In Sweden, about 25% of all students leave primary school without complete grades (of which 60% are boys). The reason for these low results is often referred to as students' lack of motivation (Skolverket, 2019). The most important ways to increase study motivation are a) good interaction between teachers and students and b) access to student health. To analyze a lack of study motivation in primary school, a perspective is thus required that not only focuses on the individual student but also takes into account the entire school and classroom situation. The starting point in this study is therefore that study motivation is about transaction (Perry, et al., 2006). Study motivation should not be understood only as an individual trait, but that it is about negotiations of meaning in social interaction. According to Perry et al. (2006) there are strong links between motivation and a) communicated expectations b) clear feedback on results, c) interaction between teacher and student and between students, d) positive climate and e) teacher leadership. Therefore, this study focuses on the teacher’s perceptions and their responsibilities. This study is based on 9 group interviews with 26 teachers in classes 3,6 and 8. The focus of the interviews was teachers’ perceptions about what motivated students to study and what demotivated them. The empirical material was then analyzed with a thematic content analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2012). Subsequently, comparative analyzes were also performed between the three teacher groups. All teacher groups in this study highlight how important the teacher is for students' study motivation. Many teachers believe that students have primarily internal motivation for learning. However, there is no consensus among the teachers about what is important to the students. The core of the concept of study motivation is described relatively similarly; motivation is built up by interest, a desire, and a curiosity to learn. However, it is only the teachers for the youngest students who describe a desire to learn. The teacher’s descriptions in high school are more detailed where they describe many inner driving forces such as challenging oneself and the importance of motivation to future studies. Experiences about what can increase students' study motivation and reasons/explanations for any low study motivation largely show a complex interplay between results and motivation. The crucial difference turned out to be that the teachers in high school give increasingly more exemplary and in-depth explanations to subject issues and that the problem picture with study motivation is more complex and deepens the older the students get. The conclusions we draw are that motivation is an area that becomes more central and more challenging the older the student gets. To support students' study motivation, a much greater understanding of the phenomena among teachers is needed. Our recommendation is to focus on a broad front on all actors in school and listen to and take into account students' voices. In this study, we cannot see the requesting link according to the transactional perspective.
References:
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2012). Thematic analysis. In H. Cooper, P. M. Camic, D. L. Long, A. T. Panter, D. Rindskopf, & K. J. Sher (Eds.), APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol. 2: Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological (pp. 57–71). American Psychological Association.
Perry, N.E., Turner, J.C. & Meyer, D.K. (2006) Classrooms as context for motivating learning. I: Patricia A. Alexander & Philip H. Winne (red.) (2006), Handbook of Educational psychology. 2.utg. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum
Skolverket. (2019). Attityder till skolan [Attitudes towards school]. Rapport 479. Skolverket [Swedish National Agency for Education].
2023.
25th Annual International Conference on Education, Athens, Greece, 15-18 May, 2023