Independence in learning in general, and freedom of choice in particular, are factors that research has shown to promote intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is often associated with persistence, better performance, and higher levels of satisfaction. Increasing opportunities for choice, including perceived choice (the learner’s sense that they had a real opportunity to choose), may increase students’ motivation to learn, enhance their enjoyment of the learning process, improve academic achievement, and even lead to greater responsibility for both personal and group learning processes. Giving learners choice can be expressed in different aspects of learning, such as choosing the research topic, questions, teammates, research tools, and ways and means of presenting results.
Voluntary participation based on choice and willingness is one of the important characteristics of citizen science when the context is public participation in scientific research. It is important to create opportunities for choice even when participation in a citizen science project takes place within the school setting, where the class is recruited into a project selected by the teachers. For example, in the “Sleep – A Third of Life" Project, students chose research questions that interested them based on the sleep diaries they kept. Similarly, in the “Jellyfish in the Nation” project, students chose the questions they directed to the scientist with whom they met.
Deepening and Expansion ▼
The relationship between choice and intrinsic motivation
Iyengar and Lepper (1999) reviewed decades of psychological research linking opportunities for choice with increases in intrinsic motivation, persistence, performance quality, and satisfaction. Their study helped refine this insight. The study included 52 Asian American children and 53 Anglo-American children enrolled in two schools in San Francisco, California. The findings confirmed previous results and showed that providing personal choice significantly increased learners’ motivation, performance, and satisfaction. At the same time, they also found that motivation is dependent on culture and context.
The relationship between choice and collective cognitive responsibility
Zhang and colleagues (2017) report on an intervention conducted over three consecutive school years in fourth-grade classrooms, in which students gradually assumed increasing levels of shared responsibility for advancing their knowledge in optics. In the first year, students learned in fixed teams. In the second year, opportunities were added for interaction and knowledge sharing between teams. The main change took place in the third year, when team composition changed during the learning process according to students’ preferences. At any given moment, students chose the topic that interested them and joined the team working on it. The findings indicate that in the third year, despite the fact that teams formed and dissolved over time, the highest level of collective cognitive responsibility developed, alongside greater advancement and distribution of knowledge among learners.
The relationship between choice and participation in citizen science projects
Tiago and colleagues (2017) sought to examine the engagement and experiences of participants in citizen science projects while unpacking the issue of motivation. One important variable in citizen science projects is the level of participation. The researchers found that citizen participation levels vary across regions and countries and sought to explain the motivations underlying these differences. Their study examined intrinsic motivation through a multidimensional model that included: interest/enjoyment, perceived choice (the way participants perceived their own choice), effort, pressure, and perceived value of the project (the way participants perceived the value and contribution of their volunteering). The findings showed that most respondents felt they had a high level of choice, which aligns with the voluntary nature of the project. It was also found that incentives for participation in the project increased the sense of perceived choice.
Choice among opportunities, resources, and instructional approaches
Dasi Bari from the Israeli Ministry of Education (2014), together with her team, argues that students need diverse opportunities, resources, and instructional approaches to realize their abilities and experience meaningful learning. They propose creating opportunities for choice as a response to this diversity. Rather than offering an identical program to different students, they advocate for a shared core with adaptations to students’ needs. In this way, they believe it is possible to move closer to achieving the goals of narrowing gaps while also fostering excellence and uniqueness. They suggest addressing ideas of autonomy and choice in the contexts of experience and experimentation, responsibility and self-direction, engagement and curiosity, and relevance to the learner’s world. Bari and her colleagues present a model that includes discourse and a mechanism enabling choice at both the individual level (the student) and the organizational level (the school).
Fostering norms of “choice behavior”
Birenbaum and colleagues (2004) argue that a necessary condition for fostering self-regulation in learning is providing learners with opportunities for choice that place responsibility on students to act in accordance with their choices. In their view, the abundance of opportunities and the diversity of objects of choice contribute to the establishment of norms of “choice behavior.” In designing learning environments, they argue, learners should be encouraged to want to choose without fearing mistakes or errors. Accordingly, the learning environment should strengthen learners’ positive self-image, self-confidence, and willingness to take risks, while rewarding them for doing so.
References ▼
Steering Team of the Pedagogical Administration chaired by Dasi Bari (2014), Autonomy and Choice, A Choice-Guidance Tool. https://meyda.education.gov.il/files/HighSchool/talkitB.pdf
Birenbaum, M., Yoed, Tz., Katz, S., & Kimron, H. (2004). In Continuous Construction – An Environment for Teachers’ Professional Development on a Learning Culture that Fosters Self-Regulated Learning. Jerusalem: Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. https://www.cet.ac.il/self-regulation/units/unit5-expand2.htm
Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (1999). Rethinking the value of choice: A cultural perspective on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(3), 349.
Kali, Y. (2006). Collaborative knowledge-building using the Design Principles Database. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 1(2), 187–201.
Tiago, P., Gouveia, M. J., Capinha, C., Santos-Reis, M., & Pereira, H. M. (2017). The influence of motivational factors on the frequency of participation in citizen science activities. Nature Conservation, 18, 61.
Zhang, J., Scardamalia, M., Reeve, R., & Messina, R. (2009). Designs for collective cognitive responsibility in knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 18(1), 7–44.