Improving Secondary School Students' Achievement Using Intrinsic Motivation

Résumé du livre

This report describes a program for increasing students' intrinsic motivation in an effort to increase academic achievement. The targeted population consisted of secondary level students in a middle to upper-middle class suburban area. The students of the targeted secondary level classes appeared to be disengaged from learning due to a lack of motivation. The aforementioned issue had a tendency to lead to negative classroom behavior and a hindrance of academic progress. A review of current literature indicated significant low motivation among secondary level students as well as coexisting behaviors. Further evidence was gathered in the project supporting the existence of this problem including academic records as well as anecdotal records of student behavior. The problem as defined by professional sources and educational literature led to the development of the following three interventions: student autonomy, goal-setting, and positive teacher feedback. By offering a greater amount of choices to the students, providing more authentic assessments, and allowing students to take a more active role in their education, intrinsic motivation of secondary school students will improve and a mentality of learning for mastery as opposed to extrinsic rewards will be instilled. (five appendixes are included: (1) Student Motivation Survey; (2) Student Goal Sheet; (3) Sample Teacher Reinforcement and Feedback; (4) Weekly Grade Analysis Sheet; and (5) Student Observation Checklist. Contains 12 figures.) [M.A. in Teaching Leadership, Saint Xavier University.].