Motivation and Academic Choices Lab

Adolescents and youth make important choices about their learning every day, such as:

 

Should I finish this advanced math assignment or go to sleep? 

What major should I write in on my college application? 

Should I be a doctor or a nurse practitioner?

 

Our lab studies what motivates adolescents and youth to make certain academic choices during developmentally critical transitions (e.g., the first year of college, the end of high school). Using open-ended and closed-ended surveys, longitudinal studies, and randomized controlled trial experiments, we study the motivational factors that relate to students' academic choices, what student and social/contextual factors influence motivation, and how different students think about the costs versus values of different academic choices. We are especially interested in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We partner with schools, teachers, and students to study the choices that are most important to them, with a goal to help promote a larger and more diverse STEM workforce.