Teaching to the Test: Unraveling the Consequences for Student Motivation

Description

Despite the widespread consensus that teaching to the test (TTT) as an (excessive) test preparation strategy is likely to destroy students’ motivation, studies so far have merely focused on teacher statements and the effect of TTT on achievement. Also, studies on whether the perceived use of TTT increases as the exam approaches and whether this increase in turn affects students’ motivational development are lacking so far. The recent study, therefore, used the Expectancy-Value Theory to longitudinally investigate the mutual change in perceived TTT and academic motivation of 1855 secondary school students (MAge = 17.09, SD = 0.792) at the end of their school career. Latent change score models revealed a significant mean level increase in intrinsic motivation, importance, and grade self-efficacy but no influence of perceived TTT in grade 11 on motivational development. We further found a significant mean level increase in perceived TTT from grade 11 to grade 12, and this increase was predictive for the motivational development of students’ intrinsic motivation, importance, and utility value but not for perceived cost and self-efficacy. Our results suggest that contrary to common beliefs, perceived TTT might even enhance certain motivational aspects when increasingly applied in preparation for a standardized exam. However, more studies are needed to fully understand the underlying mechanisms and to examine how excessive use of these test preparation strategies affects motivation.

Period	29 Aug 2025
Event title	21st Biennial EARLI Conference 2025: Realising Potentials through Education: Shaping the Minds and Brains for the Future
Event type	Conference
Location	Graz, AustriaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International