Contextual and Situational Motivation in Education: A Test of the Specificity Hypothesis

The purpose of the present study was to test the specificity hypothesis in the area of education. This hypothesis is derived from Vallerand’shierarchical model of motivation and argues that situational motivation towards a specific activity should be mainly influenced by contextual motivation towards this activity, and not so much by contextual motivation towards a non-related activity. Furthermore, comparative differences in self-determination between physical education (PE) and classroombased education were examined. Participants were 102 British pupils aged between 12 and 14 years who reported their contextual motivation towards PE and classroom-based education. A month later, these pupils also reported their situationalmotivation toward a PE lesson and a science lesson (physics). Results from regression analyses offered full support to the specificity hypothesis. Furthermore, comparisons of self-determination levels showed that pupils were more self-determined in PE than in the classroom at both the contextual and situational levels. The specificity effect indicates that motivation at school is a multidimensional construct and, therefore, interventions to promote motivation should target each aspect of schooling independently.