Examining a weekly cost reduction intervention in calculus

Though cost perceptions are thought to be key motivational beliefs that can undermine academic engagement, little research has designed or tested interventions to reduce cost perceptions for students. We developed, implemented, and evaluated a weekly cost reduction intervention utilizing motivational regulation strategies to reduce cost. Participants were 449 undergraduate calculus students. Using a pre-registered randomized controlled trial, students were assigned to a cost reduction condition or control condition for 13 consecutive weeks. In the cost reduction condition, students reflected on a list of motivational regulation strategies and wrote about how they would use a specific strategy the following week. The intervention significantly reduced weekly task effort cost, weekly emotional cost, final task effort cost, final loss of valued alternatives cost, and final emotional cost on average for all students. However, interaction analyses revealed that benefits were often limited to specific groups, aligning with tentative pre-registered hypotheses. Racially marginalized students in the intervention reported lower weekly emotional cost, higher weekly interest, lower final task effort cost, and lower final emotional cost, compared to racially marginalized students in the control condition; these effects did not appear among non-racially-marginalized students. Additionally, students with lower high school GPAs in the intervention reported higher STEM career intentions and only students with higher high school GPAs reported lower weekly outside effort cost compared to their counterparts in the control condition. The statistically significant effects demonstrate the potential of weekly cost reduction interventions for helping some students with their learning. • Intervention decreased weekly task effort and emotional cost. • Intervention decreased most types of final costs. • Racially marginalized students in intervention had lower costs and higher interest. • Students with lower high school GPA had higher STEM career intentions.