1. Improvement of students’ motivation in a PE class. An action-research project Marc CLOES, Caroline VISEUR & Pascale MOTTER Department of Physical Education and Sport University of Liège (Belgium) Pre-Olympic Scientific Congress Thessaloniki - August 2004, 8-13

2. Introduction  Motivation  is a determining factor of numerous human activities  plays an important role in the achievement of any student  seems to progressively disappear in school context (students and educators!)  Students are motivated but their motivation is not always oriented towards the goals determined by the school professionals

3. Introduction  Viau (1998) identified four groups of external factors influencing motivational dynamic Factors related to the class Activity, assessment, teacher’s characteristics and behaviour, praise and punishment, class’ climate, relationship between pupils... Factors related to the pupil’s life Family, friends, leisure activities... Factors related to the school’s environment Rules, schedules... Factors related to the society Values, culture,...

4. Introduction u Many studies compare motivational characteristics of students in a quantitative approach u Newton and Duda (1999) proposed to follow a qualitative approach to better account for the large inter-individual variability of motivation within a class u Two categories of qualitative approaches focused on students’ motivation (Cloes, 2004)  Cases’ analysis  Research action

5. Why a more applied approach? u Numerous publications propose strategies aiming to improve pupils’ motivation  Books  Papers in professional journals u No real research check the effectiveness of the described approaches

6. How to check the effectiveness of some strategies? u Action research  Kurt Lewin  Spiral cycle Planning Action Observation Reflection Cloes (2003)

7. Goals of the study u To test the action-research design in a local context u To verify if it is possible to help a teacher to develop strategies aiming to improve students’ motivation u To determine how the teacher apply these strategies u To assess the effectiveness of the strategies

8. Time line of the study u 2002-2003 school year September 2002 June 2003 AllStdayChristmasCarnivalEaster Preparatory phase Secondary level school located in the region of Liège, in a very unfavourable socio-economic context Female teacher ( 27 years of teaching experience) A grade 9 class (15 girls of 15 year old)

9. Pupils’ intrinsic motivation (questionnaire) → 4 least motivated pupils Class environment (video recordings + informal observation + perception of the lesson) Interviews of the four least motivated pupils + teacher Time line of the study u 2002-2003 school year September 2002 June 2003 AllStdayChristmasCarnivalEaster Phase of problem’ s identification

10. Time line of the study u 2002-2003 school year September 2002 June 2003 AllStdayChristmasCarnivalEaster Planning phase Documents presenting strategies and activities designed to improve pupils’ motivation provided to the teacher Meeting with the teacher (synthesis of interviews + elaboration of task and content modification)

11. Analysis of the teaching process (direct observation and analysis of the videotaped lessons) Interviews (target pupils + other pupils + teacher) Regular informal meetings Final questionnaire of intrinsic motivation + teacher interview Time line of the study u 2002-2003 school year September 2002 June 2003 AllStdayChristmasCarnivalEaster Intervention phase

12. Time line of the study u 2002-2003 school year September 2002 June 2003 AllStdayChristmasCarnivalEaster Phase of analysis and presentation of the results Analysis and processing of the data collected during the year to determine the impact of the project Synthesis meeting organized at the end of the school year to present the main results to the teacher

13. Results (phase of problem’s identification)  At the beginning of the school year, the average level of motivation was reasonable  Four target pupils really less motivated than their classmates

14. Results (phase of problem’s identification)  Pupils were not intensively involved into the activity and the teacher did not clearly act against that behaviour  The lessons’ content was mainly technical exercises (swimming, gymnastics), drills and 6/6 matches (volleyball)

15. Results (planning and intervention phases)  The teacher did not use the documents provided by the researchers (... the pupils are not motivated, it’s like that!... I have already all tried!...)  Strategies were developed with her and she was immediately enthusiastic about their use  New organization was planned and proposed to the pupils but...

16. Results (phase of results’ analysis)  Teacher and the overall class agreed for saying that the new organization was more funny than those usually proposed by the teacher  Influence of the task on pupils’ motivation (Epstein, 1989; Viau, 2000)  Most of the students mentioned that if the same activities would be repeated, they would encourage them to take part more positively to physical education lessons

17. Results (phase of results’ analysis)  Few positive modifications were detected in the attitude of the four target pupil  Only one mentioned that she appreciated the new tasks (S3)  For two other, the problem were rather on the requirements which they did not think to be able to achieve (S1 and S4)  The fourth’s general attitude getting to her a certain dislike towards the school system (S2)

18. Results (researchers’ opinion)  Despite of the modification of the content to the pupils, the teacher seemed not always able to develop a motivational climate laying on an effective intervention  “Diplomatically”, the researchers did not pointed out the pedagogical errors of the teacher

19. Conclusions  That action-research produced some positive effects  Enthusiasm of the teacher towards new strategies  Positive perception of these strategies by the whole class ... and some disappointing findings  Lack of modification of the teaching behaviours  Lack of motivation level modification in target pupils

20. Some reflections  Multiplication of action-researches should help the educators to enlarge their personal framework  Examples of good practices in which they could identify each variable explaining the success or the failure of an experiment should be proposed  There is a need of strategies concerning severe pupils’ disengagement

21. Some reflections  Practitioners need to be prepared to action research (pre-service and in-service contexts)  It is essential to create progressively confident relationships so that the practitioner accepts to solicit the researcher

22. Thank you for your attention

23. References Cloes, M. (2003). APS. In, M. Cloes (Ed.), L’intervention dans les Activités physiques et sportives : rétro/perspectives. Actes du colloque organisé en septembre 2002 au Sart Tilman {CD rom}. Liège : Département des APS, Université de Identification de la place des chercheurs et des praticiens dans la recherche sur l’intervention dans les Liège. Cloes, M. (2004). Motivation in the gym: A qualitative approach. Paper presented at the II International Conference for Physical Educators. Hong Kong, Hong Kong Institute of Education. Eptein, J. (1989). Family structures and student motivation : A developmental perspective. In, C. Ames & R. Ames (Eds.), Research on motivation in education, vol. 3 (pp. 259-295). New York: Academic Press. Newton, M., & Duda, J.L. (1999). The interaction of motivational climate, dispositional goeal orientations, and perceived ability in predicting indices of motivation. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 30, 63-82. Viau, R. (1998). La motivation en contexte scolaire. Bruxelles : De Boeck Université. Viau, R. (2000). Des conditions à respecter pour susciter la motivation des élèves. Corespondance, 5 (3). Retrieved November 16, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/correspo/Corr5-3/Viau.html http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/correspo/Corr5-3/Viau.html

24. Strategies aiming to improve pupils’ motivation  Volleyball  “Intercities games”: 4 to 6 exercises are proposed as events where several teams can get points according to the quality of their activity (overall placing): “Which team will be able to establish the record of successively correct services during the next two minutes?”  Tournament: teams of 2 pupils competed with referees with adapted rules (field, number of ball contacts, actions of the pupils after the rally,...)

25. Analysis of the teaching process  Direct observation  Analysis of videotaped lessons  Event recording (FB, encouragements, pressures)  Interval assessement (voice inflections, gestures, moving and participation)  Placheck (number of pupils on task, 1/min) u Intra observer reliability: 85 to 97.7% of agreement

26. What’s the motivation level of the pupils?  Analysis of the questionnaire ClassE 1E 2E 3E 4 Att. EP (aff.)/42.92232 Att. EP (cogn.)/42.71231 Competence EP/42.51132 Task orient. EP/42.911.82.73.6 Score /161156.811.78.6 Att. school (aff.)/42.83334 Att. school (cog.)/43.32333 Att. sport (cog.)/42.91222

27. ... direct observation and analysis of the videotaped lessons showed that the teaching process was not really improved VBIC 1 VB IC 2 VB IC 1 Nat IC 2 Nat Tour 1 VB Tour 2 VB N FB/min2.22.32.5.5.41.8.6 Gestures1.71.61.51.71.41.81.5 Voice2.22.82.2 22.11.9 Moving2.12.32.121.12.1 Part.2.12.221.71.921.5 Placheck49.132.827.76.84.266.161.5