was compiled. For constructing lower order categories, the authors concluded that confirmatory factor analysis should replace the 2 most common strategies (exploratory factor analysis and rational sorting). For higher order categories, they recommend that the 3 most common distinctions (problem- vs. emotion-focused, approach vs. avoidance, and cognitive vs. behavioral) no longer be used. Instead, the authors recommend hierarchical systems of action types (e.g., proximity seeking, accommodation). From analysis of 6 such systems, 13 potential core families of coping were identified. Future steps involve deciding how to organize these families, using their functional homogeneity and distinctiveness, and especially their links to adaptive processes.

Sense of Relatedness as a Factor in Children's Academic Engagement and Performance.

Abstract: Children’s sense of relatedness is vital to their academic motivation from 3rd to 6th grade. Children’s (n 641) reports of relatedness predicted changes in classroom engagement over the school year and contributed over and above the effects of perceived control. Regression and cumulative risk analyses revealed that relatedness to parents, teachers, and peers each uniquely contributed to students’ engagement, especially emotional engagement. Girls reported higher relatedness than boys, but relatedness to teachers was a more salient predictor of engagement for boys. Feelings of relatedness to teachers dropped from 5th to 6th grade, but the effects of relatedness on engagement were stronger for 6th graders. Discussion examines theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of relatedness as a key predictor of children’s academic motivation and performance. When explaining motivational dynamics in school, psychologists frequently point to differences in children’s underlying beliefs and capacities. Decades of research show that children’s self-perceptions, such as self-efficacy, goal orientations, or autonomy, are robust predictors of motivation and performance in school, both concurrently and over many years (for reviews, see Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998; Stipek, 2002). At the same time, however, researchers note the centrality of social factors in children’s motivation (Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Eccles et al., 1998; Goldstein, 1999; Juvonen & Wentzel, 1996; Resnick et al., 1997; Weiner, 1990). Research from multiple traditions demonstrates the impact on children’s motivation and learning of relationships with parents (Steinberg, Darling, & Fletcher, 1995), teachers (Stipek, 2002), and peers (Hymel, Comfort, Schonert-Reichl, & McDougall, 1996). Recently, these two general lines of thinking, one about selfperceptions and one about interpersonal relationships, have converged in the study of the motivational consequences of children’s sense of self in relationships. Studied under a variety of labels, such as social cognitive views of motivation (Weiner, 1990), internal working models (Bretherton, 1985), relationship representations (Ryan, Stiller, & Lynch, 1994), classroom climate (Anderson, 1982), and perceived social support (Wentzel, 1999), the core notion is that a history of interactions with specific social partners leads children to construct generalized expectations about the nature of the self in relationships. Also referred to as a sense of relatedness (Connell, 1990), connectedness (Weiner, 1990), or belonging (Goodenow, 1993), these organized self-system processes include views about the self as lovable (or unworthy of love) and about the social world as trustworthy (or hostile). Children rely on these beliefs when predicting, interpreting, and responding to social exchanges, and these exchanges can in turn be used to confirm or revise children’s beliefs. A sense of relatedness may function as a motivational resource when children are faced with challenge or difficulties. In times of stress, children who experience trusted others as “backing them up” respond with more vigor, flexibility, and constructive actions. A sense of relatedness is the focus of the present study. Building on the growing body of work on the role of relationship representations, we attempted to explore the effects of a sense of relatedness, both generally and toward specific social partners, on children’s academic motivation and performance during middle childhood.

A guide to constructs of control.

Abstract: An integrative framework, designed to organize the heterogeneous constructs related to "control", is based on 2 fundamental distinctions: (a) objective, subjective, and experiences of control; and (b) agents, means, and ends of control. The framework is used to analyze more than 100 terms, such as sense of control, proxy control, and primary control. It is argued that although many terms reflect aspects of perceived control (both distinct and overlapping), some are more usefully considered aspects of objective control conditions (e.g., contingency), potential antecedents of perceived control (e.g., choice), potential consequences (e.g., secondary control), sources of motivation for control (e.g., mastery), or other sources of motivation (e.g., autonomy). Implications for theory, measurement, research, and intervention are explored.

Engagement and Disaffection in the Classroom: Part of a Larger Motivational Dynamic?

Abstract: A study of 805 4th through 7th graders used a model of motivational development to guide the investigation of the internal dynamics of 4 indicators of behavioral and emotional engagement and disaffection and the facilitative effects of teacher support and 3 student self-perceptions (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) on changes in these indicators over the school year. In terms of internal dynamics, emotional components of engagement contributed significantly to changes in their behavioral counterparts; feedback from behavior to changes in emotion were not as consistent. Teacher support and students' self-perceptions (especially autonomy) contributed to changes in behavioral components: Each predicted increases in engagement and decreases in disaffection. Tests of process models revealed that the effects of teacher context were mediated by children's self-perceptions. Taken together, these findings suggest a clear distinction between indicators and facilitators of engagement and begin to articulate the dynamics between emotion and behavior that take place inside engagement and the motivational dynamics that take place outside of engagement, involving the social context, self-systems, and engagement itself.

Using Multivariate Statistics

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School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence

Abstract: The concept of school engagement has attracted increasing attention as representing a possible antidote to declining academic motivation and achievement. Engagement is presumed to be malleable, responsive to contextual features, and amenable to environmental change. Researchers describe behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and recommend studying engagement as a multifaceted construct. This article reviews definitions, measures, precursors, and outcomes of engagement; discusses limitations in the existing research; and suggests improvements. The authors conclude that, although much has been learned, the potential contribution of the concept of school engagement to research on student experience has yet to be realized. They call for richer characterizations of how students behave, feel, and think—research that could aid in the development of finely tuned interventions

Motivational beliefs, values, and goals.

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This chapter reviews the recent research on motivation, beliefs, values, and goals, focusing on developmental and educational psychology. The authors divide the chapter into four major sections: theories focused on expectancies for success (self-efficacy theory and control theory), theories focused on task value (theories focused on intrinsic motivation, self-determination, flow, interest, and goals), theories that integrate expectancies and values (attribution theory, the expectancy-value models of Eccles et al., Feather, and Heckhausen, and self-worth theory), and theories integrating motivation and cognition (social cognitive theories of self-regulation and motivation, the work by Winne & Marx, Borkowski et al., Pintrich et al., and theories of motivation and volition). The authors end the chapter with a discussion of how to integrate theories of self-regulation and expectancy-value models of motivation and suggest new directions for future research.

To Parcel or Not to Parcel: Exploring the Question, Weighing the Merits

Abstract: We examine the controversial practice of using parcels of items as manifest variables in structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures. After detailing arguments pro and con, we conclude that the unconsidered use of parcels is never warranted, while, at the same time, the considered use of parcels cannot be dismissed out of hand. In large part, the decision to parcel or not depends on one's philosophical stance regarding scientific inquiry (e.g., empiricist vs. pragmatist) and the substantive goal of a study (e.g., to understand the structure of a set of items or to examine the nature of a set of constructs). Prior to creating parcels, however, we recommend strongly that investigators acquire a thorough understanding of the nature and dimensionality of the items to be parceled. With this knowledge in hand, various techniques for creating parcels can be utilized to minimize potential pitfalls and to optimize the measurement structure of constructs in SEM procedures. A number of parceling techniques are des...