Hi teacher - There has been a multitude of studies undertaken relating
to student motivation and these studies have been approached from an
equal multitude of philosophies and angles.
Your question is quite specific in that you want to know where to find
such studies and what the research has to say. Luckily, when you find
the study, you find the results along with it in most cases.
I am going to provide a short listing of motivational studies and a
brief review of each. That should give you a foundation to build upon
in the future.
I will begin with a bibliographic list from The Searle Center for
Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University (
http://129.105.114.26/motivationbib.htm ). While the sources found
here are not online sources, they are quite valuable and should be
available from your library.
Motivation and Middle School Students. ERIC Digest -
( http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed421281.html ) - This
rather brief essay from ERIC Digest actually contains a lot of
information including possible physical as well as psychological
reasons behind student motivational theory. You will find the various
theories are provided with a good reference list relating back to the
studies which are the source of the material.
Frequent Testing and Student Motivation -
( http://all.successcenter.ohio-state.edu/belgium-paper/BWT-belgium-paper.htm
) - This paper by Bruce W. Tuckman/Ohio State University presents the
results of his own motivational research. His premise is based on the
concept of frequent testing to provide motivation.
CARET: Questions and Answers - (
http://caret.iste.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=answers&QuestionID=3 ) -
Here you will find some of the research evidence you were asking about
pertaining to three different motivational studies. The premise of
the studies deals with motivational technologies such as the Internet.
(the Internet is great as long as they don't ask us to do their
homework for them :)
Motivation and Transfer in Language Learning -
( http://www.kidsource.com/education/motivation.lang.learn.html ) -
You will find a lot of material dealing with motivation and language
transfer such as: "The Relationship Between Transfer and Motivation,"
"The Nature of Motivation," as well as links to additional resources.
While this next site is not exactly about motivational studies, all
the teaching skills those studies can provide are diluted if there is
not parental cooperation. This site may enrich the material you are
gaining from the motivational research studies. 'Motivation for
Learning: Parents Can Help' -
( http://www.nea.org/helpfrom/connecting/tools/motivate.html ) - You
will find a good overview of parental advice for student motivation.
The truth be told, I could run this list almost to infinity. There
are thousands of sites dealing with this very subject. So the basic
answer to your question as to whether such studies have been done is
"yes." As to where to look for such studies, online at least, I used
the keyword "studies on student motivation" and "student motivational
research."
Please let me know if there is any additional clarification needed.
The topic you asked about is truly an enormous subject.
Cheers
digsalot-ga |
