Ego-involving and frame of reference effects of tracking on elementary school students' motivational orientations and help seeking in math class

The author extrapolated from both achievement goal and reference group theories to predict that relative to untracked settings, tracking (a) highlights the importance of ability relative to others and will thus increase students' ego orientations and reluctance to ask the teacher for help and (b) creates different contexts for social comparison and will thus undermine help seeking among high achievers but may enhance help seeking among low achievers. A quasi-experimental study compared students at ages 10-12 in elementary schools that either tracked students only in math (N = 337) or did not track students in any subject (N = 594). Students completed self-report measures of achievement goals and help seeking in math class. Results confirmed that, over all levels of ability, tracking increased ego and work avoidance goals and did not affect task goals. Tracking undermined help seeking among high achievers, but did not enhance help seeking among low achievers. In addition to revealing some hitherto unstudied costs of tracking, the results highlight the importance of considering grouping practices in research on student motivation and strategies and of applying theory and research on student motivation to understanding the influences of tracking.