Examining the impact of positive feedback on student motivation

A significant body of educational research identifies intrinsic motivation as a significant factor in education with the capacity to improve outcomes for students. Motivation not only appears significant but also pliable. The use of praise has been explored to augment intrinsic motivation and a number of investigations suggest promise for process, outcome and effort praise. Many of these investigations, however, focus on short-term interventions and few aim to elicit the cognitive processes that underpin motivation and behavioural change. This work gives a full account of current motivational and praise literature, and seeks to investigate the implementation of praise types above within a long-term, classroom-based action research project. Praise interventions had a duration of one term and were administered to two year-9 classes (English and science) in an independent secondary school in the UK. A mixed method constructivist methodology is adopted comprising of the Motivated Student Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and a mixture of semi-structured and unstructured interviews. MSLQ responses failed to demonstrate significant change in motivation across any of the praise types. Interview discussions, however, highlight that students appear to have the capacity to be metacognitive regarding motivation and perceive significant value for process praise. The value attributed to process praise appears contingent on the perception of improved outcomes or progress.