How does normative excellence information moderate the effect of effort and ability praise on students' intrinsic motivation when they face challenges?

Abstract

The experimental study examined how different types of praise moderated the effect of normative information on students’ self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation when they face challenges. Two hundred and Fifty Form 1 and 2 students (114 females, 136 males) were randomly assigned to six different conditions, using a 2 (Normative information: with normative information, without normative information) X 3 (Praise: ability praise, effort praise, no praise) between-groups design. Students first worked on a logical reasoning task and received a bogus quantitative feedback of a high score (8 out of 10) and a written qualitative feedback according to their assigned conditions. Students then did a similar but more challenging task and checked their scores before completing measures of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Self-reported measure showed that after facing setbacks, students receiving effort praise and normative information in the first task indicated significantly lower self-efficacy than the students only receiving effort praise. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Keywords: effort praise, ability praise,