Dynamics of Academic Motivation and Orientation towards the Grades of Russian Teenagers in the Period from 1999 to 2020

Abstract

This study is devoted to the analysis of the dynamics of academic motivation in adolescents in 1999, and again 20 years later. The sample consisted of 735 students of the seventh and eighth grades of comprehensive secondary schools in Moscow (N=242 in 1999 and N=493 in Jan 2020). The results of the study indicate a decrease in all types of motivation, both intrinsic and various types of extrinsic, which indicates a significant change in the place of educational activity in the life of the contemporary student. At the same time, it is characteristic that one of the most significant types of academic motivation — studying for the sake of getting good grades — did not undergo significant changes during the study period. With regard to one of the types of extrinsic motivation — the motivation of parental control — a gender specificity was found: this type of motivation decreased only in girls, while in boys it showed stability, which speaks in favor of parents showing a constant level of control over boys’ studies. The cognitive components of motivation also revealed negative trends — the level of perceived controllability of educational activities and perceived competence decreased, despite the fact that the level of subjective difficulty of educational activities did not increase, but, on the contrary, slightly decreased. The results obtained are analyzed from the point of view of the educational reforms of recent decades associated with the introduction of the Unified State Examination and the decrease in the value of a wide range of academic subjects, as well as the widespread use of social networks by contemporary teenagers.