Pupils’ reasons for learning and behaving and for not learning and behaving in English and maths lessons in a secondary school (original) (raw)
Motivation and Education: The Self-Determination Perspective
Educational Psychologist, 1991
Self-determination theory , when applied to the realm of education, is concerned primarily with promoting in students an interest in learning, a valuing of education, and a confidence in their own capacities and attributes. These outcomes are manifestations of being intrinsically motivated and internalizing values and regulatory processes. Research suggests that these processes result in high-quality learning and conceptual understanding, as well as enhanced personal growth and adjustment. In this article we also describe social-contextual factors that nurture intrinsic motivation and pralmote internalization, leading to the desired educational outcomes.
Students’ Motivation to Learn in Primary School
Open Journal for Psychological Research
The paper presents considerations about the characteristics of students' motivation in primary school and how students view certain characteristics of the teaching process as motivating or demotivating. The research included fifth and eighth graders, 617 students from ten primary schools in Serbia. We assumed that primary school students are partially motivated to learn. The results lead us to conclude that the students believe they can achieve their goals by self-efficacy. They have the high level of self-perception of competences. Self-worth, i.e. students' views of their own qualities, is least valued. The results show the high level of value of academic achievements. Social goals are also important to students. Nonconformity is not satisfactorily developed. The gender, grade and school achievement differences in students' motivation to learn. The results show that not all teaching strategies are equally motivating. A large percentage of students are indifferent to certain teaching strategies.
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience & Mental Health, 2022
Using the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as the theoretical background and Thematic Analysis as the methodology, this qualitative study explores factors that intrinsically or extrinsically motivated or demotivated students through their course to higher education. Six Greek senior high school graduates discussed their school experiences in semi-structured interviews. Using a top-down, deductive, descriptive / non-interpretative analytic strategy the content of the interviews was analysed. Six subthemes were identified, divided in two main group themes: The roles of tutors, grades, and module experientiality were explored as parts of the educational environment; also, the role of choice, the need for sense, meaning, and utility value,and finally the roles of their parents, as parts of the family and student environment. The analysis of the narrative content of the interviews revealed ways in which schools and families interact with students, satisfying or thwarting their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and thus promoting or hindering their intrinsic motivation. Using the explanatory, and in many cases predictive capacity of SDT, the results outline some focus points for future research and possibly future interventions to promote intrinsic motivation of Greek students.
Sociology Study, 2016
The study documents an intervention programme based on the Self-determination Theory of Deci and Ryan (2000) with school beginners in an Austrian primary school with the aim to improve perceived self-determination and academic self-regulation of school beginners. For two years, teachers were guided by a team of educational scientists to design challenging autonomous learning settings and to foster self-determined academic regulation. Before and after the intervention, about 100 pupils were questioned concerning their well-being in school, perceived autonomy support, their academic self-regulation, and school-related self-efficacy. Teachers' autonomy support decreased during the first year but remained stable from then on. Pupils' intrinsic regulation, as well as their introjected and external regulation and their self-efficacy, decreased throughout the intervention but identified regulation remained stable. The results indicate that perceived self-determination, self-determined academic regulation, and self-efficacy contribute to school-related well-being and offer interesting recommendations for improving the climate in schools for pupils and teachers.
Diploma Paper for University of Latvia, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY AND ART TEACHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, 2018
This Diploma Paper explores, in depth, self-determination theory and strategies applied to educational purposes in order to enhance student’s overall dedication to studies and, therefore, improve subject grades. A case study was carried out focussing on a specific case, where, by teaching and giving a student the choice to make decisions; reflect; become aware of the educational and personal needs for growth, aims and goals; and encouraging daily, the set goals became more possible and feasible. It was concluded that teaching special educational needs student applying the strategies chosen for the Paper greatly benefited the specific student’s future both at school and outside of school.
Teachers' Instructional Behaviors and Students' Self-Determination
Within SDT framework, many investigations have been done in the field of language learning showing teachers' instructional behaviors can affect students' perceived self-determination and learning outcomes . In this paper, not only Iranian English teachers' instructional behaviors, but also the relationship between students' perceived instructional behaviors and their perceived self-determination were explored in a sample of 210 university students by means of questionnaires. The results indicated that the students agreed their teachers' instructional behaviors were autonomy supportive, whereas they agreed that their teachers' behaviors were controlling. They also indicated a significantly positive relationship between the students' perceived teachers' autonomy-supportive instructional behaviors and their perceived self-determination on the one hand, and on the other a non significant correlation between teachers' controlling behaviors and students' perceived self-determination. The findings of this study have implications for teachers to develop their autonomy-supportive behaviors to promote students' autonomy in learning English. Does the teacher have a role in autonomous language learning? In P. Benson and P. Voller (eds.) Autonomy and independence in language learning. London: Longman. 98-113.
ADOLESCENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF SCHOOL AND REASONS FOR LEARNING
The first purpose of this thesis is to study how 13-year old pupils in Sweden perceive school and education and what kind of own reasons (i.e. motives and goals) they have for going to school. The aim is, in particular, to examine, whether there exist general categories of motives and goals and thus different types of pupil motivation for going to school. The second purpose is to study how general categories of motives and goals relate to achievement over time. The thesis aims in addition to problematize different perspectives on pupil motivation and achievement and to discuss complementary perspectives and changes in the methods used. The first purpose has been investigated by the use of an open-ended question: "Why do all children in Sweden go to school?" while the second one has been investigated by a standardized achievement test in mathematics from grade 6 and grades in fourteen school subjects from grade 8 in the Swedish compulsory school. The nationally representative data was collected in 1995 within the Swedish longitudinal project "Evaluation Through Follow Up" and Statistics Sweden.
2022
Teachers’ behaviour is a key factor that influences students’ motivation. Many theoretical models have tried to explain this influence, with one of the most thoroughly researched being self-determination theory (SDT). We used a Delphi method to create a classification of teacher behaviours consistent with SDT. This is useful because SDT-based interventions have been widely used to improve educational outcomes. However, these interventions contain many components. Reliably classifying and labelling those components is essential for implementation, reproducibility, and evidence synthesis. We used an international expert panel (N = 34) to develop this classification system. We started by identifying behaviours from existing literature, then refined labels, descriptions, and examples using the experts’ input. Next, these experts iteratively rated the relevance of each behaviour to SDT, the psychological need that each behaviour influenced, and its likely effect on motivation. To create ...
Building Autonomous Learners, 2016
The consequences of school dropout are far reaching, for both individuals and the overall population. School dropout has generated about 1.9 billion dollars a year in costs (in lost taxes, additional social services, and return-to-school costs) in the province of Quebec, Canada (Groupe d'action sur la persévérance et la réussite scolaires au Québec ; Ménard, 2009). At the individual level, less education translates into less social engagement compared to higher-educated individuals, particularly in terms of voting, volunteer work, and blood donation. Moreover, non-high-school graduates earn much lower annual incomes than graduates, and their unemployment rate is 2.1 times higher. They also have shorter life expectancy (Ménard, 2009). Given the extent of this problem and the consequences for both individuals and society, we need to gain a better understanding of the factors that enable certain students to persevere in school and graduate while others do not. Can this problem be explained solely by students' learning diffi culties and family characteristics? According to self-determination theory (SDT, Ryan & Deci, 2009), this is a reductionist view. Instead, SDT suggests that the learning environment in which students develop their academic competences must also be taken into account. For example, instead of nurturing curiosity and a desire to learn, some schools place the accent on control, reward, assessment, and competition, which impede the development of high-quality motivation. It was found that students who were sensitive to strict control simply abandoned their studies (Vallerand, Fortier, & Guay, 1997), probably in order to maintain their psychological integrity. Few adults in the job market would be happy to work in a highly controlled climate that quashed all initiative. Such working environments would drive many adults to quit. According to SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2009), students, even very young ones, would be no exception.
PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences
Background: The content of the article focuses on the issue of self-regulation of middle school students, showing its significance in adolescent, in the light of the Theory of Self-Regulation (Deci), the concept of Baumeister's self-regulation and the Helping Relationship Theory by Lawrence M. Brammer. Various research has been conducted among middle school students, in order to establish the relationship between the level of selected areas of self-regulation and the quality of functioning in the school environment in the perception of those students. Theoretical viewpoint is the basis for the empirical part of the article. Aims: It was assumed that there is a correlation between the level of motivation and the level of self-regulation and the quality of student's functioning in the school environment.
2017
This study investigates student motivation in an English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) environment at a Japanese university within the frameworks of self-determination theory and the L2 motivational self system. It explores (a) relationships between motivational regulations towards EMI, motivation to learn English, and motivation to learn content; (b) factors that influence motivational regulations towards EMI; and (c) different tendencies between a high motivation group and a low motivation group. The results indicate that attitude towards learning English and the ideal L2 self strongly influence intrinsic motivation in EMI, suppor ted by perceived competency when compared to motivation to learn content. Significant differences were identified between the high and low motivation groups in their understanding, EMI self-study time, and motivational factors. These results imply that students who have a positive attitude towards learning English, imagine their ideal selves as Englis...
Autonomy support in the classroom: A review from self-determination theory
Why are some students more engaged in and adjusted to school than others? Why are some students more competent and why do they perform better than others? Self-determination theory is a theory of human motivation to explain students' classroom behavior, learning process, and relationship with the environment. The goal of this paper is to review the concept of autonomy support in the classroom within the self-determination framework. Autonomy is defined as a form of voluntary action, stemming from a person's interest and with no external pressure. Social environments that support autonomy provide meaningful rationale, acknowledge negative feelings, use noncontrolling language, offer meaningful choices, and nurture internal motivational resources. In classrooms where teachers support autonomy, students improve their academic performance, are more creative and better adjusted, engage more in school, and feel less stress. We provide theoretical and methodological suggestions for future research.
2014
This project seeks to identify and describe the motivational factors observed among the students at CAFAM Santa Lucía School. Through the observation of student’s behaviours and experiences we define those by which students reveal interest in learning an L2. By classifying the factors in intrinsic and extrinsic, we construct a Self-Determination model based on Deci and Ryan’s (1985) Self-Determination Theory. The descriptive method and instruments allow us to give in detail description the manner how the motivational factors develop within the types of motivation proposed in the theory. The data analysis and results suggest that the intrinsic and extrinsic factors emerged as the ones that students at CAFAM Santa Lucía School mainly revealed during the language learning process. We construct the SelfDetermination model by locating the types of motivational factors according with the theory by taking into account that intrinsic factors go in line with the intrinsic motivation while th...
Global Regional Review
Self Determination Theory conjectures that teacher autonomy support propels motivation in education and educational achievements; however, the question of socially different conversations within SDT questions significance of TAS in schools and classrooms located in Asia. In a quasi-experimental study, 101 Grade-5 students, of a public school in Pakistan, were taken as the population for the present study, who underwent the pretest and posttests. The tests consisted of intervention for seven sessions by an expert language teacher. The data was cumulated to find the results from pretest, posttest1, and posttest2 by using intrinsic motivation inventory, a self-regulation questionnaire, and a learning climate questionnaire to find out the level of interest in the students during this study. The results proved that the SDT is not a socially bound worth and is comparatively appropriate for Pakistani educational systems as well.
A comparative analysis between primary and secondary teachers: A self-determination perspective
2012
The importance of student motivation within a student's educational career can be viewed as a cornerstone to effective pedagogy and student learning. Xiang, have indicated that as student's progress throughout the K-12 system, their level of motivation tends to decrease. As such, a question of intrigue is whether teachers within different grade levels provide different motivational instruction. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the differences between primary and secondary educators ability to provide a motivationally-supportive learning context. Grounded within the self-determination theory (SDT; , this study utilized a quantitative approach to examine grade level differences in instruction and student motivation. Data were analyzed using a one-way MANOVA of teacher perceptions and two one-way ANOVA's of student scores. Results indicated a significant difference between primary and secondary teaching and student motivation.
2001
Recent literature on motivation has documented that perceptions of selfcompetence and motivational orientations for learning are interrelated. This study focuses specifically on children’s perceptions of their scholastic abilities, how these perceptions develop and how they relate to intrinsic motivation for learning. The rationale for this study is that such an exploration will deepen understandings of the nature and mechanisms underpinning this relationship. The research design of this study consists of both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. First, questionnaires were used to gather data about the Year 6 participants’ self-perceptions of academic competence, intrinsic motivation, and affect for learning. Participants were then targeted for follow-up interviews according to a matrix of low and high competence perceptions and intrinsic motivation. Three students from each of the six focal groups identified were then selected to take part in the interviews. Following categoris...
Implications of Self-Determination Theory on Student Performance
2018
Self-Determination Theory (SDT) proposes that autonomy, belonging, and competence are major contributors to human motivation. To test this, several randomized controlled trials were developed to test the pillars of SDT. Skill Builders in ASSISTments were developed to deploy the proposed studies. The data were processed first with python to extract relevant features, and SPSS was used to generate statistic analyses. The statistics were then analyzed to validate the claims of SDT. Here it is noted that having a choice seems to have little effect based on the mastery level chosen for low-knowledge students. The high-knowledge students, however, did seem to have a more radical response between the ability to choose and the number they chose. 2.2.11 Discussion Based on the Autonomy pillar of Self-Determination Theory, the experiment performed agreed that increased autonomy benefited students' performance. This was supported by the average number of attempts and median time per question, but to a lesser extent in the post test score. Number of Attempts, while not significant, showed that there was an overall decrease in the number of hints used when students had a choice in the level of mastery they would practice. The drop was only by about .01 attempts on average but there was a consistent lower value for the students in the experimental treatment. The median time metric likewise supported that autonomy invests students more in their work. The median time was shown to decrease by about 1.5 seconds for students in the four and five correct groups, but was one second more for students in the three correct group. There was less time taken by the students when they got to choose, which supports that autonomy is a motivator to remain focused on the problem set. It is also possible that since the students were actively choosing to do less than the recommended amount, they felt guilty about choosing to do less than the standard, so they payed a great amount of attention to the questions they did do. Hint Count did not appear to support the notion that autonomy increases motivation. This result was again not significant, and it only resulted in a difference of about .001 hint per problem, so the inconsistency can be noted, but it holds little bearing on the overall effect of the experiment. Because the difference is so small and the result is insignificant, for practical purposes, it can be assumed that the number of hints was relatively unaffected by the experimental condition. Lastly, the post test score tells a much more interesting story. It is evident from the plots that having the ability to choose, but only choosing the recommended amount is better than being assigned the recommended amount. Choosing to deviate from the norm, however, results in being worse off than just being assigned the amount chosen. This is possibly an effect of perceived competence coming in to play. Potentially, the students who chose to do less felt like they weren't as well prepared for the post test, and felt like they sabotaged their learning. This would result in a lower test score because they believed they weren't prepared. The students who chose to do five correct could have also suffered a blow to their competence. They may have been bored with the extreme repetitivity of trying to get 5 questions correct in a row, such that by the time they get to the post test, they are mentally exhausted. Results 2.6.5 Independence of Groups This was a smaller study that reached 96 students from two schools. Their median prior percent correct was 80.00%. The attrition rates across the groups were analyzed by performing a Chi-Square test to determine that the experiment did not cause students to drop out.
Exploring Motivational Factors in Teslthrough the Lens of the Self-Determination Theory
Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews
The prominent role of the English language has led to the teachingof the language as a second languageworldwide at tertiary level as a requirement to be assured of better prospects in a student’s life. English language teaching (ELT)has been anever-ending topic as it is seen as an uphill task for teachers due to the motivation factor in the acquisition of the language among the learners.Hence, one of the most valuable concepts used in relation to the success and failure in second language acquisition is motivation. It is apparently one of the most important constructs of individual differences (IDs).As the theories on motivation are countless, this paper is limited to its focuson review of relevant literature andinvestigation on the broad self-determination theory (SDT) that embodies three different types of motivation: (i) autonomous regulation, (ii) controlled regulation, and (iii) amotivation, and its relationship with the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL). It is ...
2016
This study sought to explore difference in the influences of components of Self-Determination Theory between students of average and high academic ability. Differences were examined using correlational comparisons, t-tests, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). As expected, students with high academic ability reported high perceptions of competence. Although other mean differences were not significant, relationships between the variables showed interesting results. Significant correlational differences were found between the relationships of Perceived Competence and Teacher Control, Intrinsic Motivation, and Boredom. Teacher Control also had significantly different relationships with students’ engagement between the two groups. The study adds to the understanding of Self-Determination Theory by providing additional context in which to examine how individuals may use their inner resources differently.
A self-determination theory perspective on motivation assumes that students' motivation may be described in terms of perceived autonomy support from their teacher, their basic need satisfaction, self-regulation and perceived competence. The present study investigated these aspects of motivation among 316 upper secondary school students. A path analysis showed that students' perceived autonomy support predicted their need satisfaction, which in turn predicted autonomous selfregulation, perceived competence and perceived school performance. The relation between basic need satisfaction and perceived school performance was fully mediated by autonomous self-regulation. Finally, the students' perceived autonomy support was partly accounted for at class-level, indicating that the students in the same class to some extent had similar experience of autonomy support. In conclusion, the present findings supported a motivational model in accordance with self-determination theory.