The purpose, adaptability, confidence, and engrossment model: A novel approach for supporting professional trainees’ motivation, engagement, and academic achievement

Abstract

Trainees often decide to pursue a career in the professions because they see it as a means to attain their life goals: to become the kind of person they want to be, to live the kind of life they want to lead, and to make the kind of impact they want to have on the world. The life goals trainees pursue through a professional career are derived from their conception of their ideal self and are thus the most important and self-defining goals that they possess. In this article, we propose a novel approach for designing training activities to harness the motivational potential of professional trainees’ life goals, toward supporting their deep engagement in training activities. We propose that activities can be designed to help trainees make links between (1) the concepts and skills covered in an activity, (2) the professional practice behaviors that an activity prepares them to enact, and (3) the life goals that are served by enacting these professional practice behaviors. Informed by Control Theory and Self-Determination Theory, we predict that this design may promote trainees’ adoption of activity-specific goals that emphasize deep understanding, long-term retention, and transfer, and enhance their autonomous motivation to attain their goals. However, there are some situations when this design may be less effective for, or even harmful to, trainees’ motivation. Specifically, we predict that helping trainees establish a purpose for learning by linking an activity to their life goals may be most effective when they can adapt an activity to best align with their purpose, when they are confident in their ability to attain their activity-specific goal, and when they become engrossed in an activity because it affords interest- and curiosity-stimulating actions. We package our theoretical analysis into the PACE model of motivational design. When our predictions are supported by more empirical evidence, the model can help educators set the PACE for trainees, thereby motivating them to engage deeply in training activities.

Effectiveness of Life Goal Framing to Motivate Medical Students During Online Learning: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…We refer to this motivational design strategy as 'prompting life goal framing'. We predict that a life goal framing prompt may enhance the personal meaning that learners ascribe to instruction, thereby increasing their autonomous motivation to deeply understand the target concepts and skills [17,26]. The proposed effect on learners' autonomous motivation may then, in turn, encourage greater use of organization, elaboration, and metacognitive strategies, and enhance knowledge retention.…”

“…The life goal framing prompt consisted of a single slide in the module's introductory section, between the general introduction and learning objectives slides (see full text in Supplemental Digital Appendix 1). Informed by Control Theory and SDT, we designed the slide to help students connect what they were learning to the life goals they pursue through their career in medicine [17]. The prompt encouraged students to consider: (1) the clinical skills enabled by learning the module content (e.g., developing realistic and sustainable weight management plans for patients), and (2) how developing these skills might serve their life goals (e.g., making a meaningful difference in the lives of their patients).…”

“…The aim of this study is to investigate a novel motivational design strategy we call 'prompting life goal framing' [17]. Life goal framing interventions aim to make some reasons for engaging with instruction more salient than others, toward enhancing learners' their motivation, self-regulation, and achievement.…”

“…Life goal framing interventions aim to make some reasons for engaging with instruction more salient than others, toward enhancing learners' their motivation, self-regulation, and achievement. We begin by presenting a theoretical account of motivated engagement in instructional activities [17], building upon principles from Control Theory [18] and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) . We then use this theoretical account to generate predictions regarding the effects of a life goal framing prompt and present a randomized controlled trial (RCT) testing these predictions.…”