Improving attitudes about exit exams through a better understanding of the educational goals and motivational functions that underlie them

A new, direct method of assessing the strength of motivation functions that may underlie attitudes toward exit exams has been developed and was experimentally validated. Those with high motivational scores on the cognitive scale favored the learning-framed message regarding exit exams significantly more than those with lower scores. Furthermore, scores on the utilitarian motivational scale were unrelated to attitude toward the cognitive messge. Conversely, those with high scores on the utilitarian scale favored the practically-framed message significantly more than those with lower scores, while scores on the cognitive scale were unrelated to attitude toward the practical message. In addition, the direct measure was compared to a proxy measure form the educational field, the ASSIST deep and surface learning scales corresponding respectively to the cognitive and utilitarian scales. The direct method of assessment was a better predictor of message-favorability than the indirect method.