Pupil Motivation Research Articles

Exploring and challenging pupil disaffection: an evaluation of a motivational interviewing-based intervention delivered by paraprofessionals

Research suggests motivational interviewing (MI) techniques can be useful in educational settings for improving motivation in disaffected pupils. This exploratory mixed methods study sought to investigate whether implementing an MI-based programme through school-based paraprofessionals would be effective in improving pupil motivation. Five pupils identified as disaffected took part in five sessions of a MI-based intervention delivered by paraprofessionals within one high school setting. All of the pupils completed pre- and post-intervention measures of school-based motivation. The paraprofessionals involved in programme delivery took part in pre-intervention training; and post-intervention were given an opportunity to express their views about the usefulness of the programme and practicalities of implementation during a focus group. Results showed that although the paraprofessionals expressed positive views about the effectiveness of the intervention, these observations were not necessarily supported by quantitative outcomes relating to pupils’ self-reported school-based motivation. Implications for the delivery of MI-based interventions as an individual approach for school-based practice are discussed.

How pupils percieve the teacher's motivational techniques?

Current research in the field of education indicates that the behaviour of the teacher affects significantly the quality and level of the pupil's motivation. The aim of our research was to determine the structure of the motivational style of teachers seen from the pupils' perspective, and to find out whether the pupils' perceptions of the teacher's motivational style depend upon cultural-educational influences of the family, and some characteristics of the students (academic achievements, gender). The sample included 856 pupils from 40 elementary schools in Serbia. We used the questionnaire with Likert's scale to obtain the evaluation of the teachers' behaviours. By the factor analysis we extracted three components of the teacher' behaviour: stimulating pupils' interest and competences, de-motivational teachers' behaviours and stimulating freedom of thinking and expression. The results show that the pupils whose parents have lower levels of education think that the behaviour of the teachers is directed to stimulating interest and competencies, as well as freedom of thinking and speech than the pupils of the parents of higher educational status. The control of the influence of the education of parents showed that the pupils of lower academic achievement perceive the teacher's behaviour as de-motivational. Compared to girls boys estimate more highly that teachers stimulate their interests and competencies. A suggestion is offered how a teacher should develop a behavioural style which would positively influence the quality of the pupils' motivation.

Investigation of Current Situation of Learning Motivation, Social Anxiety and Loneliness of the Left-behind Children in Rural Primary School

Objective: To understand the situation of learning motivation, social anxiety and loneliness of the left-behind children. Method: Selecting three rural primary schools in Xian’an District of Xianning City to investigate left-behind situation, learning motivation, social anxiety and loneliness of pupils in Grades 4 to 6 in rural primary school in Xian’an District by the use of the MAAT-I-A which is revised by Zhou Bucheng, the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC) and the Children’s Loneliness Scale (CLS). Results: (1) The learning motivation of the left-behind children in rural primary school is in a slightly higher medium level. Social anxiety is significantly higher than normal level in Chinese city, and the level of loneliness of about 1/5 of the left-behind children is relatively high. (2) The score of learning motivation, social anxiety and loneliness of the left-behind children in the level of knowledge learning has significant grade differences, without significant gender differences. (3) The level of learning motivation, social anxiety and loneliness of the left-behind children is slightly higher than that of non-left-behind children, but both differences are not significant.

Classroom Management in Project Work

The article Classroom management in project work focuses on the project work method and the teacher’s leader role in a lower secondary school. The main reason for focusing on this work method is that we must continuously learn and develop to keep up with societal developments. The article argues that education and training in school should enable and encourage pupils to use their curiosity and ask questions they want answers to, and in this way create a lifelong learning process when their formal schooling has come to an end. This leads to the project work method, which starts with a research question or problem formulation. The goal of teaching in lower secondary school in Norway is that it should be varied and practical, while the pupils should also experience it as relevant and challenging. The intention is that such a work form will increase pupil motivation and learning. The purpose of this article is to show how the project-work method may provide teaching that is varied, practical, relevant and challenging. Moreover, another aim is to highlight the teacher’s role as the leader of pupil learning in project work. The article is based on a qualitative case study where the empirical findings have been analysed according to Dewey’s and Vygotsky’s theories and to theories on classroom management.

Motivation of pupils from southern Poland to learn English

Despite the fact that motivation is one of the most important individual differences (Dörnyei, 2005), there have been few attempts to examine what impact it has on studying English in Poland. This study aims to find out the general motivational properties of Polish students aged 15–16, focussing on the role of language learning goals, self-constructs, the influence of parents, peers and language learning anxiety. The second aim is to investigate which variables contribute significantly to students' self-regulated behaviour. To answer these questions, the researcher used a mixed methods approach, in which 236 students enrolled in compulsory education in southern Poland completed a motivational questionnaire and nine motivated learners participated in an interview. The quantitative data from the questionnaire was analysed using SPSS and the interviews were transcribed, coded and analysed qualitatively. The findings suggest that the students endorsed a number of language learning goals, such as knowledge orientation, international orientation and instrumental orientation. The role of parental encouragement, peer group pressure and language learning anxiety was limited. Although the questionnaire pointed to moderate levels of self-constructs, this was different for motivated learners who reported positive self-evaluations. Regression analysis showed that motivated behaviour, intrinsic motivation and the ideal L2 self influenced self-regulation.

Comparing the Effects of the Story Telling Method and the Conventional Method on the Interest, Motivation and Achievement of Chinese Primary School Pupils

This article is based on a quasi experimental research, comparing the effects of the storytelling method and the conventional method on the interest, motivation and achievement of Year Five Chineese Primary School pupils in Malaysia. The objective of the study was to investigate whether the use of the storytelling method helped to enhance the interest, motivation and achievement of pupils in Moral Education. The sample of the study consisted of 110 Year Five pupils from two schools. The sample was divided into two groups, the Experimental Group and the Control Group. The Experimental group was taught using the story telling method and the Control group was taught using the conventional method. The study was conducted over a period of eight weeks. A set of questionnaires was used to gauge the pupils’ interest and motivation before and after the experiment. The ANCOVA test was used to analyse the data obtained from the post test and the questionaire. The findings of this research indicate that the utilization of the storytelling method significantly enhanced the interest, motivation and achievement of the pupils in the Experimental Group in Moral Education compared with the pupils in the Control Group who were taught using the conventional method.

A Comparison of Motivation and the Process of Teaching in French Language Classes for Children and for Adults

Motivation of pupils and the question of how to motivate them seems to be the main issue of language teachers. As a French language teacher of both, children and adults, I have acquired quite some experiences in the past seven years of teaching in different language schools. These experiences are a great help in preparing my courses. However, as there is no established curricula in the language schools, which is quite a difference in comparison to public elementary and high schools, every teacher is expected to create his or her particular curriculum. This means literature, topics and matters that course will cover have to be selected by the teacher, and the teacher prepares all the handouts. If the level of satisfaction differs from the expectations of the pupils, they will most likely refuse to participate in the future. Because of that the question of motivation remains one of the main issues in terms of language teaching. The aim of the article is the comparison of the methods of raising motivation among the pupils I teach in two differentlanguage schools. The first group is mainly focused on children and the second group is focused on adults.Key words: motivation, course, grammar, reading comprehension, listening comprehension

The Link Between Topic Work and Intrinsic Motivation

This study explores the relationship between topic work, as a teaching and learning method based on the philosophy of open classrooms and pupil's motivation. Topic work, as a methodology emerged in our school after 1990's, to support democratization in the relationship between teacher and pupils. Topic work had a stretch in Elbasan’s schools for more than 8 years, while this methodology has a long story and has been adopted across European and American schools. In these countries, the method continues to grow in its popularity. In the beginning, this paper will describe the principles of topic work based on literature about this theme, and the role of motivation in the attitude of children towards school. The motivation, likewise is analyzed based on recent findings in the educational psychology field. Comparing the principles of topic work, with elements of motivation especially of intrinsic motivation, it will be concluded that topic work as methodology includes a lot of elements of intrinsic motivation. With the changing of curriculum demands, teachers can rely on this methodology to motivate pupils, to be closer to their needs and closer to recent developments in education policy. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n8p311

The Relevance of Health and Environmental Education in Chemistry for Pupils of Czech Secondary Schools and School-leavers

The aim of the authors of this article was to find out how much importance Czech pupils and schoolleavers who are not professionally engaged in chemistry attach to those topics of Health and Environmental Education included among the obligatory outcomes in Chemistry for Lower Secondary Schools. The research was carried out by means of a questionnaire administrated to 576 pupils aged 14-18 years and 122 school-leavers (people with finished education). The conclusion was that as for subjective respondents’ opinion on the importance of learned skill outcomes, the respondents preferred topics of Health Education to those of Environmental Education. Moreover, the authors have found that the interest in prevention and first aid increases with growing age of the respondents. The pupils’ interest in environmental topics is very low. On the contrary, school-leavers show an overwhelming interest in chemistry of nutrition and in environmental protection. This discrepancy should probably be solved by better motivation of pupils in the future.

Some Considerations Regarding the Rapport Between Motivation-performance in Primary School

Motivation is appreciated as being one of the most important factors in schooling, together with the aptitude's force. The strategy for stimulating the motivation in pupils by the teachers, for obtaining school performance, supposes exploring all the psychological interactions and alternatives between motivation and cognition. The study purposes to identify reciprocal psychological inter-conditions between motivation and school performance and, in consequence, to project an adequate strategy to stimulate the pupils’ motivation in the process of school learning. The motivational strategies can lead to different levels and motivational intensities, which, if made aware at an individual level, can significantly, influence the school performance.

The Leading Group Effect: Illusionary Declines in Scholastic Standard Scores of Mid-Range Japanese Junior High School Pupils

Longitudinal change in the average Z scores for four groups of pupils sorted by quartiles was examined for its stability over three years. The data, collected from 1998 to 2009, was obtained from nine cohorts of Japanese junior high school pupils totaling 1,962 subjects. It showed illusionary declines among the mid-range pupils but improvement among those in the low-range group. These illusionary declines and improvement were found to stem from the fact that left-skewed distributions for the first term examination scores became less skewed for later exams. Such illusionary declines, dubbed the “Leading Group Effect,” may undermine the motivation of middle-range pupils. This illusionary statistical phenomenon should be appropriately explained to teachers and pupils of junior high schools so they won’t be discouraged by illusionary declines in the Z scores.

THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHER SKILLS ON PUPIL VOLITION IN SCIENCE LEARNING: A NORWEGIAN INVESTIGATION OF THE STUDYING BEHAVIOURS OF 16-YEAR-OLDS

In a school system in which young people receive an ever greater degree of self-determination, it is important to study how the teacher can influence young people’s motivation to work towards long-term goals in schoolwork. The purpose of this study is to investigate which teaching skills influence the volition of 16-year-olds. Structural equation modelling of cross-sectional surveys from one survey was used to estimate the path coefficients. The influence of teachers’ skills on 16-year-olds’ volition was estimated. The analysis indicates that the teacher’s perceived ability to influence pupil volition is present, but modest. Classroom management has a moderately-high effect on pupil volition, whilst the teacher’s press has only a moderate effect on pupil motivation. The teacher’s relationship-building efforts have little effect on either pupil motivation or volition. The indirect effect from pupil motivation to pupil volition is of moderately-high strength. However, a cross-sectional study does not allow us to test causal relationships amongst personal antecedents of pupil volition. Teachers may exercise some influence over 16-year-olds’ volition primarily by means of classroom management, but also in terms of pupil motivation via teacher press. Teachers may exploit this capacity to influence in order to improve pupil performance at school. For pupils lacking academic motivation, the teacher’s efforts to motivate and to strengthen pupil volition are important, including in terms of social levelling. The study provides new knowledge about teacher influence on the volition of Norwegian 16-year-olds. Keywords: adolescence, classroom management, motivation, Norway, teacher press, teacher’s relational building, volition, youth.

Thematic versus subject-based curriculum delivery and achievement goals: findings from a single-school study

Background: It has been claimed that thematic or integrated approaches to curriculum delivery offer a range of advantages over subject-based modes of delivery including improved pupil motivation. Purpose: This study put claims regarding pupil motivation to the test, using the achievement goals framework. This contemporary approach to understanding academic motivation distinguishes between mastery and performance goals along approach and avoidance dimensions. Sample: Participants were 217 Year 7 pupils aged 11–12 years from a single English secondary school. Design and methods: An experimental design was used, in which pupils were allocated to either a subject-based or thematic mode of delivery to the Humanities curriculum. Achievement goals were measured at the beginning and end of the school year. Non-verbal academic ability was also assessed at the beginning of the school year. Results: Pupils' motivation to improve their learning (mastery approach) declined over the course of the year for both curriculum groups. Pupils in the subject-based humanities classes reported a stronger performance-approach goal at the beginning of the school year, which declined to a similar level to that of the pupils in the thematic classes by the end of the school year. No changes were observed in mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance goals. Conclusions: These findings, based on a single school study, suggest that the motivational advantages for a thematic-based curriculum are at best extremely limited.

Experimental Economics method to study pupils motivation

De l’intérêt de l’économie expérimentale pour améliorer notre compréhension des mécanismes de la motivation scolaire L’économie expérimentale fournie un nouvel ensemble d’outils pour l’économiste de l’éducation. Cet article expose les raisons pour lesquelles la méthode expérimentale peut être utile pour l’étude du comportement des élèves dans le cadre scolaire et comment leurs préférences et croyances peuvent influencer leur succès à l’école.

Multidimensional and Hierarchical Assessment of Adolescents’ Motivation in School

In this study, first‐ and second‐order confirmatory factor analyses were used to investigate the structure of the different types of academic, social, and future goals pursued by adolescents in school, and whether goals can be hierarchically organized. A multiple goals perspective on goal preferences was adopted. The study was based on 10,000 sixth‐grade pupils participating in the ongoing Swedish longitudinal project “Evaluation Through Follow‐up.” The findings reveal that achievement goals are multidimensional in structure and that pupils in school pursue not only one type of goal at a time, but different types simultaneously. Striving for performance seems to be less salient among 13‐year‐old pupils in Sweden. The importance of examining the approach and avoidance forms of achievement goals independently from each other and from mastery goals in future research is stressed, however. The study indicates that achievement goals can be considered as more global and hierarchically organized. Future research is needed to further examine this point. The findings also suggest that the instrument used could be developed to provide a useful tool for further pupil motivation research.

Children's Ideas About What It Means 'to Get Better' at History: A View from the UK

The past three decades have seen radical changes in policymakers’, educationalists’ and history educators’ ideas about what it means ‘to get better’ in history as a school subject in the UK. Before the advent of a formal, standardised ‘National Curriculum for History’ in 1991, the idea of progression in the subject was loosely defined, not precisely articulated, and seen generally in terms of an aggregation of subject content knowledge, assessed largely through extended writing based on pupil comprehension and recall of what they had been taught. The inception of a National Curriculum for History brought about a much more clearly defined framework for progression in the subject. The introduction of formal (and quite complex) models for measuring pupils’ progress in history, and changing and contested ideas about progression in history as a school subject occasioned vigorous debate, both between politicians, historians and history teacher educators, and between teacher educators themselves. However, less attention has focused on pupils’ ideas about what it means to get better at history, and the extent of their understanding of the models of progression which have been developed in recent years. This study, funded by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the body responsible for the ‘health’ of the school curriculum in the UK, was part of a review of history as a school subject which aimed to develop more insight into pupil perceptions of history. One strand of the enquiry asked pupils to explain in their own words what they thought it meant ‘to get better at history’. A series of focus group interviews involving 160 pupils between the ages of 11 and 14 across twelve schools in London, the South Coast and the East of England, revealed that many pupils had very little understanding of the models for progression for history which have been put in place in UK schools, and quite vague and inchoate ideas about what it means to make progress in history. Some pupils saw it as primarily a matter of the aggregation of subject content knowledge, others related it to a combination of acquiring more subject content knowledge and getting better at writing essays. Only a minority of pupils, in some of the schools involved, were able to explain progression in terms which in any way reflected the models of progression laid down in official curriculum specifications, and as expounded in adult discourse about history education. It is possible that many teachers have perhaps made assumptions about the extent to which pupils understand what they have to do to make progress in history, and that more time and thought might be invested in this aspect of history education in order to improve pupil motivation and attainment in history.

Vocational options: the impact of a vocational context on teaching and learning modern foreign languages at Key Stage 4

In the light of recommendations made by the Tomlinson and Dearing reports, this article explores the distinctive contribution that vocational language courses can make to the language learning experience of secondary-school pupils. It starts by presenting an overview of vocational options currently on offer to stem the disaffection with modern foreign languages (MFL) experienced by many 14–16 year olds in the United Kingdom. It goes on to review the debate, past and present, about vocational language learning, drawing on relevant literature. The impact on pupil motivation and pedagogy is then examined in the light of data collected from pupil questionnaires and interviews with staff and pupils currently working with the Edexcel General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE) in Applied French in a large outer-London comprehensive. The use of a work-related context, the role of information and communication technology, the emphasis on speaking and writing skills, along with the scope for development of cultural knowledge and social skills are discussed in relation to this small-scale research. The authors identify some of the challenges involved in bringing out the full potential of such courses but conclude that they can provide a distinctive and motivating learning experience, even if they fall short of being as radically different as they aspire to be. At the very least, early findings are that they may be a useful tool for stimulating the take-up of MFL as they are perceived as relevant to the aims of the target learners and provide them with suitable challenges.

Thoughts on teaching thinking: perceptions of practitioners with a shared culture of thinking skills education

This article aims to outline the reported experiences of practitioners in a local authority in England where, since the mid‐1990s, a high proportion of teachers have undertaken professional development in the field of teaching thinking skills. The article is based on the main findings from a questionnaire survey which was carried out among first, middle and high school teachers in this area. It was intended to explore their views on the use, benefits and challenges of teaching ‘Thinking for Learning’, a term which encompasses both the use of a range of thinking skills strategies and the Community of Enquiry/Philosophy for Children approaches.The vast majority of respondents reported a range of positive effects on their pupils, including pupil motivation and cognitive, social and affective benefits. On the other hand, reported challenges mainly referred to a perceived lack of time and to some seemingly inherent difficulties in the teaching of thinking.Conclusions from this study have the potential to inform professional development practice and policy far beyond this local authority's regional boundaries, and aim to contribute to the body of knowledge about forms of education that are based on dialogue and enquiry.

‘How far down can you go? Can you get reincarnated as a floorboard?’ Religious education pedagogy, pupil motivation and teacher intelligence

A doctoral study is reported, of action research on the motivation of 12–14‐year‐old religious education pupils in England. An earlier master's dissertation gives the basis and cues a developed conceptual framework including adolescence, creativity, ethnography, pedagogy and iterativity. Four cycles of praxis are traced. The emergent factors in pupil motivation are dialogue with difference, existential and ethical interest and personal significance. Recommendations for religious education pedagogy are advanced but their epistemological status as possibilities for change, subject to assessment and refinement in successive contexts, is kept in view. A critical discussion integrates the recommendations with elements of current religious education debate and then reviews the study's methodology in the light of current discussions of the nature of action research. The article concludes with remarks on the power of action research as a teacher development tool.

Pre‐service science teachers and ICT: Communities of practice?

The practices and justifications of 15 pre‐service science teachers in using ICT were explored by survey, observation and interview. Interactive whiteboards are frequently employed, although predominantly as projection screens for presentations, whilst datalogging and spreadsheets are used infrequently. Trainees incorporate ICT to enhance pupil motivation and to save time, but demonstrate little use of ICT to enhance the teaching of conceptual knowledge. ICT helps to increase the currency and broaden the scope of activities and occasionally to promote pupil collaboration. The imaginative use of ICT, although limited, was identified and respondents were able to rationalise its use. We recommend improved dialogue between mentors and trainees with respect to the effective use of ICT in science teaching.