The need to reform American education has been a controversial topic for more than 100 years (cf. Adler, 1988). Today, the policies and curricula of American educational systems are debated along perspectives as wide as the need to privatize education, the importance of school management techniques to insure acquisition of basic skills (e.g., reading, writing, and arithmetic), the need for advanced training in mathematics and the sciences to enhance U.S. competition in the global market place, and, from a perspective of culturalism (1), the need to recognize individual differences and cultural influences on learning, career goals, and lifestyles (cf. Bennett, 1976; Berliner & Biddle, 1995; Bloom, 1987; Bruner, 1996; Levine, Lowe, Peterson, & Tenorio, 1995; and, Wilson & Daviss, 1994). What is very apparent in this debate is that there are as many different goals of educational policy and school curricula as there are approaches to teaching. One important issue, however, concerns whether education reform should focus on curricula or on teaching methodologies (cf. Toch, 1991). In the following sections, psychological aspects of learning are discussed and evidence is presented suggesting that, regardless of curricula aims, the development of students' self-agency may be the foremost factor to consider in this debate.

Educators, psychologists and laymen alike, have long been concerned with students' successful academic achievement. In the main, educational specialists have recognized academic performance to be influenced by both personal and environmental factors (cf. de Charms, 1983; Gardner, 1991, 1999; McClelland, 1985). One noted psychologist, Richard de Charms, has been especially interested in the individual's desire to achieve as expressed in one's intentional behaviors and underlying self-oriented motives. His research focuses on developing students' sense of personal causation. That is, the causal influence exerted by the individual that is determinant of their subsequent performance outcomes. Principally, de Charms postulates that a person may operate in a way that reflects a psychological orientation of either an Origin or a Pawn. An Origin is a person who takes responsibility for one's actions, prepares for classroom activities, and plans out life events to enable goal attainment. Moreover, Origins are noted to patiently practice skills, persist, and self-evaluate their progress as they move closer to acquiring desired goals, abilities, and capacities. In contrast, a Pawn is a person controlled by external forces, unmotivated in terms of achievement, defensive and uncertain about paths to proceed upon to attain success, and helpless when faced with challenges. Importantly, de Charms proffers that by helping students become Origins, they will become positively motivated about schoolwork, optimistic about their future, confident in their abilities and skills, and prepared and willing to accept the challenges of life.

As described by de Charms (1983, pp. 319-354), initial evidence supporting this proposition comes from laboratory research with college students. In this research, participants were directed to construct a gear-driven fan apparatus under two different conditions. In one condition, participants were required to strictly follow the experimenter's instructions as they constructed the apparatus (i.e., the Pawn learning condition). In another condition, participants were allowed to refer to a picture of the finished model and work in self-directed manner (i.e., the Origin learning condition). Results indicated that when participants were free to self-direct their activities, i.e., were allowed to operate as Origins, they reported feeling greater freedom, greater enjoyment, and more motivated to continue the task. Similar research involving high school students also suggested that when participants are self-directed in their work, i.e., operate as Origins, they report significantly greater task involvement and feelings of freedom, greater personal involvement, and greater desire to continue on task. In general, these findings suggest that learning opportunities that emphasize the individual's personal causation are key to enhancing students' academic motivation and optimism about future challenges.

Noting the positive psychological effects that occur when students' operate as Origins in laboratory research (e.g., expression of greater enjoyment, personal involvement, and desire to continue to work on task), de Charms subsequently conducted a training program intervention in inner-city schools, where achievement levels were below national averages and drop-out rates high. The central research goal was to explore how an Origin training program may facilitate and enhance students' academic performance. The intervention comprised training middle school students (i.e., grades 5, 6, and 7), teachers, and school administrators in four related activities: Achievement thinking, self-concept enhancement, planning of activities and setting of goals, and learning to act like an Origin (i.e., becoming someone whose actions define outcomes). Students' academic performance was assessed with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a standardized test of achievement. Results indicated that students who had received the Origin training performed at expected grade-appropriate levels, while children who did not receive this training fell below the achievement levels expected for their grade. Subsequent follow-up analyses indicated the long-term impact of this intervention on academic performance, showing a significant increase in the rate of high school graduation in boys who received Origin training during middle school.

With regard to the education reform debate, one tangible conclusion to draw from de Charms' research is that it strongly indicates student's intentions and autonomous actions to be key factors influencing their academic achievement. Indeed, as suggested by the middle school training program, beyond teaching basic skills (i.e., reading, writing, and arithmetic), when students are assisted in developing a sense of self-agency, in becoming responsible, and in acting intentionally to influence outcomes, there is greater achievement despite the less than optimal learning conditions. In the following sections, further evidence suggesting the development of student self-agency as the primary concern in education reform is presented.

It is often said that a great teacher inspires students to learn. This adage is reflective of the interactive process involving student's intentions, intellectual abilities, skills, and the teacher's role to encourage learning and scholastic success. Indeed, it could be argued that the most essential provision to foster student development is to create a psychologically supportive environment for learning, one that aids students in acquiring a sense of mastery and personal causation. For example, using a focus-group format, college students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course were asked what skills and abilities they had in their personal ‘toolbox' that they thought important in helping them attain their educational and career goals. An evolving taxonomy of the various skills and abilities they expressed is shown in Table 1. One notable finding of this awareness intervention was students' expression of developing self-agency in terms of an "I think I can" attitude. Thus, in contrast to debate arguments that suggests immersion in programs to build fundamental or specialized skills, a canvassing of student opinions gives hint that what may be more important is the continued development and refinement of the many behavioral tools students already possess for learning.

Thus teachers, while making students aware of all their unique skills, abilities, and personal resources to learn, must still strive to create a learning atmosphere that allows for optimum development of student potentials. Again, in reference to the education reform debate, students suggest that learning activities that promote personal growth and in which the teacher provides a detailed and organized analysis of subject matter are most important.

For example, student interests were surveyed by asking preferences for various characteristics of their learning experiences (i.e., freedom to have choice in the learning experience, having the teacher provide a detailed and highly structured program, to feel challenged by the learning experience, to participate in uncomplicated learning experiences, and find transcending personal growth in the learning experience). Student preferences were recorded using rating scales that ranged from not at all desired (1) to very much desired (7). Results suggested that students most strongly preferred finding transcendent personal growth in their learning experiences (M = 5.54, SD = 1.19).(2) Noting the importance of the teacher as a facilitator of learning and the enjoyment of self-directed pursuits, students next preferred having the teacher provide a detailed and highly structured program of learning (M = 5.28, SD = 1.42), and freedom to have choice in the learning experience (M = 5.19, SD = 1.08). Students also preferred greater challenge in their learning experiences (M = 4.94, SD = 1.18), than to participate in uncomplicated learning experiences (M = 4.39, SD = 1.48). Furthermore, reflecting self-actualization tendencies, correlational analyses indicated significant association of preference for personal growth with preference for freedom and challenge [r (37) = .37, p < .02, and r (37) = .35, p < .04; respectively]. (3) In summary, students indicate that the opportunity for personal growth and the teacher providing a detailed and organized analysis of subject matter as the most preferred characteristics of their learning experience. Moreover, results of this survey of student preferences lend support for the belief that positive student-teacher interactions are fundamental in promoting student development and academic achievement.

Learning is a dynamic process involving the individual student, teacher, family, and larger community. Helping students recognize possible ways they may improve their academic performance is a requisite of all those who assist in their development. In the education reform debate, however, it is important to note that the attainment of academic goals cannot occur if students are unmotivated to learn (de Charms, 1983; Gardner, 1999). Research that highlights this phenomenon is found in a series of classroom surveys administered to college students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course. In the first survey, students were asked to anonymously report the average number of hours per week they studied the assigned course material after completing a monthly exam but prior to receiving their grades. Following the receipt of exam scores, students were then asked to record the total exam points they earned on their survey form. As shown by the scatter-plot and regression line (4) of Figure 1, the average number of hours studying per week for the course was found to be significantly and positively associated with exam performance [r (37) = .58, p < .0003]. In accord with de Charms principle of personal causation, this reliable finding indicates students' self-directed study outside the classroom to be a significant factor influencing their academic performance.

A second classroom survey was conducted after a succeeding exam, but again prior to students receiving their grades. This survey asked students to report their effortfulness of learning, their perceived control over their learning, and whether their learning was a result of internal or external factors. As shown by the scatter-plot and regression line (5) of Figure 2, effortfulness of learning was significantly and positively associated with exam score [r (36) = .42, p < .01]. Again, in accord with de Charms' personal causation orientation, this finding indicates student's effortfulness of learning to influence academic performance. Moreover, subsequent correlational analyses were found to replicate well-noted relationships that indicate that as students recognize the high degree of their effortfulness, they perceive greater control [correlation between perceived control and effortfulness: r (36) = .38, p < .05], and make stronger internal causal attributions [correlation between internal/external attribution and effortfulness: r (36) = -.40, p < .05]. Overall, these data underscore the influence of students' intentional behaviors on their academic performance and the development of a sense of personal causation. These data also suggest the need to address psychological aspects of learning when considering a redesign of educational policies, procedures, and practices.

Footnotes

1 As posited by Jerome Bruner (1996, p. 3), "culturalism… is linked to the development of a way of life where ‘reality' is represented by a symbolism shared by members of a cultural community in which a technical-social way of life is both organized and construed in terms of that symbolism. This symbolic mode is not only shared by a community, but conserved, elaborated, and passed on to succeeding generations, who by virtue of this transmission, continue to maintain the culture's identity and way of life." Indeed, "Culture…shapes the minds of individuals… Its individual expression inheres in meaning making, assigning meanings to things in different settings on particular occasions… It is culture that provides the tools for organizing and understanding our worlds in communicable ways (Bruner, 1996, p. 3)." From this perspective then, "learning and thinking are always situated in a cultural setting and always dependent upon the utilization of cultural resources (Bruner, 1996, p. 4)."

2 For readers who may be unfamiliar with these statistical indices, M refers to the mean or average score; and SD refers to the standard deviation of scores from the mean.

3 Again for readers who may be unfamiliar with statistics, r is the coefficient of correlation or degree of association between variables (the number that immediately follows r in the parentheses refers to the number of observations or scores used in estimating this association); and p is the probability that a particular correlation might be found by chance alone. The possible range of any correlation is from –1.00 to 1.00, and the larger the absolute value the greater the estimated association between variables. A correlation that surpasses the conventional p < .05 criteria, is usually referred to as a significant correlation—the more remote this value, e.g., p < .01, p < .001, p < .0001, etc., the lower the probability that the correlation might be found by chance alone.

4 The scatter-plot represents the sample of student scores and report of average hours studying per week—each point represents one or more student's test score and their report of average hours studying per week. The regression line represents the correspondence between students' test scores and the number of hours studying, and is mathematically determined in part by the degree of correlation between these variables.

5 The scatter-plot represents the sample of student scores and effortfulness of learning rating—each point represents one or more students' test score and their effortfulness of learning rating. The regression line represents the correspondence between students test scores and the effortfulness of learning rating.

Bibliography

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Biographical Sketch

Dr. Von Dras teaches courses in Introduction to Human Development, and Adulthood and Aging at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. He has previously taught at Washington University in St. Louis, Webster University , and St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley. His research interests include motivational proecesses and pedagogical techniques. He has published journal articles in Basic and Applied Social Psychology, International Journal of Aging and Human Developent, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Social Science and Medicine.