This blog post is an update to a January 2024 feature on Motivate Lab’s relevance affirmation writing activity. As a finalist in TxCAN’s Pitch Competition, Motivate Lab was able to introduce the idea of translating one of its interventions into an activity that can be utilized within a variety of advising settings. Since that time, Motivate Lab has sought the input of advising practitioners to inform and adapt the intervention for use with students from middle school to postsecondary levels.

Bridging Research and Practice to Support Advising
Motivate Lab is driven to improve people’s lives through rigorous motivation research. We focus on understanding the mindsets and motivations that promote learning, growth, and well-being. These insights are used to develop evidence-based solutions that can be applied across educational and extracurricular contexts. The Navigate Project, a research translation initiative led by Motivate Lab, is a collective of educators, advocates, funders, and researchers dedicated to developing and adapting evidence-demonstrated learning mindset-supportive practices in the postsecondary access and success space.

Research Foundations
Relevance affirmation research suggests that making these connections can help students affirm their identity, reduce feelings of uncertainty about whether they belong in college, and find purpose and relevance in their college experience (Kizilcec et al., 2017; Shnabel et al., 2013; Tibbetts et al., 2016). Relevance affirmation interventions are based on two interventions that have been shown to be particularly effective for supporting students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education (Harackiewicz et al., 2016; Tibbetts et al., 2016): values affirmation, pioneered by Claude Steele (Steele, 1998; Cohen & Sherman, 2014), and utility-value intervention, pioneered by Motivate Lab Director Chris Hulleman (Hulleman et al., 2008; Harackiewicz et al., 2016).

In Fall 2018, Motivate Lab partnered with Nashville State Community College to co-design and implement student-focused relevance affirmation interventions in first-year experience courses. In Spring 2019, a context-focused intervention was added to scaffold the exercise with a class discussion on values and incorporate instructor modeling on how to reflect on personal values, which led to a decrease in students’ belonging uncertainty and an increase in the number of connections students made between their values and their education

Values Connection
Values Connection is an activity based on Motivate Lab’s relevance affirmation intervention, in which students explore their personal values and connect these values to their education and future goals. The purpose of this activity is to help students find greater value and meaning in the pursuit of their goals, whether it be through their current learning or coursework, future career or college plans, or other postsecondary pathways. Affirming the ways in which a student’s personal values are in alignment with their goals encourages students to persevere through challenges and find meaning throughout the pursuit of these goals.

New Features
One of the most exciting features of the Values Connection activity is that it is free and widely accessible for use. We see this resource as a potential best practice for integrating motivation into the advising process in a way that centers the identity, values, lived experience, and voice of students. Within the Values Connection activity you will find the following features:

• Differentiated Versions – Designed for use within two age bands: Middle School & Early High School and Upper High School & Beyond (Postsecondary)
• Facilitation Guide – Outlines key research, context considerations, and best practices for implementation with students
• Lesson Plan – Provides step-by-step instructions for implementation with optional instructor scripting and guiding questions
• Student Handout – A scaffolded writing activity for students to complete throughout the lesson
• Slide Deck – An optional presentation to guide students through a series of discussion questions
• Extension Activities – Optional activities that may be used for additional scaffolding, reinforcement throughout the semester/year, and/or as alternative assignments for students who may need additional support with writing output

What to Keep in Mind
Students will benefit most from the Values Connection activity when they are able to reflect on their authentic values in a comfortable and supportive environment. Consider the following best practices when implementing this activity with your students:

• Keep it low stakes. Discussing values can be a vulnerable experience for students. Normalize that there are no right or wrong values and that everyone’s values are different. Refrain from using this activity as homework or a graded assignment.
• Model your own values. The more personal and relatable your modeling feels, the more likely students will feel comfortable engaging with their own authenticity.
• Normalize the challenge. Naming and reflecting on values, especially for the first time, is a difficult task. Acknowledge this and allow students to practice building their reflection muscle.
• Set the tone. This activity is excellent for use at the beginning of a new semester, school year, or program, or to help prepare students before transitions in educational journey (i.e. the transition from middle school to high school, or high school to college enrollment).
• Honor student identities. Appreciate the ways in which values differ across cultural contexts and be prepared to navigate any cultural considerations that may affect a student’s engagement. Consider any learning and/or developmental differences that may affect the manner in which a student may reflect on their values. We encourage you to utilize the Extension Activities to adapt the written portion of the activity as necessary.

We Want to Learn from You
We invite you to try the Values Connection activity with your students and/or share with individuals, schools, or organizations in your network who may benefit from using this resource. Once you have tried the activity, please complete this survey to help our team of practitioners and researchers better understand what implementation of the Values Connection activity looks like in your setting. Your feedback is vital to our continual improvement process.

Author

Monique Calderon Dotson is a first-generation college graduate and longtime postsecondary success practitioner who is passionate about fostering equitable postsecondary outcomes for students from historically marginalized and traditionally underserved populations. Monique is the Postsecondary Pathways Director for the Navigate Project at Motivate Lab.
Mandy Roy is an educator at heart, combining her curriculum design expertise with a passion for creating inclusive and more equitable learning experiences for all students through research-based instructional strategies. Mandy is a Project Associate for the Navigate Project at Motivate Lab.