Abstract
Introduction This article seeks to examine the relationship that exists between pupil motivation and the following internal and external factors: pupil performance in design and technology (D&T) project work, pupil skills associated with D&T project work, pupil personal goal orientation, pupil cognitive style, pupil creativity, teaching strategy, and teacher motivation. The data under discussion were collected as part of a four-year research project. The article examines the research investigated during the final year of the study when a sample of 50, 15 and 16-year-old pupils was selected from eight schools in the northeast region of England. Data were collected throughout a GCSE Design and Technology (D&T) course work project. A cognitive style test and a questionnaire ascertaining each pupil’s perception of their ability and enjoyment in D&T project work were given to the sample at the beginning of the academic year. A case study approach based on observation and informal interviews was then used to monitor the pupils throughout the designing and making of their projects. Upon completion of the project, a summative questionnaire, a goal orientation index, and a creativity test were completed by each pupil. Data about the school’s internal moderated mark for each pupil’s D&T project were also collected. In discussing the findings, the relationship between the internal factors and a pupil’s ability to perform and be motivated will be discussed. Conclusions will be drawn concerning the influence that external factors, such as assessment and teaching and learning strategies, have upon the attitude and ability of pupils, _____________________________
Highlights
This article seeks to examine the relationship that exists between pupil motivation and the following internal and external factors: pupil performance in design and technology (D&T) project work, pupil skills associated with D&T project work, pupil personal goal orientation, pupil cognitive style, pupil creativity, teaching strategy, and teacher motivation
Analysis of the research findings indicated that only twenty percent of the pupils studying at 10th grade were motivated by their D&T examination project work
The evidence of the research concerning reasons for the differing levels of pupil motivation painted a complex picture of interactions between internal and external factors
Summary
This article seeks to examine the relationship that exists between pupil motivation and the following internal and external factors: pupil performance in design and technology (D&T) project work, pupil skills associated with D&T project work, pupil personal goal orientation, pupil cognitive style, pupil creativity, teaching strategy, and teacher motivation. As the subject area has developed, so has the use of the design process as a method of delivering and examining subject content (e.g. Design Council, 1980; DES, 1987; Kimbell, Stables, Wheeler, Wosniak & Kelly, 1991). In 1987 the Department for Education and Science suggested that what was needed was a loose framework to guide designing rather than a well-defined process model which they saw as a straitjacket. In the UK throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s it was generally believed that designing and making in the form of project work was an exciting and motivating activity during which the necessary skills, knowledge, and concepts could be taught (Design Council, 1980, Kimbell, 1982; HMI, 1983; Down, 1986). Other writers (e.g. DES, 1992; Grieve, 1993; Hendley & Jephcote, 1992) and many teachers placed the blame for the problems on the introduction and implementation of the National Curriculum
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