Motivational orientation in a problem-based learning environment.

This study employed a mixed methods design to examine students' motivational orientation (intrinsic/extrinsic) during problem-based learning (PBL), comparing it to their orientation during typical class activities. Participants were regular education students who used Alien Rescue, a computer based PBL program designed for sixth grade science. Analysis of the quantitative data shows that students demonstrate more intrinsically motivated behavior during PBL than during their regular class activities. The qualitative data suggest that the greater opportunity for collaboration and student control over class activities afforded by PBL may partially account for students' enhanced motivation, though the media-rich, game-like environment offered by the software program, a lack of extrinsic motivators, as well as the novelty of the approach for these learners may also have encouraged an intrinsic orientation. Implications of the findings for the design of PBL programs are discussed.

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The literature on intrinsic motivation enumerates the many ways it can benefit learning. Intrinsically motivated students persist in the face of failure, undertake challenging aspects of a task, show creativity, and remain cognitively engaged in tasks longer than their extrinsically motivated peers (Ormrod, 1995). Given these conditions, it is no wonder that interest in learning for its own sake has been shown to be positively correlated with achievement (Alexander & Murphy, 1998; Schiefele, 1996).

How do we account for variations in motivational orientation? Research conducted within a developmental framework (e.g., Harter, 1978a) cast intrinsic versus extrinsic orientation as a property of the individual, an enduring characteristic that is shaped over time by successes and failures (Schunk, 2000). Similarly, models that have arisen out of a cognitive framework have primarily examined learners' perceptions and beliefs, tacitly defining motivational orientation as a product of the covert thought processes of the individual (Bong, 1996). In both cases the effect of situational variables on motivation has largely been overlooked.

Recent theories of motivation have taken a different view, using a "learner in context" approach in the study of motivation. In their theory of situated motivation, Paris and Turner (1995) postulated that motivation, like cognition, is situated. They argued that an individual's motivational beliefs and behaviors are derived from contextual transactions. From this perspective, motivation is necessarily unstable, varying with each context because the context itself causes variations in learners' perceptions and goals.

This interest in the role of context has led researchers to examine the types of approaches and the conditions within learning environments that can encourage learners to assume an intrinsic motivational orientation to learning. One approach that holds promise is problem-based learning (PBL). In PBL, all learning occurs as a result of students' efforts to solve a complex problem. The literature on PBL stresses that this problem should be authentic (Koschmann, Kelson, Feltovich, & Barrows, 1996), meaning that it reflects a real world problem that experts within a field would be called upon to handle. Instruction begins with the presentation of this problem; as students grapple with it, they realize that they lack information and skills that they need to develop a solution. Students then engage in self-directed study to meet these learning needs. As a result, activity is largely under student control and learning is meaningful because students are the ones who have generated a need for it. Students often colla borate with peers, but while collaboration is considered an integral component of PBL in medical programs (Williams, 1993), not all efforts at creating PBL environments have used collaborative groups, and the question of whether or not the team approach is essential has been addressed in the literature (Boud & Feletti, 1991).

PBL is an example of a student-centered approach (Land & Hannafin, 2000), and as such, it stands in contrast to the teacher-centered approaches typically found in schools. In teacher-centered environments, teachers set objectives and make instructional decisions about how those objectives will be met. The teacher sets the criteria for the success, determines the process students will use to work toward that goal, then evaluates students' learning.

In PBL, the teacher instead functions as a facilitator, helping students to examine their thinking (Williams, 1993) and probing their comprehension (Koschmann, et. al. 1996). They do not, however, tell students how to solve the problem or direct their work.

Research findings from studies conducted in medical schools suggest that PBL may help to promote an intrinsic motivational orientation. Moore-West, Harrington, Mennin, Kaufman, and Skipper (1989) found that PBL students gave higher ratings of their experience than non-PBL students on a variety of topics, including meaningfulness, emotional climate, and student interactions. Medical students enrolled in PBL programs found their education more relevant to their future careers than their traditional track peers (West, Umbland, & Lucero, 1985). PBL students were more likely to describe their preclinical program as difficult, engaging, and useful, while non-PBL students were more likely to describe theirs as irrelevant, passive, and boring (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993). Research conducted with gifted high school students offers similar findings. In a longitudinal study of the effects of a course taught entirely through PBL, graduates were asked during telephone interviews about favorite courses, and about the cours e that was most helpful in teaching them problem finding, problem solving, critical thinking, and ethical decision making. Students overwhelmingly favored the class taught exclusively through PBL on all of these questions (Stepien, Gallagher, & Workman, 1993). Taken together, these findings suggest that students enjoy the challenge of PBL, that they find topics more interesting when they encounter them through PBL, and that they feel this approach leads to more profound learning than other approaches.

Several possible explanations for PBL's potential to impact motivation have appeared in the literature on this approach. Barrows and Tamblyn (1980) suggested that students are motivated in PBL by the internal rewards of learning, and not by grades or external rewards. Hmelo and Ferrari (1997) pointed out that PBL calls for an action on the part of the student (the development of a solution) and that students are often more motivated by the pragmatic goals involved in knowledge-building for action than in knowledge-building for its own sake. To the extent that students see the relevance of the problems used during PBL to their own lives, this approach may tap into personal interest. This is certainly the case in medical education where students are typically challenged to deal with the same types of situations they will encounter in their chosen profession. However, despite this speculation, little is known about the reasons students express more intrinsically motivated behavior during PBL than in more tradit ional teacher-directed approaches.

The theory of situated motivation may help to account for why students find PBL environments motivating. Paris and Turner (1995) identified four characteristics of contexts that may support an intrinsic orientation in learners, all of which are incorporated in PBL environments. The first, choice, implies the ability to choose among alternative courses of action, and reflects the personal interest of the individual. Learners who are free to choose the activity that they find most interesting and productive are more likely to be thoughtfully engaged in a task and show persistence and self-regulation. PBL environments provide some constraints for choosing (students must do work that contributes to a solution plan) yet they are rich enough to require a wide variety of tasks, and often rely on the efforts of several learners working together to gather all the information and perform all the tasks needed. As a result, learners have some choice of what work they will do to contribute to the solution. The second cha racteristic, challenge, contributes to motivation by encouraging risk-taking, and successful performance on challenging tasks enhances the individual's cognitive self-assessments of their competence and efficacy. The problems used in PBL are selected because they are both challenging and manageable for students. Control has been shown to promote motivation by increasing learner interest, confidence, and sense of self-worth. The extended periods of self-directed study and the level of autonomy students enjoy during PBL offer them a high degree of control over their learning activities. As learners identify possible courses of action, they are free to pursue those they want, and may change course as they think best. Finally, collaboration impacts motivation in several ways. Their peers' statements and interests may stimulate learners' interests, encouraging them to pursue information they had previously overlooked. Paris and Turner suggested that students may be more likely to try out certain activities when th eir peers have modeled it, and peer modeling may offer students a means by which to monitor their own levels of accomplishment. Collaboration may also foster a sense of responsibility to others that motivates learners to persist and perform up to their potential. PBL's use of collaboration therefore can be seen as supporting both student construction of knowledge and motivation.

Paris and Turner's theory of situated motivation has another implication for the examination of motivation. They stressed that motivation is neither a characteristic of the learner, nor a property of an event, but rather the result of the interaction of the two. From this perspective, a learner's motivational orientation in a given situation should be the product of both his or her enduring motivational beliefs and the impact of the features of that situation on those beliefs. If motivation is a product of a learner by context interaction, then a difference in motivational orientation should be accompanied by a correlation between motivational levels in different environments. This correlation would be the result of some degree of stability in learners' motivational orientations. For example, a group of learners may express a greater preference for challenge under some conditions than others, but learners who generally prefer challenge should rate preference for challenge more highly in all situations than l earners who generally prefer easy work.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study was threefold. First, this study sought to expand the literature on problem-based learning by examining sixth graders' motivational orientation during a computer-based PBL unit, comparing it to their orientation during their regular classes. PBL has been used extensively with mature learners (medical school, graduate programs) and the gifted. However, only limited information on its effectiveness with younger, regular education learners has appeared in research literature.

Second, PBL's potential impact on motivation makes it a prime candidate to test the implication of Paris and Turner's theory that motivation is the product of a learner by context interaction. Evidence supporting this theory would show that learners differ by context in their motivational orientation, but that their scores in different contexts are correlated. This correlation would indicate the role that the enduring characteristics of learners play in motivation, while differences in scores could be attributed to contextual factors.

Finally, using the theory of situated motivation as a starting point, this study also sought to begin an investigation into the aspects of PBL environments that may help to enhance motivation. By examining reactions to the learning environment used in this study, it may be possible to discern some of the characteristics of PBL that enhance student motivation.

Three research questions were posed:

1. Do learners report different levels of intrinsic motivation for regular science class environments and this PBL environment?

2. Do the levels of intrinsic motivation students show for regular science class predict the levels they show for this PBL environment?

3. What aspects of this PBL environment enhance student motivation?

METHOD

Participants

Students in three intact sixth grade science classes at a suburban middle school in the southwestern United States participated in the study, with N=66. The same teacher taught all three classes. The scores of four students were discarded. One of these students transferred out of the school before the completion of the study. Three other students possessed limited English proficiency, and normally received a modified curriculum. The classroom teacher and an ESL teacher worked extensively with these students, often directing their work. Because students' ownership of the problem-solving process is a key feature of PBL environments and this feature may contribute to the positive impact PBL has on learners' motivation, this level of teacher directiveness might have interfered with the treatment. Data from these three participants were discarded because they may not accurately reflect these students' motivational orientation during PBL.

In an interview, the classroom teacher described the typical activities used in her classes. While she incorporated many hands-on activities, these tended to be teacher-directed. For example, she normally gathered the materials for labs and gave students the process to follow to complete these activities. Also, while she did occasionally build cooperative learning into her lessons, she normally assigned partners and gave directions as to their roles and responsibilities. While she encouraged active learning, her classes were primarily teacher-centered.

The ethnic makeup of the classes reflected the school at large. Seventy-seven percent of the participants were Caucasian, 15% were Hispanic, 5% were African American, and 3% were Asian. The classes were split almost evenly by gender, with two more girls than boys participating in the study.

Treatment Variable

All participants completed the activities in Alien Rescue, a hypermedia delivered problem-based learning environment for use in sixth grade science classes. The science fiction premise of this program places students in the role of young scientists aboard a newly operational international space station where they are part of a worldwide effort to rescue alien life forms. To accomplish this goal, students learn about the planets and large moons of our solar system by searching existing databases and designing probes to gather additional information. While the primary learning objectives of Alien Rescue focus on astronomy and space travel, the program offers ties to other areas of the curriculum, including writing and mathematics. All information needed to solve the problem is contained within the virtual environment created by the program, though it is structured in such a way as to not suggest its usefulness or lead students toward a particular solution. The program normally takes 12 to 15, 45-minute periods to complete.

Data Sources

The Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the classroom.

The Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom (Harter, 1981) was administered both before and after students participated in using the software program. During the pretreatment administration, students were asked to think about their experiences in their regular science classes up to that point. During the posttreatment administration, they were asked to reflect on their experiences with Alien Rescue and imagine participating in similar projects in the future. The purpose of changing the instructions was to determine if students express different levels of intrinsic motivation in the two different settings. The proximity of the administrations suggests that differences would be attributed to the effect of the type of learning environment rather than to developmental changes.

The Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom comprises five subscales, though only four were used in this study. Table 1 lists the subscales used and provides information about each. The scale uses a structured alternative format. Learners are presented with two "types" of kids, then asked to decide which type they more closely resemble. Once they have chosen the type, students must then decide if that choice is "really true for me" or "sort of true for me." Items are scored on a 4-point scale, with 1 representing the maximum extrinsic orientation and 4 representing the maximum intrinsic orientation.

Harter (1981) reported very slight correlations between children's scores on these subscales and their scores on a scale measuring social desirability; the correlations range from .09 to -.15. Harter reported that for three of the five subscales, social desirability is mildly correlated with an extrinsic orientation.

Table 1

Subscales in the Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the
Classroom

                                              Sample
Subscale            Description               Statement

Preference for      Does the student          Some kids like
Challenge vs.       like hard, challenging    difficult problems
Preference for      work or prefer easier     because they enjoy
Easy Work assigned  assignments?              trying to figure them
                                              out, but other
                                              kids don't like to
                                              figure out difficult
                                              problems.

Curiosity/Interest  Does the student          Some kids read things
vs. Pleasing the    work to satisfy his       because they are
Teacher/Getting     or her own interest,      interested in the
Good Grades         or to satisfy the         subject but other
                    teacher and obtain        kids read things
                    good grades?              because the teacher
                                              wants them to.

Independent         Does the child prefer     If some kids get stuck
Mastery vs.         to do his/her own         on a problem they ask
Dependence          work and figure out       the teacher for help
on the Teacher      problems on his or        but other kids keep
                    her own, or does the      trying to figure out the
                    child rely on the         problem on their own.
                    teacher for help and
                    guidance in these
                    areas?

Independent         Does the child feel       Some kids think it's
Judgment vs.        he/she is capable of      best if they decide
Reliance on the     making judgments          when to work on
Teacher's Judgment  about what to do, or      each school subject
                    does he or she depend     but other kids think
                    on the teacher's opinion  that the teacher is
                    about what to do?         the best one to decide
                                              when to work on things.

                    Subscale
Subscale            Reliability

Preference for      .78 to .84
Challenge vs.
Preference for
Easy Work assigned





Curiosity/Interest  .68 to .82
vs. Pleasing the
Teacher/Getting
Good Grades




Independent         .70 to .78
Mastery vs.
Dependence
on the Teacher






Independent         .75 to .83
Judgment vs.
Reliance on the
Teacher's Judgment

Interviews. Brief interviews with students were conducted at the end of the unit, after students had completed Alien Rescue. The purpose of these interviews was to gather additional data about learners' opinions of learning in the Alien Rescue environment and possible reasons this environment encourages intrinsic motivation.

Students were interviewed in groups of two and three. These interviews were partially structured. Seven core questions were asked of all interviewees, then other questions were added to encourage students to elaborate on the opinions they expressed. The core questions were:

* What did you think of Alien Rescue?

* What did you like most about Alien Rescue?

* Do you think you learned any science during Alien Rescue?

* Did you feel you had control over what you did during Alien Rescue? Did you like that? Would you have liked Alien Rescue as much if you hadn't?

* How did you feel about working with your classmates? Did it help?

* Did you find the problem challenging?

* Would you want to do programs like Alien Rescue in the future?

Procedures

The study was conducted during students' regular science class times, which were daily 45-minute periods. Students were engaged in the program for 13 class periods, with an additional four class periods used for introductions, data-collection, and a debriefing session.

Each student worked at his or her own computer. Students were encouraged to work together to share the information they discovered and to ask each other for help. They were not, however, assigned partners or told they had to divide up the work in any way. Though some students were reluctant at first, virtually all students did eventually collaborate with their peers.

Daily whole class meetings were held at the beginning of the period so that students could share their findings and questions, model their problem-solving processes, and discuss their strategies for developing a solution. The researcher facilitated these discussions but did not direct student activity. The researcher also led several discussions on science concepts and facts, such as radio waves and the role of an atmosphere, and helped students draw comparisons between the work of scientists and their work within Alien Rescue.

The Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom was administered on the first day and the 15"' day of the study; because of the way the days of the study fell, administrations were exactly three weeks apart. Interviews were conducted in the last two days of the study.

Data Analysis

Students' pre and posttreatment scores on the Harter Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom were used to address the first two research questions. For the first research question, "Do learners report different levels of intrinsic motivation for regular science class environments and this environment?" the data were analyzed using a repeated measures analysis of variance with one repeated variable (pre/post). To answer the second research question, "Do the levels of intrinsic motivation that students show for regular science class predict the levels they show for this PBL environment?" a regression analysis was conducted, with the posttest scores as the dependent variable and the pretest scores as the independent variable. The resulting R squared was used to determine if a significant portion of learners' scores on the posttest could be predicted by their pretest scores. In this way, it was possible to reflect on how much of learners' motivational patterns represent enduring characte ristics of the learners, and how much of that variance is attributable to other factors including the type of environment.

The interviews conducted with learners at the conclusion of the study were transcribed and analyzed using a two-level scheme following the guidelines provided by Miles and Huberman (1994). The data were examined for insights into students' reasons for enhanced motivational orientation. At the first level, codes were generated using the four characteristics suggested by the theory of situated motivation (choice, challenge, control, and collaboration) and by multiple passes through the data. At the second level, these codes were regrouped into more general categories. The data were sorted into categories and subcategories according to their common themes. Data were analyzed by two reviewers and disagreements between them were discussed until a .9 interrater reliability was established.

RESULTS

Quantitative Data

The pre and posttreatment scores of the participants were compared to determine if learners expressed different levels of intrinsic motivation for their regular science class environments and the PBL environment offered in programs such as Alien Rescue. Results of the repeated measures analysis showed that students' scores on the posttests were significantly higher than on the pretest for all four subscales, as shown in Table 2. In other words, students reported a significantly more intrinsic orientation for the Alien Rescue environment than for their typical class activities.

Table 2

Mean Scores and Standard Deviations (in Parentheses) by Treatment
Condition on Subscales of the Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic
Orientation in the Classroom

           Pre Treatment  Post Treatment
Subscale   Means and SD   Means and SD      F      p

Challenge  2.58(.77)      2.94(.58)       21.5   <.01
Curiosity  2.53(.95)      2.79(.48)        5.1   <.05
Mastery    2.65(.69)      2.90(.51)       13.40  <.001
Judgment   2.61(.63)      2.84(.57)       12.47  <.001

To answer the second research question, a regression analysis was conducted to determine if students' pretreatment scores predicted their posttreatment scores, and if so, to calculate the amount of variance in the posttreatment scores that could be explained by enduring characteristics of the learners. The results are shown in Table 3. In three of the subscales, learners' scores on the pre and posttreatment administrations showed a significant correlation. In the challenge subscale, 39% of the variance in the posttest could be explained by students' scores on the pretest. For the mastery and judgment subscales, these figures are 37% and 36% respectively. These results suggest that there are enduring motivational characteristics of students that help to account for the level of intrinsic motivation they report for novel learning environments like the one offered in Alien Rescue.

Table 3

Regression Analysis of Pre and Posttests on Subscales of the Scale of
Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom

Subscale      t     R squared

Challenge  6.44 **     .39
Curiosity  1.22         -
Mastery    6.18 **     .37
Judgment   6.00 **     .36

** significant at p < .01

Qualitative Data

The qualitative data were examined to gain a more robust understanding of students' opinions of the Alien Rescue environment, and how these opinions influenced their level of intrinsic motivation. Four themes suggested by the theory of situated motivation were chosen prior to the interviews. These themes were choice, challenge, control, and collaboration. Five other themes emerged from the analysis. They were authentic science, perceived educational value, the problem and program context, lack of extrinsic motivators, and novelty.

Choice. Two variations on the theme of choice were observed in the qualitative data. First, when asked, all students responded that, given the opportunity, they would choose to work on other problems such as Alien Rescue. When asked if they would want to do programs like this all the time, students' responses ranged from "Not really all the time, but once in a while" to "most of the time" and "Yeah, like everyday after school I run home and get on the computer." A few students added stipulations about how they would like to work, with one student saying he would only want to do programs like this at school, not at home. Another student commented, "I'd rather do it more often if it was with a group than by myself. Like if Alien Rescue was for sale and I bought it, I would want to have three computers and do it with some friends."

Second, a few comments suggested that within the program, students had some choice over which activities they performed and which they relied on classmates to perform. As discussed in the section on collaboration, the opportunity to work with peers led to a division of labor for many students. This division offered students some degree of choice over their activities.

Challenge. Most of the students interviewed said that they felt Alien Rescue was challenging. Interestingly, many of them coupled this response with phrases that indicated that they enjoyed being presented with a challenge. One student described the program as "fun challenging." Others said, "Yeah, it was pretty complicated. I like that. I like complicated things" and "It was challenging. I like hard work." Another explained," It's more fun if you have to figure things Out."

Another common comment was that the program "wasn't too hard, it wasn't too easy." Another described it as "in the middle. It's not too hard but it's hard enough to take three weeks." Students felt that they had successfully dealt with the complexity of the program but that "If it was any harder it would be, like, frustrating." These comments suggest that students felt they had been challenged to their full abilities, but that they had successfully met that challenge.

A few students noted that their classes rarely presented them with situations as challenging as the one in Alien Rescue. One student explained how control over their own process during Alien Rescue was better at encouraging him to tackle challenges than typical school activities: "This is just like using my own steps. If I can solve it that way I would try to, instead of teachers always telling you the right way and I always end up taking the easy road instead of at least trying to do something different."

Control. All of the students interviewed believed that they had control over their actions during Alien Rescue, and liked this aspect of the program, with one student explaining: "You're more open; you can do what you want. Like, I made a lot of probes, some for fun, but some to figure out the information 1 needed. And if I would have had more rules I wouldn't have been able to do that."

When asked if they would have liked to have more direction from the teacher, most students gave a resounding "No," and said that the program would not have been as much fun if the teacher had taken more control over their activities. One student explained, "Cause if you want to make a probe you want to make a probe. If you want to do research, you do research. But it wouldn't be much fun if you had to make a probe or you had to do research."

Other students explained that one downside of teacher directiveness is that it results in uniformity. They said they did not want greater teacher direction "because then everyone would be doing the same thing," and "it gets boring after a while."

The fact that students had control over their own process meant that different students were working on different aspects of the problem simultaneously. One student saw this as supportive of collaboration and a distribution of labor: "if everyone's doing the same thing you can't find different things out."

Several students commented that this level of control set Alien Rescue apart from typical school activities, and their remarks showed a degree of frustration with their regular classes. One student said, "The teachers tell us what to do the rest of the school year." Other students explained,

At first we didn't know what to do so we just looked around, but it was real fun to do it by ourselves, cause during regular classes all you have to do all year is the teacher telling you what to do, but she said we could do what we wanted to do, so it was what we supposed to be doing. It was really fun cause we got to choose what we were going to do.

Probably one of the things I liked the best about it is you always have a teacher telling you how to do something, but since you're trying to find the problem and trying to solve it, you get to solve it your own way, not the way that the teacher wants you to do it.

Collaboration. Students said that they felt Alien Rescue provided them with ample opportunities to collaborate with their classmates, and that they both gave and received help. The qualitative data suggest that collaboration was the vehicle through which students dealt with the challenges presented to them in the program. One student explained "When we first started we didn't understand it so we would have to ask somebody else, so that's probably how we started communicating." Other comments included "... we had to find a planet for each species, so we had to try pretty hard, but I kinda liked it like that. It would be a lot harder alone" and "Yeah, I guess we thought it was really easy, just a computer game or something, but it turned out it wasn't so easy, so we needed some help from our classmates." Another remarked, "I really like it when the teacher's not just going "Okay, you have to do this, you have to do this." You just figure it out and you have a big problem to solve just all by yourself and nobody 's helping you except for your friends."

Several students cited collaboration as one of their favorite aspects of Alien Rescue. Comments included "The funnest part was working around with a whole bunch of people" and "I liked it cause it just made us come together more and learn thinking skills together."

The opportunity to collaborate led to a division of labor for many students, and there were several comments that this helped them to work more quickly. One student explained, "We just started splitting up planets, working on the same things, saying 'What's your hypothesis so far?' You can cover more space with two people, more than one." Another student explained how this sharing of responsibilities worked for himself and two of his peers:

Me, this other guy (I forgot his name) and Andey, we worked together. It's like I'm here, he's there, and he's there, and we were working together. I would go to the solar system and I would look up planets for them and he would look at the aliens and he would say if the planet would work and he would say, "Okay, it needs this much atmosphere." And I would look for a planet with that much atmosphere but like with no earthquakes.

Collaboration seemed to present challenges of its own. One student commented that collaboration made work in Alien Rescue "fun and challenging at the same time." Other students explained how collaboration complicated the environment by introducing multiple ideas, but how that benefited students by making it possible to avoid mistakes and make better decisions than they would working alone:

Yeah, and you could find out their hypotheses about that, and you could say "Well, that's not my hypothesis, so how did you come up with that?" and then they can tell you stuff that you didn't really know. You could compare the hypotheses. Like if I didn't have a piece of information that he did, then I would just send them to a totally wrong planet.

Sometimes there would be some fights, like people would say "No, it goes to this planet, no it goes to that planet, and then you'd try to look it up and it wouldn't go to either planet." Then you'd have to find a whole other planet that would work for like the Wroft.

One impediment to collaboration was discussed by a group of students. Many of the students did not know each other well, and in some cases did not even know their classmates' names. Sixth grade is the first grade of middle school, and this study was conducted in November. Ten weeks of school had been insufficient for students to become acquainted with all their classmates, and some students did not feel comfortable talking to peers they did not know. Three students who had collaborated extensively explained that they worked together because they had gone to the same elementary school and had been friends for several years. In contrast, they did not work with another student seated next to them: "Like Jason, he sits on the other side of me, and was hard for me to get started to communicate with him because I didn't know him." For some students, however, the collaborative aspect of Alien Rescue made it possible to develop new friendships. One student explained that before Alien Rescue she had not known the clas smate seated next to her very well, but that during the course of the program they had become "very close" because of their collaborative efforts.

Several students commented that they rarely had the opportunity to collaborate in their regular classes, and when asked, all of these students said they preferred to work together as they had during Alien Rescue. Most said that it made learning more fun. One student explained that the freedom of movement students had during Alien Rescue meant less reliance on the teacher: "Sometimes we're sitting next to someone and they don't know the answer, and I can't just get up and ask someone, so I always just have to resort to a teacher. I don't really like to do that sometimes." Another expressed frustration with her regular classes: "If I like try to (collaborate), she tells us to stop talking."

Authentic science. Several students said they felt like Alien Rescue gave them the opportunity to work like scientists, "taking notes, looking at aliens, making probes, and doing the same kind of solution making as scientists." One student explained that her work reflected that of scientists in "how you went through a lot of steps," including research, hypothesis generation, experimentation, and reflection. In particular, several students commented on how their collaboration during Alien Rescue reflected collaboration within the scientific community. "We had to ask around like scientists. We had to talk to our neighbors, and get what they thought and compare, stuff like that." One student commented, "Normally like in movies and stuff you think of scientists, how they talk together, they actually come together in meetings and announce everything they learned. And we did that before every class period. Really and we could get up out of our seats, so actually it does feel like scientists."

Several comments by students suggested that they enjoyed taking on this role of scientist and believed it had academic value. "I thought it was a fun way of learning, cause I learned about the solar system and about all the moons, and how scientists do all this stuff." "... about how hard it is to be a scientist and figure things out, and how fun it is too." "I liked the feeling that you're your own scientist and helping the aliens and everything." "I thought it was a really good experience. If I wanted to be a scientist when I grow up, then I would have some experience. I wouldn't be totally lost."

Perceived educational value. In addition to learning about how scientists work, students felt they learned a great deal of factual information about the solar system and scientific instruments. When asked what they felt they had learned, most students identified specific scientific facts about the solar system and the design of probes, as well as concepts like why some worlds have magnetic field. One student commented, "I learned a lot about the planets. Cause you think you're having a whole lot of fun and stuff, but you're learning along the way." Another said "I thought sending probes was fun too because it had all those different kinds of instruments you could use. I learned a lot about space probes by doing that."

Besides factual knowledge, a few students talked about developing problem-solving skills. One student remarked, "It teaches you a lot about how to make steps and about the scientific method. If you just skip around and not go step by step it will usually come out wrong and you won't get all the information you need."

The perception that they were learning within this environment may have contributed to their enjoyment of the program. Again, some frustration with their regular classes showed through when one student commented that in Alien Rescue, "You actually learned something."

The problem and program context. One theme that emerged from the data was students' reaction to the specific problem posed by this program and the features of the software package. Several students commented on how much they liked the central problem of the unit, as shown in this remark: "I thought the whole idea of the aliens coming and us having to find a place for them and being able to be on their computer is pretty neat." When asked what they liked best about the program, many students responded by citing their favorite feature of the program rather than on aspects of the way they worked. Describing the alien computer component of the program, which contains QTVR movies of the aliens and their habitats, one student said, "It was kinda cool when you could just look at all the aliens, and turn them around and everything. Then you could look at their habitats and their solar system." Another student said, "It was sort of fun taking the notes where you had to look at the aliens and things. The probes were fu n too cause you get to go back to that place and you see all the information."

Alien Rescue is a computer-based program that makes use of rich media. Several students commented that their textbooks were often boring, and that being able to work on the computer and collaborate with their friends was more fun. Several students also described the program as a game. One student explained, "I think of it as a game because it's on computers," indicating that both the program and its delivery medium may suggest play. This raises the concern that students' enhanced motivation might have been due, at least in part, to the opportunity to use computers for an extended period of time. For example, the interactive nature of computers themselves may encourage students to explore, taking a mastery orientation and enjoying the challenge of figuring out the functionality of a program.

Lack of extrinsic motivators. Some comments suggest that students found their work in this environment less intimidating than in their regular classes: "It was easier, it was fun, cause you usually don't get to talk in class. Be quiet and if you don't be quiet you get a detention. But we were allowed to talk." And "We get an automatic 100 everyday instead of getting like 70s and stuff." The lack of extrinsic motivators, such as punishment and grades, may have freed students to adopt a more intrinsic orientation than they do in their regular classes. One student said "It was cool because I got to keep on trying" rather than worrying about the consequences of making mistakes.

Interestingly, despite the fact that many students described Alien Rescue as a game, they did not feel that they were competing with their peers. Students saw their peers as collaborators, as resources for dealing with difficulties rather than as competitors, racing for correct answers.

Novelty. The final theme that emerged from the data has to do with the impact that the novelty of this environment may have on students' motivational orientation. As seen within the other themes, students noted that many aspects of this program set it apart from typical school activities, and their comments showed a degree of frustration or boredom with their regular classes. For example, while their comments suggest that students enjoyed collaborating with their classmates for a variety of reasons, part of this enjoyment may be due to the feeling that typical school activities repress social interaction, even when it is task related. Their enjoyment of control over their own process may in part stem from a general feeling of powerlessness in their regular classes, a weariness with being frequently told what to do and how to do it.

Aside from the element of novelty seen in several themes, other remarks also suggest that students enjoyed the change in routine that their work on this program represented. Comments such as "I've never done something like that," "I liked getting away from class for a while," "It's better than working in a book," and "We don't usually get to use computers," show that, for some students, one positive aspect of this program was simply that it was different from regular classes. One student explained that typical class activities are of limited duration, and that he like the prolonged investigation offered by the software: "It was for an extended amount of time, not just one day, so when you go in the next day and you can say 'Oh, where was I? Oh, yeah, I've got to get information from the probe.' I liked that." These comments suggest that students may have enjoyed Alien Rescue simply because it was different from their regular classes.

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study strengthen the growing literature on the effectiveness of problem-based learning in two ways. First, they suggest that PBL can encourage intrinsically motivated behavior. Second, these results were achieved with regular education sixth graders, suggesting that PBL may offer benefits to a variety of learners and that its effects should be investigated with a wider audience than has been the case in the past.

These findings also lend support for the notion of the situated nature of motivation. Students' scores on the posttreatment administration of the Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom were correlated with their pretreatment scores, indicating that there are enduring motivational characteristics of learners that affect how they react to different learning environments. At the same time, the significant difference between the scores on the two administrations of this scale suggest that some environments are inherently more motivating than others. Taken together, these findings support the argument that motivation is a product of a person by context interaction.

Why did students report a more intrinsic orientation for an environment such as the one posed by Alien Rescue than for their regular class environments? The qualitative data was examined to explore possible reasons for the shift toward an intrinsic orientation seen in the quantitative data. In this section, each of the four subscales of the Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom is examined. Questions are posed as to the reasons for the shift toward an intrinsic orientation, then possible answers suggested by the qualitative data are offered.

Preference for Challenge versus Preference for Easy Work Assigned

Why did students express a greater preference for challenge in environments such as Alien Rescue than in their regular school environments? Their comments suggested a positive attitude toward challenge, but what made challenge more desirable in this PBL environment than in their regular classes? The qualitative data suggest a close relationship between issues of control, collaboration, and challenge. Because the problem was complex and students were given the responsibility for developing a solution without direction from the teacher, they found the program challenging. However, while having control over their work made the problem more challenging, it also made it more enjoyable. After their initial confusion as they became oriented to the software, students did not want direction from the teacher, saying that teacher direction would have made the program "less fun." But they were unable to handle all of the complexity alone and therefore sought support from their peers. While students universally enjoyed t he collaborative aspect of this program, it too added complexity to their work. Overcoming difficulties such as not knowing each other well, as well as those involved in seeking and giving help, brought complexity of its own to the situation. So, again, while collaboration supported students in their efforts to solve the problem, it also added another layer of challenge. At the same time, it made students' efforts more enjoyable to them. Both control and collaboration increased challenge, but it made the challenge more fun.

Three other factors that may have helped to increase students' preference for challenge also show up in the qualitative data. First, many students described Alien Rescue as a game; this perception may have made challenge more desirable. Rieber (1996) suggested that by its very nature play is intrinsically motivating; learners' motivational orientation may have therefore been enhanced simply because they believed they were able to spend three weeks of science class playing. Second, most students believed they had learned a great deal through this program. This may have encouraged them to believe that there was a payoff for their efforts, that the challenging nature of the program had led to a greater amount of learning than their typical classes. In particular, they believed that their work had mirrored that of scientists, and they enjoyed that experience. Finally, common features of school environments that students sometimes find intimidating, such as tests, grades, consequences for failures, and competitio n with peers, were absent from the Alien Rescue environment. As a result, students may have been more willing to take risks and engage in challenging tasks. To the extent that students accepted the notion that failure leads to learning, they may have begun to perceive challenge as beneficial.

Curiosity/Interest versus Pleasing the Teacher/Getting Grades

Why were students more likely to work to satisfy their own interest during Alien Rescue than in their regular classes? Why were they less likely to work to get good grades? The lack of extrinsic motivators during the PBL unit used in this study may help to account for students' increased intrinsic orientation on this second subscale. Several students noted that there were no grades or threat of punishment for poor performance. They were therefore able to work as they chose without reference to extrinsic rewards or consequences. Freed from concern over these extrinsic motivators, students could then pursue their own interests. Several factors may have helped to promote and sustain this interest. The qualitative data suggest that students felt that their work during Alien Rescue mirrored that of scientists, and that they enjoyed this aspect of the program. The sense that they were doing "authentic science," handling a complex problem, figuring out a process to develop a solution, designing investigations, inte rpreting data, and sharing their findings the way that scientists do, may have enhanced their interest in solving the problem. Also, the science fiction premise of the problem and specific features of Alien Rescue (such as the probe design simulation) may have been particularly interesting to this age group. Because they liked the task and the tools with which to handle it, the program may have been more interesting to them. Finally, the delivery medium may itself have suggested play. These students may have associated computers with games; as a result, they were interested in finding a way to win, or in this case, solve the problem.

Independent Mastery versus Dependence on the Teacher

Why would students be more likely to prefer to figure things out on their own during Alien Rescue than in their regular classes? Why were they less likely to rely on the teacher to show them how to do things and solve problems for them? Because of the complexity of the problems posed in PBL programs, students confront numerous small difficulties they must overcome to develop a solution. The teacher, acting as a facilitator, may help students consider various strategies they could use to deal with these problems, but does not actually show them how to solve them. A few students commented that in the first few days of the program when they were trying to figure out both the virtual environment presented in the software and their process toward a solution, that they would have liked more direction from the teacher. However, by the end of the program all students interviewed expressed a preference for the independence they had been given during the program and were glad to have handled the difficulties they enco untered without the teacher's input.

Evidence of three possible reasons for this change appears in the qualitative data. First, students felt that they had been challenged, but that the challenge was one that they were able to handle, in other words, they had successfully accomplished a task they considered difficult. Had they relied on the teacher for help the problem would have been less challenging, and as several students explained, "less fun." As students took control of their process, they came to enjoy dealing with the difficulties on their own.

Second, students' increased preference for independent mastery may also be related to the opportunity for collaboration they had during this program. Because they could not rely on the teacher to show them how to handle problems, they turned to their peers for support. All students interviewed said that they enjoyed collaborating with their peers, with some students identifying it as their favorite aspect of the program. However, this would suggest that the results on this subscale shifted toward a more intrinsic orientation not because students would rather work independently but only because they preferred relying on their classmates rather than their teacher. Yet, considering that most students said they both gave and received help, this reflects a desire to be part of a group that is solving problems collaboratively rather than relying on a more knowledgeable adult to solve the problem for them. As such, it still represents an increased desire for independent mastery.

Finally, the novelty of having to rely on themselves to figure out how to handle problems may have enhanced motivation. In the interviews several students expressed frustration with the lack of control over their work they experience in their regular classes. One possible interpretation here is that students' responses on the initial administration of the questionnaire were the result of their limited experience with self-direction. With a successful experience in self-direction, students might have expressed a greater desire for independent mastery simply because it differed from a routine they have come to regard as boring.

Independent Judgment versus Reliance on the Teacher's Judgment

Why did students feel they were more capable of making decisions about their work during Alien Rescue than in their regular classes? Why were they less likely to rely on the teacher to tell them what to do? PBL requires students to engage in extensive planning and decision-making about their process. As with the previous question, success on a challenging task, control over their work, collaboration, and novelty may all have contributed to students' enhanced reliance on their own judgment about what to do. First, students' control over their work and success in the face of challenge may have served to increase their confidence in their ability to make decisions about their own work. Second, collaboration may have provided students with a safety net for decision-making, leading them to be less dependent on the teacher. As students explained, they could check their ideas with their classmates, getting ideas about how to work and catching mistakes before investing a considerable amount of time in them. This joi nt decision-making may also support the development of friendships, as one student explained when she remarked that the process had made her and her partner "very close."

Novelty may also have played a role in students increased reliance on their own judgment. Several students noted that the opportunity to control their own process during Alien Rescue contrasted greatly with their typical class activities. Their comments even showed a degree of frustration with their regular classes The question then becomes, could this be a lasting change? In other words, the opportunity to be self-directed may have awakened students' frustration with the teacher-centered environments they typically encounter in school. If so, experience with learning environments like the one studied here may impact the enduring motivational characteristics of learners, making them prefer self-direction in general, not just in specific environments.

In summary, as predicted by the theory of situated motivation, choice, challenge, control, and collaboration all seem to have contributed to students' enhanced intrinsic motivational orientation during this study. However, other factors also appear to be relevant to the differences shown in motivational orientation. These include students' interest in the particular problem posed and the program, their perception of the program's educational value and resemblance to the work of real scientists, the lack of extrinsic motivators such as grades, as well as the sheer novelty of the situation.

Implications for the Design of Problem-Based Learning Environments

PBL has gained numerous advocates in recent years, and use of this approach is spreading. As a result, many variations of PBL are likely to develop. To preserve and enhance the benefits of this approach, more study and discussion are needed to derive prescriptions for designing effective PBL programs. Four such prescriptions aimed at supporting an intrinsic orientation in PBL programs are offered here.

1. Create a need for collaboration. Though collaboration has not been considered essential in PBL, the qualitative data suggest that it has a positive effect on motivation. However, simply assigning students to groups and telling them to collaborate may be insufficient. Because the problem situation was so complex, students in this study recognized a need for collaboration. It became a valued activity and one they engaged in without assignment from the teacher. By creating complex problems that require rich factual knowledge and a variety of skills, designers can build PBL units too challenging for students to do easily in isolation. This will cause students to turn to each other for support and come to view each other as resources. The need for, opportunity for, and success with collaboration, may, as suggested by the qualitative data, encourage an intrinsic orientation.

2. Design problems that are likely to interest members of the target audience. This suggestion may seem obvious, but one of the characteristics of PBL that is often cited in the literature is authenticity. For example, the problems used in medical education are often ones that doctors encounter in the course of their careers. As such, the problems and the circumstances in which they evolve can be designed to be as authentic as possible. This was not true of the software used in this study. While Alien Rescue reflects the complexity of work done by scientists, the problem itself is far from authentic. However, this inauthenticity may have promoted student interest and supported an intrinsic orientation. If an essential characteristic of PBL is that students own the problem, then appealing to their interests is paramount. Reexamining the use of PBL in medical education, student interest provides just as likely an explanation of students' positive reaction to PBL as authenticity. Because the problems used there reflect aspects of these students' chosen profession, we can assume they are of interest to them. The same cannot be said of middle school students, many of who may have only limited interest in the topics addressed in their classes.

3. Provide training for teachers in nondirective facilitation. Teachers are often cast in the role of task masters and problem-solvers. To use class time wisely, they determine beforehand the specific activities in which students should engage, then solve problems that arise to minimize "nonproductive" class time. Letting go of control, letting students make decisions about what to do, and figure out how to handle problematic situations, may at first seem awkward for teachers. If students' motivational orientation is affected by the level of control they have over their process, then interference by the teacher with that control could undermine intrinsic orientation. Training and support for the role of facilitator could therefore result in more intrinsically motivated behavior in students.

4. Draw comparisons between students' work and that of scientists. Comparisons between students' process and that of scientists was drawn during several class discussions. The results suggest that students bought into the idea that their work reflected that of real scientists, and that this perception may have helped to enhance their willingness to tackle challenges and their interest in this work. Incorporating discussions on the work of real scientists into PBL units may therefore help to support an intrinsic orientation.

The Issue of Extrinsic Motivators

Another possible suggestion for the design of PBL environments that could be added to the previous list is to avoid the use of extrinsic motivators. Certainly a rich body of research has shown how extrinsic motivators, such as grades or threat of consequences, can undermine intrinsic motivation (e.g., Harter, 1978b; Butler, 1988), so students' comments were not at odds with prevailing wisdom. However, despite the long-standing arguments against extrinsic motivators, they nevertheless remain a part of the school experience for most students. Implementing a suggestion to avoid the use of extrinsic motivators, particularly grades, may prove problematic. Also, because much of the research on the effects of these extrinsic motivators was conducted in laboratory settings or with brief treatments, we may understand very little of how extrinsic motivators function in student-centered learning environments like the one studied here. While the qualitative data examined here certainly suggest that students enjoyed not worrying about grades or punishments, this lack of extrinsic motivators was not a deliberate feature of this environment. Therefore, the impact of extrinsic motivators in student-centered learning environments needs more careful examination before suggestions can be made about their use.

The Issue of Novelty

One theme that emerged from the qualitative data, novelty, raises the concern that differences in the quantitative data may be due to qualities of this environment that have nothing to do with the characteristics of problem-based learning. Perhaps the characteristics of PBL are not, in and of themselves, capable of enhancing motivation. Perhaps it was only the opportunity to do anything out of the ordinary that caused the differences between the two administrations of the Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom. Were students motivated by the control over their own activities offered in this PBL unit simply because they typically have so little of it in schools? Did collaboration decrease students' preference for dependence on the teacher simply because calling on their peers for support had rarely been sanctioned in their classes?

The answers to these questions are unclear, and are likely to remain so until we can address a far more complex question: would students who spend most of their educational careers engaged in student-centered learning environments express and display more intrinsically motivated behavior than students in the teacher-directed learning environments typically found in schools? Future research can seek to isolate various aspects of PBL, attempting to ascertain, for instance, the role of collaboration or control in supporting the adoption of an intrinsic orientation. However, novelty will continue to be a confounding variable in this research until longitudinal studies of developmental differences that result from different learning environments can be conducted. But results such as these offer hope that student-centered learning approaches, such as PBL, can enhance motivation and suggest that deeper research is warranted.

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