Developmental psychologists have long known that students are less interested in school and academic tasks with each additional year in school (Eccles & Midgely, 1989). In addition, they know that the most effective predictor of motivation at any age is self-efficacy, a student's perception of his/her academic ability in a specific domain. Factors influencing self-efficacy include: previous successful experiences, social models, the opinions of others, and one's self-perceived efficacy in relation to peers simultaneously engaged in the same tasks (Pressley & McCormick, 2007). Using a sample of 424 teachers in four rural and one urban district in Northwest Illinois, this study sought to measure differences in the motivational orientations of elementary, middle, and high school teachers. The Problems in School Questionnaire (Deci, Schwartz, Sheinman, & Ryan,1981) was administered to teachers of grades 1-12 and collected at building meetings during November and December, 2009. The results confirmed that high school teachers prefer more controlling, and less autonomy-supportive responses to common educational scenarios than do elementary and middle school teachers. The results further confirmed a positive interactive effect between a teacher's gender, grade level teaching assignment, and his/her motivational orientation for control or autonomy-support. In grades 1-8, female teachers selected responses that were more autonomy-supportive than controlling, while male teachers selected responses that were more controlling than autonomy-supportive. However, the difference between male and female teachers' autonomy-supportive responses was not significant among high school teachers. According to "Self-Determination Theory" (Deci & Ryan, 2000), human motivation is influenced by our analysis of the likelihood that a given task will increase feelings of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. This study suggests that as students progress through school, they are less likely to encounter teachers who are sensitive to these motivational needs. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest llc. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.].
The examples and wisdom in this book will benefit teachers, principals, superintendents, professors and anyone else in the field of education.
Motivating and Inspiring Teachers: The Educational Leader's Guide for Building Staff Morale
Motivating and Inspiring Teachers: The Educational Leaders' Guide for Building Staff Morale
. . . This book goes a long way toward reinforcing the voices of experts who make data-driven decisions about how to foster motivation. . . . There are no available books [on motivation] as excellently crafted as this one.
Cookin' in the Classroom: A Multi-disciplinary Recipe for Keeping Kids Fired Up about Learning
Deborah Blaz has taught French and English to middle and high school students for the past 28 years. She also serves as foreign language department chair at her school and does professional translation work. Ms. Blaz received her BA in ...
本书描述了如何处理学习不好和提高学习成绩的步骤,老师和家长将学会支持取得进步和创造一个积极的学习环境的具体方法 ...
全美最好的老師
Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, k, p, e, i, s, t.
Cowboys & Angels