1. Motivational Factors towards school for diverse students: Interest and Respect.
Andrea Grafstein and Alayna Washington
Friday, April 12th, 2013
University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum
Dr. Dorinda Carter Andrews & Dr. Christy Byrd, Department of Teacher Education, MSU College of Education

2. Overview Research Question and Hypotheses Terms Methods Survey Review
Participants
Literature Review
Findings
Discussion
Implications
Conclusion

3. Research Question
Main: What different factors, such as perceptions of respect and demographics, contribute to student interest and motivation towards school?
Research Hypotheses:
1. We expect students who feel respected by school authorities and peers to have a higher interest in school and motivation for learning.
2. We expect that there will be differences in the level of interest in school among students of different cultural backgrounds.
3. We expect that students from a higher socioeconomic status will have a higher motivation to learn and more interest in school.
4. We expect students of different learning abilities to have different levels of interest in school.

4. Terms Defined
Motivation: The desire to do well and achieve in the school setting
Interest: The level of desire a student has to be in school and to learn the material presented.
Respect: The student’s perceived feeling that they are understood, cared about, and encouraged to be who they are and to try their very best.
Demographics: A student’s identity markers: specifically, gender, race, learning ability, and socioeconomic status
Need citations (all except demographics)

5. Methods
Research Site
Research was conducted at a suburban middle school in the Midwest
Research Methods
Quantitative method was used: Individual surveys were administered to students.
Data Analysis
In determining the significance of the relationships of the variables in the study, we accessed the following quantitative tools:
Correlating two variables
Pearson Correlation: 0-.2 weak, moderate, .4+ strong
Significance Value: below .05 is significant
Mean Difference: We looked at differences in interest levels between groups of students

6. Survey Review
*students were asked to rank on a 1-5 scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on the following questions:
Questions pertaining to interest levels (questions 27-32)
I enjoy learning
I participate regularly in class.
I look forward to coming to school everyday.
I get bored with the material covered in my classes
Pertaining to Perceived Respect (questions 3-6)
Students/teachers/administrators/personnel in this school respect each other’s cultural differences (e.g. race, class gender, sexual orientation, etc.).
*Students were asked to check: (56-67)
Race/Ethnicity
Gender
Amount of books and computers at home
Special education status

7. Participants Research Site
477 Middle School students participated in the survey.

8. Respect and Interest Interest Strong teacher support and relationships
(Midglet, Feldlaufer, Eccles, 1999)
Nurturing relationships with adults in the school
(Wentzel, 1998)
Feeling welcome and respect by peers
(Goodenow, 1993)
We conducted a literature review to gain a better understanding on this topic and these were our main findings on perceived respect and their implications on student interest.

9. Demographics and Interest
Socioeconomic status
(Cuace, Felner, Primavera, 1982; Murdock, 1999)
Cultural Backgrounds
(Cuace, Felner, Primavera, 1982; Murdock, 1999; Goodenow, 1993)
Special Education
Keep it simple, We expected to find within the literature that there was a difference in the interest levels of students with special education status, however, there was scant literature on the students perspective of their interest and this was surprising to us and will be discussed later in the presentation.

10. Findings In terms of respect
Students who feel respected by school authorities and peers have a higher interest in school and motivation for learning.
Correlations
Interest (Pearson Correlation)
Significance Value
Respect from Peers
0.234
< .001
Respect from Teachers
0.253
Respect from Administrators
0.25
Respect from Faculty Members
0.15
0.001

11. Findings In terms of cultural backgrounds
White students have the highest level of interest towards school and that the largest difference between cultural backgrounds were between White students and Hispanic students.

12. Findings In terms of socio-economic status
Students with more resources, such as books and computers available at home, have a higher motivation and interest in school.

13. Findings In terms of Special Education
We found that there was not a significant difference in terms of interest between students in Special Education and those who were not.

14. Conclusion Perceptions of Respect Cultural and Socio-economic Status
Positive and supportive student-teacher relationships are important
Cultural and Socio-economic Status
Teachers should acknowledge differences in their classrooms and differentiate their teaching methods to accommodate all students
Special Education
No significant difference in levels of interest in school between students that self-described themselves as having Special Education status.
More research is needed in this area
In conclusion we found that positive teacher-student relationships are very important to student learning and that teachers should accommodate to all students because every student is unique. We found that there is no significant differences for students in special education and those who are not but that this topic should be further explored.

15. Implications For Future Research
Within the current educational research, there are few studies on middle school students that reflect on their interest levels in school. Research in this field can continue to grow.
Although we obtained significant findings, no generalizations can be made for the whole populous of middle school students
Based on what we found and from the literature review, educators can work hard to foster these student-teacher relationships because of how important they are to student interest, motivation, and learning.