projects
Motivation Interventions
This theme designs and tests brief, theory-based psychosocial interventions that strengthen students’ motivation, especially their confidence, interest, and sense of value in STEM.
Grounded in situated expectancy-value theory, this work asks which intervention ingredients actually change students’ expectancies, values, and perceived costs, for whom, and in which school contexts. We combine randomized controlled trials in real classrooms with evidence synthesis, testing intervention components separately and in combination against active controls so that effective ingredients can be identified rather than assumed.
Studies in this theme
Randomized controlled trial
Psychosocial RCT on STEM Motivation
A four-arm trial with 855 Year 9 students in six Victorian schools, testing goal setting, role modeling, and their combination in one online class session, with an LLM chatbot in every condition. A brief goal-setting activity lifted students' confidence and interest in STEM.
Study overview · Main findings · Design & procedure · Participating schools · Preprint & materialsPublications in this theme
- 2026 - Can a Brief Online Intervention Raise Adolescents’ STEM Expectancy and Values? A Four-Arm Randomized Trial of Goal Setting and Role Modeling. PsyArXiv. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/gdakp_v2 ยท Open materials.
- 2026 - A Meta-Analysis of Psychosocial Interventions to Improve Students’ STEM Motivation. OSF. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/4yn2x_v1.
- 2025 - Does a Data-Informed Online Intervention for Teachers Improve Student Motivation and Engagement During the Transition to High School? A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial. OSF. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/hzd75_v2.