Middle School Motivation Research Plan

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Middle School Motivation Research Plan

• Katherine Horst
• TE 891 Fall 2005

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Research Question

• How do you motivate middle school students so
  that they eventually become self-motivated
  learners?

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Sub-Questions

• What science activities increase motivation and
  student excitement?
• Is a lack of support at home causing a lack of
  motivation coming from the students?
• What motivates students the most? Grades?
  Rewards? Sheer knowledge?
• What percentage of students are actually
  self-motivated?

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Research Rationale

• Being in my fourth year of teaching middle
  school I have started to notice a trend that
  middle school students seem to be less motivated
  to do well in school. I wanted to find out why
  students this age are less engaged and less
  self-motivated to learn. I also wanted to figure
  out what I could do to help my students to become
  more self-motivated learners.

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Considerable research has shown a decline in
motivation and performance for many children as
they move from elementary school into middle
school (Anderman, 45).
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Background Research

• Student needs in the classroom and goal theory
  were two topics that were very popular among the
  current motivational research.

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Background Research

• Student needs include a need for mastery, a need
  for understanding, a need for self-expression,
  and a need for involvement with others (Strong).
• If student needs are being met, students are more
  likely to be successful and motivated to do well.
• There are many things teachers can do to ensure
  that student needs are met in our classroom.

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Background Research

• The goal theory framework supports the idea that
  students are motivated to do school work for a
  variety of reasons.
• It suggests that the goals that students adopt
  have significant implications for how they
  approach and participate in learning.
• (Meece 2003)

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Students who are engaged exhibit three
characteristics they are attracted to their
work, they persist in their work despite
challenges and obstacles, and they take visible
delight in accomplishing their work (Strong,
Silver, and Robinson)
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Research Design

• I conducted my own research by collecting
  data in the form of student surveys, teacher
  notes, and student work.

• I kept a journal of notes taken at the end of the
  school day with observations I made on student
  behavior towards varying activities and
  assignments.
• I kept track of the quality of work that was be
  turned in by the students.

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Data Analysis

• Student Surveys
• The academic subjects that students liked the
  most were science and social studies. Reasons
  for these choices included the teacher,
  achievement in that subject, and more
  opportunities for projects and labs. The science
  activities that students liked the most were
  longer projects where they were asked to create
  something. I was surprised by the fact that some
  students chose hands-on activities as their least
  favorite activity in science class. Students
  enjoy days when they do experiments labs, have
  no homework, working in groups or with friends,
  and days when they are working on projects. The
  students said they find vocabulary, section
  reviews, and chapter reviews to be the most
  helpful kind of homework. Overall 62 of
  students reported that they like coming to
  school, 13 said they did not like school, and
  25 said that they like school sometimes.

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Data Analysis

• Teacher Notes/Student Work
• Over the course of a few weeks I noticed that
  students were showing more enthusiasm for
  projects and activities where they could work
  with other students. Students did not like
  getting homework, but understood why they were
  asked to do it. I noticed a larger percentage of
  missing homework assignments when they were worth
  ten points versus the assignments that were worth
  between 30 and 50 points like some labs and
  projects. The students seemed especially
  concerned about their grades on a lengthy
  week-long electricity project in which they were
  able to make their own light-up quiz game. I
  believe this is the case because they put a lot
  of time into it, it was worth a lot of points,
  and they actually produced something of their own
  to take home.

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Conclusions

• Overall, I believe that middle school students
  are most motivated to do work and do it well then
  they know it is worth a lot towards their grade.
  They also seem to be motivated to do work when
  they get to work together with their peers. I
  also found that just because an activity is
  hands-on, doesnt mean that all students will be
  more motivated to complete this task above any
  other.

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Conclusions

• What does this mean for my classroom?
• Because of my findings I am forced to think
  about the activities that I currently do in my
  science classes. I am thinking about changing
  the way that I grade their daily homework. I
  still think that it is important for students,
  but I am trying to come up with a way to possibly
  lump some of the assignments together for one
  large homework grade. I have also thought about
  giving the students some choice about the type of
  homework assignments that they complete. That
  way they will take more ownership in the work
  they are completing.

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Conclusions

• What does this mean for my classroom?
• As far as group work goes, I think I currently
  do a pretty good job at letting the students
  complete certain tasks in groups or with a
  partner. I think that at this age they are so
  social as it is that it may help to actually pair
  them up and let them actually discuss the work
  that they are doing. I am going to continue to
  do small group work and labs whenever the
  curriculum lends itself to it. I also think that
  I currently do a pretty good job of varying
  activities so that students do not get bored and
  are always trying new ways to work together
  towards a common goal of learning. Within each
  typical class period we move between two or three
  different types of activities so that the
  students dont get bored with one activity.

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Conclusions

• I have found this research project to be very
  valuable in helping to understand my students a
  little bit better. It helped me to look at the
  way I currently conduct my classroom and to help
  decide if there are ways to improve what I am
  already doing. I am looking forward to
  continuing with my research in the future and
  hope to gather even more insight into the middle
  school student.

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Works Cited

• Anderman, L.H., Midgley, C. (1997). Motivation
  and middle school students Electronic version.
  What Current Research Says to the Middle Level
  Practitioner, 41-48.
• Boyer, K.R. (2002). Using active learning
  strategies to motivate students. Mathematics
  Teaching in the Middle school, 8, 48.
• Ciadella, K., Herlin, C., Hoefler, A. (2002).
  Motivating Student Learning to Enhance Academic
  Progress. Retrieved September 18, 2005 from
  Saint Xavier University, ERIC FirstSearch.
• Jones, V., Jones, L. (2004). Comprehensive
  Classroom Management Creating Communities of
  Support and Solving Problems. Boston, MA
  Pearson Education, Inc.
• Meece, J.L. (2003). Applying Learner-Centered
  Principles to Middle School Education. Theory
  Into Practice, 42, 109-116

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Works Cited, cont.

• Murdock, T.B., Miller, A. (2003). Teachers as
  sources of middle school students motivational
  identity Variable-Centered and Person-Centered
  Analytic Approaches. The Elementary School
  Journal, 103, 383-399.
• Partin, R.L. (1999). Classroom Teachers
  Survival Guide Practical Strategies, Management
  Techniques, and Reproducibles for New and
  Experienced Teachers. West Nyack, NY The
  Center for Applied Research in Education.
• Sprick, R., Garrison, M., Howard, L.M. (1998).
  CHAMPs A Proactive and Positive Approach to
  Classroom Management. Longmont, Colorado
  Sopris West.
• Strong, R., Silver, H.F., Robinson, A. (1995).
  What really motivates middle school students?
  Educational Leadership.
• Wentzel, K.R., Barry, C.M., Caldwell, K.A.
  (2004). Friendships in Middle School
  Influences on Motivation and School Adjustment.
  Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 195-203.