What Underachieving Middle School Students Believe Motivates them to Learn

Chapter 1: The Challenge to Educate Everyone Chapter 2: A Review of Literature Chapter 3: Methods Chapter 4: The Results Chapter 5: Discussion      An Emerging Theory      A Gap in Schools      Getting in the Way?          Perceptions          A Need for Models         Legitimacy Issues      A Final Thought References Appendixes Biography

Mismatched Perceptions One of the goals of qualitative research is to understand phenomena by examining the different perspectives of those involved in an event. Often there are differing points of view, and this study is no exception. There were differences between the students’ and the teachers’ perceptions, and between their perceptions and what I observed. There were discontinuities between data throughout the study: Teacher interviews indicate that teachers believe they are doing what students would say motivates them, but student interviews indicate those factors are missing. Most of the students had clear and reasonable goals, but Mr. Mack believed that most middle school students wanted to be professional athletes and rock stars. Mrs. Jacques recognized that most of the students on her team wanted to go to college, but didn’t know what careers most of them might like to pursue. Ben said that his teachers tried to make learning interesting, but sometimes those attempts were too silly, or teachers made assumptions about what would be interesting to the students without getting student input. Teachers didn’t know what motivated the student participants, but the students knew what motivated them and how they thought they learned well. There were much observational data about how teachers help students be successful, but neither students nor teachers made much note of it as ways to help underachieving students learn better. Perhaps Ben is right, teachers need to get more input from students. Or perhaps teachers need to be more explicit with students about what strategies they use in the classroom, and why. Either way, there are implications for further phenomenological research around the perceptions of teachers and underachieving students. Making these differing viewpoints explicit, and trying to understand them and the dynamics that contribute to them may lead to a better understanding of underachievement and help find ways to re-engage underachieving students.

	Web site created by Mike Muir Send questions or comments to wilder@somtel.com Last updated April 25, 2001	Mike Muir Assistant Professor of Education University of Maine at Farmington 104 Main Street Farmington, ME 04938 207.778.7179 wilder@somtel.com http://violet.umf.maine.edu/~mmuir