Implications of the DMQ for Education and Human Development: Culture, Age and School Performance

Abstract

There is increased awareness of the importance of both culturally appropriate and developmentally appropriate educational practice (e.g., Garcia et al., 2016; Zhao & Fischer, 2013). The child’s cultural background and developmental age impact who they are, how they perceive the world and themselves, and how they relate to others. Mastery motivation, the contexts in which it is observed, and its manifestation in expressive and motor behavior is likely to vary across age, culture, and setting (e.g., home versus school). For example, there is extensive evidence that mastery motiva-tion decreases with age during the school years (e.g., Józsa et al., 2014). However, this may differ across different cultures and school systems. For example, a common reason given for this downward trajectory is children’s increasing dependence on extrinsic motivation from grades and teacher feedback as they get older.