Students’ Perceptions of the Two Most Influential Factors on Their

5.4.1. Students’ Perceptions of the Two Most Influential Factors on Their Motivation to Achieve NCEA Level 2 English

In total 212 responses were analysed; 107 responses for the most important factor and 105 responses for the second most important factor. Of the 212 responses, 113

(53.3%) responses were able to be coded using the five types of motivation identified in Ryan and Deci’s (2000a) taxonomy of human motivation. The following examples of students’ statements illustrate the types of statements made by students and how they were coded in the brackets that follow:

I’m passionate about English so my motivation was high. (Intrinsic motivation)

Getting Uni entrance was important and motivated me because I know that with it you have more options for your future. (Identified regulation)

Doing bad in mock exams made me want to try harder so I wouldn’t fail.

(Introjected regulation)

I worked hard because I wanted to gain merit endorsement.. (External regulation)

I became really unmotivated after the first term as I noticed I was really behind from being out of class for Gateway and I couldn’t catch up so I just gave up. (Amotivation)

Table 5.25: Most important and second most important influences on students’

motivation to achieve, coded using Ryan and Deci’s taxonomy of

human motivation Type of motivation Most important influences Second most important influences Total number Percentage of total responses Intrinsic motivation 2 1 3 3% Identified regulation 9 8 17 15% Introjected regulation 17 18 35 31% External regulation 29 21 50 44% Amotivation 4 4 8 7% Total 61 52 113 100%

The findings reveal a similar pattern and similar numbers of responses in each category between the most important and second most important responses, with external regulation accounting for the most responses in both sets of results, followed by introjected regulation. Given the similarity, subsequent comment on these findings will focus on the collapsed data across the most important and second most important factors.

The prevalence of examples of external regulation and introjected regulation also reflects the same pattern as was found for factors positively influencing students’ motivation to achieve each of the four achievement standards, as discussed in the previous section. These two categories also accounted for a similar percentage of the responses that were able to be coded using Ryan and Deci’s taxonomy of human motivation: 79% of the responses across the four achievement standards, and 75% of the responses across the most important and second most important influences overall. These results strongly suggest that students felt considerable pressure to achieve NCEA level 2 achievement standards and to avoid failure or gain approval. Few appear to have felt autonomously motivated or self-determined.

Analysis of introjected regulation reasons for the two most important factors revealed two distinct themes. Of the 35 responses coded as examples of introjected regulation, 21 responses focused on ego-enhancement. Students wanted to do well for their own self-esteem (14 responses), do better than their friends/classmates (five responses), or to gain parental approval (two responses). The remaining 14 responses were focused

on students wanting to avoid failure. The following examples highlight these different facets of introjected regulation:

I wanted to achieve results that I could be proud of, so I could look back and know I couldn’t have done any better. (Final/11b/89M)

I always wanted to do good compared to others in my class. It’s a self- esteem thing. (Final/11b/65F).

I wanted to make my parents proud. (Final/11b/5F)

The fact that I hate failing was a big influence on my motivation as it made me more motivated to work harder and want to pass. (Final/11b/57F)

Similar themes were also present in the analysis of examples of introjected regulation across the four achievement standards (see Table 5.20). These were: proving to oneself, doing one’s best, avoiding failure, making parents proud, and doing better than friends. However, what was absent from these responses for NCEA English overall was students’ desire to prove to teachers that they were competent at English, and their desire to do better than their siblings.

A detailed examination of the 50 examples of external regulation also revealed two distinct themes. Thirty-three students focused on getting a qualification; that is they indicated that they needed or wanted to pass level 2, pass the required literacy credits, or gain university entrance. For example:

The most motivating factor was how much I wanted to pass level 2. I knew I needed English credits to pass so I tried extra hard. (Final/11b/76F)

I wanted enough credits to pass NCEA level 2 so I could get the literacy credits for UE. (Final/11b/2M)

However, for 13 other students the focus was on getting the rewards for doing well; that was gaining Merits or Excellences for their achievement standards, or having their level 2 NCEA certificate endorsed with Merit or Excellence. Nearly all of these 13 students did in fact gain Merits or Excellences, suggesting their goal was potentially attainable and reasonably realistic.

The fact that only 17 responses in total were coded as examples of identified regulation is somewhat surprising, given the high number of students (n = 72), who in the same questionnaire (Final/16b) indicated that they intended to go to university, or enter a career that required a university degree, for which university entrance and literacy credits were essential. However, a few students had clearly internalised the importance of English for their future careers, as shown in the following example of identified regulation:

English skills are necessary to study and practise law, which is what I aspire to. (Final/11b/104F).

A greater percentage of responses were coded as identified regulation in this current analysis, compared with the percentage of responses coded in the same category across the four achievement standards (15% vs 6%). This difference possibly reflects students’ focus on significant factors across the year, rather than a focus on factors related to each achievement standard.

There was a marked drop in the percentage of responses identified as examples of intrinsic motivation in this current analysis (3%) from the percentage of responses coded as examples of intrinsic motivation across the four achievement standards (13%). Again this is possibly explained by the fact that students were identifying significant factors across the year in more general terms, rather than factors linked to a specific achievement standard. Also the low number of students who were intrinsically motivated is probably explained by the salience of the high-stakes nature of the assessment and the pressure to pass.

Amotivation is more prevalent in these results (7%) than in Section 5.3. Once again this finding is possibly because students were looking more globally at their motivation across the year rather than in relation to a specific achievement standard. For example:

That English just doesn’t interest me and just got worse as the year went on. (Final/11b/50M).

While this student had no interest in English, despite passing five out of six

achievement standards, the remaining students had not done well overall in English (three had clearly failed English, while another three only passed three achievement standards). Three of these students subsequently left school at the end of Year 12

without sufficient literacy credits to gain university entrance, which had implications for their future career options.

While 113 responses of the 212 responses (Final/11b) were coded using Ryan and Deci’s (2000a) taxonomy of human motivation, the remaining 99 (46.7%) responses were coded according to a number of factors that recurred during the analysis of these responses. These factors are listed in Table 5.26.

Table 5.26: Other factors perceived as being most important or second most important in students’ motivation to achieve

Factors Most important influences Second most important influences Total number Percentage of total responses Teachers 20 17 37 37% Peers 4 10 14 14% Past performance 8 5 13 13% Dislike of English 5 7 12 12% Studying 0 8 8 8% Home circumstances 0 4 4 4% Parents 4 0 4 4% Not codable 5 2 7 7% Total 46 53 99 99%

The results reveal that teachersplayed quite a prominent role in students’ motivation to

achieve, with just over a third of the responses identifying teachers as the most important or second most important factor. Of the 37 responses which identified teachers as having a significant influence, 23 indicated teachers had a significantly positive influence. For example:

My English teacher was a huge influence on me as she explained

everything and encouraged me to do my best so I felt confident to succeed. (Final/11b/8F)

In the remaining 14 responses, students saw their English teachers as having a detrimental influence on their motivation to achieve through ineffective teaching and/or a lack of enthusiasm. For example:

My English teacher was a big influence, as she was horrible at teaching. Probably shouldn’t have a teaching licence. (Final/11b/106F)

However, as the negative comments were mainly attributable to a very small number of teachers, poor teaching was not a widespread issue.

Further confirmation that teachers played an important role in a number of students’ motivation was found in their responses to another question specifically focused on the role of teachers. Students were asked to rate how much their English teacher had influenced their motivation to achieve NCEA level 2 English (Final/4b). Their choices were: not at all, a bit, and a lot. Of the 106 students who responded, 25 indicated that their English teacher had influenced their motivation to achieve a lot. When asked in the next part of the question to explain how their English teacher had influenced their motivation a lot 19 comments were positive and six were negative.

The positive comments focused on aspects such as: the teacher’s encouragement; clear explanations: effective teaching, good preparation for an upcoming assessment, enthusiasm, effective feedback, belief that they could do well, caring attitude, and willingness to go the extra distance for them. The following comments illustrate these points:

He had high expectations for me which gave me confidence. (Final/4b/6M)

My English teacher was very helpful with feedback on my essays and I was able to improve a lot because of her help. English became my favourite subject because of her teaching so I wanted to do really well all year. (Final/4c/16F)

Very enthusiastic! And so made me enthusiastic. Extremely caring and knew how to help me and where to help! (Final/4b/81F)

My teacher explained to me carefully how to interpret questions. He also gave me good ideas to prepare for my exams. (Final/4b/97F)

The positive comments made about teachers in the Final Questionnaire (Questions 11b and 4c) indicate that teachers helped students to feel more motivated in ways that enhanced their sense of self-efficacy and addressed their need for competence. At

times teachers also appear to have addressed students’ need for relatedness through their caring and encouragement.

The six negative comments (Final/4b) focused on the same themes as the positive comments, but instead how those things were lacking or inadequate, such as poor teaching and inadequate or misleading feedback. For example:

Because she was so bad I didn’t want to do anything. She gave me really bad feedback like saying I was doing really well then giving me an achieve. (Final/4b/106F)

As revealed in Table 5.26, peersalso played a role in students’ motivation to achieve,

although they were perceived to be less influential than teachers. Of the 14 responses, three focused on the support provided by friends, nine focused on friends being a distraction, one focused on the class as a whole, and one complained of an issue with a classmate. The following comments highlight these issues:

My friends had a huge impact on my English results. Too much time mucking around. (Final/11b/ 53F)

My classmates – they made it clear they hated English and wouldn’t focus so I lost interest because the teacher seemed to give up on us.

(Final/11b/7F)

There was this racist girl who sat by us and distracted me when I was learning. Was a distraction throughout the year. (Final/11b/74F)

The results in relation to peers were virtually identical to the results for Questions 5a and 5b in the final questionnaire. In Question 5a students rated the influence of their friends. Of the 107 students who responded, 15% indicated that their friends had had a lot of influence on their motivation to achieve (Final/5a). Those who identified that friends had a lot of influence were asked to explain how their friends influenced their motivation (Final/5b). These open-ended responses revealed a very similar set of responses to those discussed above.

For past performancethe results were also mixed. In 10 of the 13 responses students’

sense of self-efficacy was enhanced, particularly by their mock exam results. For example:

Getting excellence in my mock exam made me want to get excellence in NCEA. (Final/11b/56F)

For three students poor results appear to have negatively affected their motivation to achieve:

I became less and less motivated in English throughout the year as my mock results were not very good and I failed practise essays.

(Final/11b/44M).

Interestingly, there was less emphasis on the positive impact of past performance in the current analysis, compared with the emphasis placed on its importance across the four achievement standards, where it was identified as a key factor in helping students feel very motivated to achieve (see Table 5.20).

Twelve responses indicated that students’ dislike of English or aspects of it had a markedly negative impact on their motivation to achieve, as illustrated by the comment below:

I never really had much motivation for 2.6 or the monologue, so I didn’t work as hard on these assessments. (Final/11b/58F)

Studying, parents, and home circumstances accounted for a small proportion of the overall responses. The results for studying were mixed, with some students indicating that they either had put in considerable effort, or alternatively that other demands had meant that they could not put in the effort they believed was necessary to succeed. Four students identified issues at home as having a negative impact on their motivation to achieve as their second most important factor.

Another four students identified parents as being the most important positive influence on their motivation to achieve. The only other references to parents in Question 11b were made by two students in relation to introjected regulation; that is they wanted to make their parents proud. Parents were not perceived as being one of the two most

important influences on students’ motivation to achieve, except by a very small group of students. Further support for these findings comes from students’ rating of the influence of their parents (Final/3b). The results revealed that 9.3% of students (n = 107) considered that their parents had influenced their motivation a lot, another 66.4% indicated that their parents had influenced their motivation a bit, while 24.3% indicated that their parents had not influenced their motivation at all. The remaining seven responses were not able to be meaningfully coded.

Overall, the results suggest that around a quarter of students felt pressured to pass NCEA level 2 English achievement standards, and that teachers had an important role to play in students’ motivation. This role was largely, but not always, a positive role. What was also noteworthy was the variety of factors students identified as influencing their motivation to achieve, and the fact that students’ motivation was simultaneously being influenced both positively and negatively in a number of instances.

Underpinning the majority of responses was the need for competence, whether that was the need to pass NCEA level 2 English, the need to prove to themselves and others that they were competent, the need to pass in order to achieve an important personal goal, or the need to be supported by significant others to become more competent. There is some indication that the need for relatedness also had a role to play in students’ motivation, with some students indicating that they valued the emotional support of their parents, English teacher and friends, while others found relationships with significant others negatively affected their motivation to achieve.

5.5. Factors Few Students Perceived as Having a Significant