A Longitudinal Research: Students’ Motivational Sources when Preparing for Centralized Exams in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this research is to examine the positive and negative motivational sources of students with internal and external characteristics during the preparation process for national centralized exams in Turkey in the light of longitudinal data. The research is important in terms of revealing the sources of motivation for the national centralized exams, which have an important place regarding both the education system and shaping the future of the youth in Turkey. It is clear that an educational process with high-quality carried out throughout the country has an undeniable role in future elections and school placements. The study was carried out using a longitudinal research design. In order to collect longitudinal data, the study group of the research consists of 43 eighth grade students studying in a secondary school in a province in the Aegean Region of Turkey in the 2013-2014 academic year. The data of the research were collected through an interview form with open-ended questions. By conducting focus group interviews with the students in the study group, the same 43 students who continued their education in different high schools in the 2017-2018 academic year were reached, in order to collect longitudinal data in the process of preparing for the high school entrance exam and in the following process, this time the motivation sources in the process of preparing for the university entrance exam were revealed. In order to reveal what the students thought as a source of motivation during the preparation process for the national centralized exams, the data obtained after the focus group interviews with the students were handled in comparative, thematic and classified forms and analyzed according to mixed content analysis and reflected in the findings. In the focus group interviews conducted in the research, six different themes emerged as "Family", "Teacher", "School, Lessons and Exams", "Friends and Social Life", "Career and Future" and "Psychological Factors". For each theme, the results of the quantitative analysis of internal-external weighted and positive-negative motivational sources and the results of qualitative analysis within the framework of categories and codes are included. Various suggestions have been developed with the discussion made within the scope of the results obtained in the research. The suggestions reflect that, along with the learning and studying processes for the needs of the students, they expect behaviors that will enrich their motivational sources from the people who can support them (families, teachers, school administrators, friends, etc.).