The Effects of an Instructional Intervention on the Motivational Climate in a Course: A Case Study

Creating a positive motivational climate in college courses can motivate students to engage in their learning. We conducted a case study of a graduate English language course in which the instructor implemented an intervention by intentionally selecting strategies intended to improve the motivational climate within a course. This study had two purposes: (1) to assess the effects of an intervention designed to increase students’ perceptions of the motivational climate, and as a consequence, their course motivation, effort, and perceptions of teaching effectiveness; and (2) to serve as an example of how instructors can assess the motivational climate within their courses over time to identify changes. The participants were engineering majors who were mostly male (84.9%), and their average age was 22.5 ( SD = 0.66). We used the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation Inventory to assess changes in the course motivational climate over five time points. We also included single-item measures of students’ motivation, effort, and perceptions of teaching effectiveness. The intervention, which included strategies consistent with the MUSIC Model of Motivation (e.g., group presentations), was effective in improving the motivational climate and in increasing students’ motivation, effort, and perceptions of teaching effectiveness. The results provide initial evidence that MUSIC strategies could be beneficial for other English language instructors seeking to engage their students and increase students’ perceptions of teaching effectiveness. The measure of motivational climate may be useful to not only language instructors, but also to college-level instructors in other fields interested in measuring the motivational climate within their course.