ENHANCING STUDENT MATHEMATICS SUCCESS THROUGH SERVICE-LEARNING: AN EXAMINATION OF STUDENT MOTIVATION USING THE SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY

Abstract

The increase in collegiate enrollment, yet bleak graduation rates, poses a significant problem for students and educators alike. Contributing to the high attrition rates, a lack of academic motivation often leads to poor performance in gateway mathematics courses. Factors influencing academic motivation include self-efficacy, anxiety, perceptions about the importance and utility value of math, and soft skills. To heighten student motivation and improve academic success, educators have implemented active-learning strategies, such as service-learning, which have shown positive effects on academic performance. The self-determination theory guided this study as a theoretical framework for student motivation. During the spring 2019 semester, 615 undergraduates completed an online survey instrument. Of these respondents, 140 students were enrolled in a service-learning section of Elementary Statistical Analysis, and 475 were enrolled in non-service-learning sections. Results indicate that student’s sociodemographic characteristics, academic backgrounds, participation in service-learning, and motivational factors have significant relationships with the probability of student success in their gateway math course. Implementing service-learning curricular components that attend to the basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness can facilitate student success in mathematics courses and the attainment of undergraduate degrees.