How Do Perceptions of Importance Support From a Reading Intervention Affect Students' Motivation, Engagement, and Comprehension?

Interventions can enhance students' motivation for reading, but few researchers have assessed the effects of the specific motivation-enhancing practices that comprise these interventions. Even fewer have evaluated how students' perceptions of different intervention practices impact their later motivation and academic outcomes. In this study, we utilized data from a study of Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction, a program designed to enhance seventh-grade students' reading comprehension and motivation. We examined the effects of students perceiving one practice from this intervention, emphasizing the importance of reading, which was designed to enhance their task values for reading (Eccles-Parsons et al, 1983). Unexpectedly, structural equation modeling analyses showed that students' perceptions of importance support predicted their later competence-related beliefs, but not their task values. Students' competence-related beliefs predicted their reading comprehension and behavioral engagement, whereas students' task values predicted reading engagement. However, there were no significant indirect effects of perceiving importance support on students' reading outcomes.