V22 Report for EMOD59B.docx

V22 Report for EMOD59B.docx

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V22ReportforEMOD59B

EM0D59B–ResearchinProfessionalPractice

Motivatingstudentsthroughsmallgrouplearning

inthestudent-centredlearningcontext:

asmall-scaleliteraturereview

Submittedby:

GuoqiangCao

Submittedto:

Dr.AnthonyColes

Date:

28thJan2011

MAEducation

Year1

BirminghamCityUniversity

FacultyofEducation,LawandSocialScience

Acknowledgements

Iwouldliketothankthefollowing:

Dr.AnthonyColes--ReaderinPost-CompulsoryEducation,mysupervisor,forhisencouragement,patienceandexpertadvice;Dr.JimMcGrathandDr.TonyArmstrong,forsupplyingsomuchinvaluableinformation;andfinallyspecialthanksgotomyfriendsandfamilywhohavesupportedmethroughoutmyresearch.

Tableofcontents

____________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract（100words）4

Introduction（350）5

Methodology（1200）7

LiteratureReview（2000）12

CriticalReflectiononLiterature（800）20

Conclusion（300）25

References26

Abstract

Academicachievementcanbeaffectedbyanindividual’smotivation.Students’motivationcouldbedividedintoextrinsicandintrinsicmotivationintheclassroom.First,ithasbeenconsideredintrinsicmotivationservedasthedominantfunctionforthelearning（Law,2009）.Secondly,somefactorsofextrinsicmotivationcouldhavethenegativeeffectonlearning（Law,2009）.Atthesametime,intrinsicmotivationcouldbeaffectedbymanyfactors.Forexample,theformsoflearning（suchasthelectureandthesmall-grouplearning）couldalsoaffectstudents’intrinsicmotivation（Springer,1999）;settinggoalsmayalsobenefittheacademicoutcomeofintrinsicmotivation（Linnenbrink,2005）;however,theinstructionproceduresmaydidnothavesignificanteffectonstudents’intrinsicmotivation（Berger,2009）.

Introduction

Thetopicofthisreportwasmotivationinrelationtostudentcenteredlearningmethods（smallgrouplearning）.Accordingtomyworkexperience,somestudentswerenotinterestedinlearningatthestartofthefirstyear;someotherstudents’interestbecamelessandlessintheperiodoflearning.Frommypersonalperspective,Iwasalwaysmotivatedtokeeponinquiringaboutthingsunknowntome.Iwantedtofindarightwayofusingmotivationtokeepstudentsengagedinthelearningactivity.Motivationis“aninferredprocesswithinapersonoranimalthatcausesmovementeithertowardagoalorawayfromanunpleasantsituation”（Wade,2008:

440）.Manymotivationaltheoriescouldbeusedintheeducationcontext,suchasmotivesandneeds,expectancytheory,andequitytheory,cognitivetheory,reinforcementtheoryandgoatsettingtheory（Law,2009）.Themotivationoccurredinclassroomcouldbedividedintotwocategories:

Intrinsicmotivationandextrinsicmotivation.Intrinsicmotivationmeantthatsomeonewasmotivatedbyinternalfactors（suchasfun/interest）.Extrinsicmotivationmeantthatsomeonewasmotivatedbyexternalfactors（suchasrewardsorpressure）（Beswick,2010）.TheseideaswillbedevelopedintheLiteratureReview.

Insmallgroupteaching（SGT）,whichplacedmoreemphasisonprovidingstudentswithanopportunityforcollaborativelearningratherthanthepresenceofatutor（Exley,2005:

1）,westrivetowardssomekindsofmotivationwhichstimulatesstudentstolearnnewthings,somekindsofmotivationthatwilllastsnotonlyinclassroombutalsointheirfuturelife.Thetaskofatutoristospecifythegoalsofthecourseassubjectobjectives,arrangestudentsintodifferentgroups,makesurethatthediscussionofthegroupsisontrack,andleadstudentsmarchontherightdirection.Themoreimportantaspectwastohelpstudentsbuildamodelonhowtofaceanddealwithanewsituationfrombothpersonalfeelingandpersonalperceptionperspectives.

InthisreportIwillfirstdiscusssomeliteratureon‘student-centeredlearning’,‘smallgrouplearning’andmotivation.Iwillthenreflectontheliteraturecombiningwithknowledgefrommyprofessionalpractice.Finally,Iwillgenerallydescribehowtousemotivationthroughsmallgrouplearninginstudent-centeredlearningcontext.

Methodology（500-750）

Iimplementedtheliteraturereviewandareflectionontheliteraturediscussed.Myapproachtoimplementtheresearchwasshownasfollow.

1.Identifythesearchtermsforthetopic,andchoosesearchtools/engines;

2.Carryouttheresearch,consideringrepeatingsearchesifnecessary;

3.Selecttheliteratureafterscanningandrecordingthequalityofconclusionsintheliteraturesearched;

4.Classifyandextractconclusion/data,thensummarizeandcombinetheseconclusions;

5.Writeacriticalreflectionontheliterature,andwritethereport.

QuantitativeresearchmethodsandQualitativeresearchmethods

“Quantitativeresearchisatypeofeducationalresearchinwhichtheresearcherdecideswhattostudy;asksspecific,narrowquestions;collectsquantifiabledatafromparticipants;analyzesthesenumbersusingstatistics;andconductstheinquiryinanunbiased,objectivemanner.（Creswell,2008:

45-66）”Comparingwithquantitativeresearch,Berg（1989）believedthatqualitativeresearchismoretimeconsuming.Aqualitativeresearchershouldclarifythegoalsduringthedesignstages,whichcanonlydependonresearcher’sknowledgeofstrategiesandanalysis,ratherthanbyrunningacomputerprogram.“Qualitativeresearchisatypeofeducationalresearchinwhichtheresearcherreliesontheviewsofparticipants;asksbroad,generalquestions;collectsdataconsistinglargelyofwords（ortext）fromparticipants;describesandanalyzesthesewordsforthemes;andconductstheinquiryinasubjective,biasedmanner.”（Creswell,2008:

45-66）

Bias

Myskill,knowledgeandmyprofessionalexperiencecouldbethefirstsourceofbias,becauseIwasapostgraduateinauniversity,andIdidnothaveenoughresearchskillsandexperienceineducation,furthermore,Ionlyworkedinonecollegeinthesouth-eastofChinaforseveralyears.Secondly,thechoiceofsearchenginecouldgeneratebias.Becausethedifferentsearchenginewaslinkedtoadifferentdatabasesthroughacertainkindofsearchtechnology.Thesourceofliteraturecouldalsogeneratebias,becausetheacademiclevelofpublisherswasdifferent,thetypeofjournalhaddifferentstrengthsandweaknesses（Journalorbook）,theamountofliteraturesearchedwaslimitedinscale.Forexample,thebooksalwaysweredeepandcomprehensive,butnotsoup-to-date.Furthermore,eachpublisherwasrelatedtodifferentsocialinstitution.Forexamplesomepublishersweresponsoredbythegovernmentoracompany.

Triangulation

Todecreasethedegreeofbias,Ishouldusetriangulationtactics.Ifirstidentifiedthekeywordsformyresearchtopic,suchasstudent-centeredlearning,small-groupteaching（orsmall-teamteaching/learning）andmotivation.Inaddition,someusefultipswerehelpfulasfollows:

Booleanlogicwords（like‘and’,‘or’and‘not’）,thetruncationsymbol（‘motivat*’equaltomotivator,motivatedandmotivation）,wildcardsymbol（?

）,andphrasesearching.Thirdly,Isearchedtheliteraturethroughtwoorthreedifferentsearchengines,suchas‘GoogleScholar’,‘Swetswise’and‘EBSCO’（EltonB.StephensCompany,whosupplyanintegratedservicethatcombinesreferencedatabases,subscriptionmanagement,onlinejournals,books,linkingservicesandA-to-Zsolutions）orEThOS（ElectronicThesesOnlineService）.GoogleScholarisageneralscholarlysearchengine;theSwetswiseisanelectronicjournalwebservice;andtheteacherreferencecenterinthe‘EBSCO’wasaspecialsearchtoolforteachers.Fortheliteraturesources,themajorityofliteratureshouldbechosenfromthehighacademiclevelpublishers.Ontheotherhand,itisnecessarytopickupatleastoneortwoliteraturesourceswhichwereproducedbyindependentauthorsorpublishers.Then,tounderstandtheconceptofstudent-centeredlearning,smallgrouplearningandmotivation,IcouldfindsomebooksintheKenricklibrary（anacademiclibrary）.Butthebookswerenotuptodate,thereforeIhadtosearchsomeuptodatejournalstooffsettheweaknessofthebooks.

Validity

Validitymeansrelatestothechoiceofarightinstrumenttomeasurethethingwhichisintendedtomeasureinastudy（Golafshani,2003）.Toidentifythevalidityofmyliteraturesearch,thesearchkeywordwouldbeeither‘motivation’or‘smallgroupteaching/leaning’,orboth.Furthermore,thesearchengineshouldbeanacademicsearchengine.Toidentifythevalidityofaliteraturesearched,Icheckedtheresearchquestion,theresearchmethods/instruments,thedatacollected,sothatthisdata,instrumentscoulddealwiththeresearchquestion.Forexample,inaquantitativeresearch,thequantitativedatacouldbecollectedthroughquestionnaire;inaqualitativeresearch,thequalitativedatashouldbecollectedthroughintervieworquestionnaire.Toimprovethevalidityoftheconclusionofthereport,exceptidentifyingtheresearchmethodsontheliteraturesearched,theconclusionofthereportshouldbebuiltafterqualitativeandquantitativeanalysis.Theweaknesseswerethatthiswassmallscale–somekeysourcesmayhavebeenmissed.

Reliability

Reliabilityreferstowhethersimilarresultscouldbeobtainedbyanotherpersonbyrepetition（Golafshani,2003）.Toidentifythereliabilityofthewayofliteratureresearch,Isearchedittwice（oneweekgap）.Onlyonesource,whichwasobtainedthrough‘Googlescholar’,couldnotbefoundatsecondtime.ItcouldwellbethatIusedadifferentcombinationofkeywordandsearchengine.Tomaximizethereliabilityofthe