Motivation in Elementary School Classrooms
In recent years, educators have increasingly acknowledged the significance of the role of motivation in enhancing students' academic performance. Essentially, students who derive tremendous pleasure in the learning of any subject demonstrate a strong motivation to learn. Concomitantly, how educators are able to utilize appropriate instructional strategies and create an ideal learning environment to increase motivation has also become a popular subject among researchers. At the same time, this emerging acknowledgement of the importance of motivation is accompanied by two disturbing educational trends that undermine student motivation. First, research studies have verified the findings of national reports, which showed a decrease in students' interest in subjects such as reading and writing with increasing grade levels. Second, the instructional approaches adopted by elementary school teachers, which are characterized by "low-level uniform assignments, normative standards, and high teacher control" have contributed to the decline in student motivation (Miller & Meece, 1997, p. 286).
The investigation of the role of motivation in elementary school classrooms and their implications for educators has covered a wide range of factors. To begin with, researchers have highlighted three types of motivational goalsùtask mastery goals, ego-social goals and work-avoidant goals--that affect how students approach their learning situations (Miller & Meece, 1997; Stefanou & Parkes, 2003). Expectancy-related beliefs that reflect individuals' perceptions of their ability and their likelihood of success, along with the subjective task valuesùthe importance of the task to the specific individualùhave also been identified as cognitive processes that influence student motivation (Xiang, McBride, & Bruene, 2004; Xiang, McBride, & Guan, 2004).
Even more significantly, the investigation has shown...