MOTIVATING AND DEMOTIVATING FACTORS AMONG KISWAHILI TEACHERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ELGEYO MARAKWET COUNTY-KEIYO SUB COUNTY, KENYA: A THEORETICAL APPROACH (Published)
This paper sought to investigate the administrative motivation factors affecting Secondary School Kiswahili teachers in Keiyo Sub County. The study was based on Expectancy theory by Victor Vroom who explained that motivation is a combination of three factors Valence, Expectancy and Instrumentality. The theory stresses that students and teachers expect to get a reward from the effort they put in their work. The paper adopted a survey research design and stratified random sampling to select teachers teaching Kiswahili from a selection of 14 schools out of the 29 schools in Keiyo Sub-County. The sample included teachers and students. Questionnaires and document analysis were used to gather data for the study which was then analyzed using descriptive statistics by frequencies, percentages, variances and standard deviations; t-test was applied in testing the hypothesis. The paper established that motivation plays a major role in contributing to good performance of students, however, most teachers felt demotivated in the school. Some of the factors contributing to demotivation include animosity from the surrounding community, poor infrastructure, lack of teaching resources, poor housing facilities, denial of study leaves or transfers as well as unwarranted blame for poor performance of students. It is recommended that Head teachers should encourage team work, provide the necessary facilities such as good housing, equipped labs, and avail necessary teaching resources as a way of motivating teachers. High quality teaching staffs are the cornerstone of a successful education system. It is thus important that teachers are motivated and any demotivation factor eliminated to ensure improved performance in schools.
Keywords: Factors, Motivation, Performance, Students, Teachers, expectancy theory
STUDENTS’ VIEWS ON UTILIZING MT IN TEACHING AND LEARNING: INTEREST, IMPORTANCE AND EFFICIENCY (Published)
With Mobile Technology (MT) getting smaller, cheaper and easier to carry, the new generation has been bombarded with various mobile technology devices that seem to be invading every single aspect of their lives. Educators and learners in higher education institutes need to realize the extent to which undergraduate learners are ready to deploy MT as learning facilitators. Hence, our present study aims to find out the students beliefs and views on the importance of MT in their educational life. In order to fulfill the study’s objectives, 328 undergraduate students were randomly selected across four different departments at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait, during the spring semester of the academic year 2012/2013. The data were collected based on the informants’ responses on 18- itemed questionnaire that was mainly designed to reflect on the students’ views over the main study objectives. As a result, the students’ responses were categorized into three dimensions that should eventually fulfill our study goals; interest in MT devices, efficiency of various MT devices, and the importance of MT application in the students’ education. The study results revealed the students high interested in MT deployment within their education as they motivate them to learn and provide them with wider learning opportunities, especially in the discipline of distance learning. Students have also perceived MT as more efficient. Older students tend to agree less. Efficiency of MT has further been pressed in the discipline of language learning.
Keywords: Efficiency, MALL, Mobile technology, Motivation, digital generation
MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES IN THE TEACHING OF PRIMARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS IN ZIMBABWE (Published)
This study explored the concept of motivational strategies and how it applies to the teaching of primary school mathematics. A number of motivational theories were discussed in the study with regards to how primary school learners can be motivated to want to learn mathematics and such theories included the goal theory, achievement theory, the competency theory, the self-efficacy theory and the general interest theory among others. A number of motivational strategies were also discussed and these included the following: conveying confidence, conveying high aspirations, giving comments, and valuing learners’ tasks. The results of this study indicate that while most teachers concurred that it is important to motivate learners to learn mathematics through the use of motivational teaching strategies, the majority of the same teachers do not seem to be regularly using motivational strategies in the teaching of mathematics. This study also showed that two of the major reasons why primary school mathematics teachers do not regularly use motivational strategies in their teaching are high workloads and large class sizes in their schools. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection.
Keywords: Extrinsic Motivation, Intrinsic Motivation, Motivation, Motivational Strategies, Motivational Theories
COOPERATIVE LEARNING STAD-PJBL: MOTIVATION, THINKING SKILLS, AND LEARNING OUTCOMES OF BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT STUDENTS (Published)
The study on the implementation of Cooperative STAD-PjBL aimed at: (1) improving learning motivation, (2) enhancing thinking skill, and (3) accelerating achievement of students. This study was conducted by means of Classroom Action Research with qualitative approach on Learning Sources and Media course in Department of Biology Education, University of Muhammadiyah Malang. This study was conducted within 2 cycles, referring to Spiral Model by Kemmis & Taggart (1988). Lesson Study was implemented in every meeting, based on Lewis (2002), by following the stages of plan, do, and see. The result of this study showed: (1) Cooperative STAD-PjBL improved students’ motivation. All components of motivation were interconnected, influencing one another, and unified. The four components contributed equally towards motivation. (2) Cooperative STAD-PjBL enhanced thinking skill. When one component of thinking skill was low, the other components were proven to be low as well. Similarly, when one component of thinking skill was high, the other components were shown to be high. All components were interconnected and contributing equally towards thinking skill. (3) Cooperative STAD-PjBL accelerated students’ achievement. Students’ mastery was shown to increase up to 100% at the end of Cycle II.
Keywords: Learning Source And Media, Motivation, Project, STAD, Thinking Skills