Motivation for reading among struggling middle school readers: A mixed methods study

Employing a mixed methods design, we explore motivation for reading comprehension (RC) among 112 struggling middle school readers at two sites, one semi-urban and one urban. Data sources included student self-reported reading motivation surveys, a standardized reading comprehension assessment, and a random sample of 44 1-on-1 student reading motivation interviews. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to model growth in reading comprehension and assess the contribution of three dimensions of reading motivation - self-efficacy, intrinsic, and extrinsic motivation - to intercepts and slopes of reading comprehension. Student interviews were also coded for the presence or absence of these three motivation constructs. Although initial HLM and interview analyses were done concurrently, follow-up analyses were conducted using each data technique based on initial findings from the other. Three main findings emerged. First, quantitative results revealed 1) a significant main effect of self-efficacy on initial RC status; 2) paradoxical site differences such that the semi-urban site's students had significantly higher RC scores, while the urban site's students had significantly higher motivation scores. Explanatory qualitative analyses of interview data further revealed that 3) the quantitative effect of self-efficacy predicting RC can be better explained through qualitative findings that struggling readers hold different motivational beliefs (which impact them differently) depending on learning environment.