Hur var det i skolan idag? : Elevers tankar om motivation

Genom denna studie ville vi få inblick i och öka förståelsen kring elevers upplevelser av motivation i skolan. Detta för att öka medvetenhet hos lärare som ska stimulera elever till kunskapsinhämtning. Denna intervjustudie hade som avsikt att studera elevers upplevelser om motivation i skolan. Studien jämförde elever i årskurs fem och årskurs nio. Information samlades in med fokusintervjuer. En intervjuform som sker i grupp. För att tolka intervjuresultatet har vi använt oss av socialkognitiv teori, inre och yttre motivationsteori samt attributsteori. Resultatet gav att elever upplever sig mest motiverade när de arbetar med konkreta mål och då de kan påverka sin studiesituation. Även betyg och bedömning motiverar eleverna men inte lika starkt. Vi kom fram till att det inte fanns någon större skillnad mellan hur de olika åldersgrupperna resonerade. Enda skillnaden var att de yngre eleverna hellre låtsades motiverade än de äldre som öppet visade ointresse då skolarbetet upplevdes tråkigt. Däremot hade de liknande tankar om betyg trots att elever i årskurs fem ännu inte fått sådana.By doing this study we wanted to get insight to and increase the understanding of pupils’ experiences of motivation at school. We wanted to enhance teachers’ awareness of it, because they are to stimulate pupils in acquiring knowledge. The intention of this interview study was to learn about pupils’ comprehension of how they experience motivation and undermotivation at school. A comparison between pupils in the fifth and the ninth grades in the compulsory school was made. The information was gathered by a method called focus interview, an interview that happens in a group. In our interpretation of the interview outcomes we used three different motivation theories; social cognitive theory, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and attribution theory. The result was that pupils experience motivation when they can work with and towards concrete goals and when they can influence their study situation. Even marks and evaluations can be motivating factors for pupils, but they are not as effective as concrete goals and influence over study situation are. We found that there is not a big difference between how these two age groups conversed about motivation. The only, visible, difference was that the younger pupils didn’t want to show when they were undermotivated, whereas the older pupils showed it openly. However, both of the age groups had similar thoughts about marks, despite that the pupils in the fifth grade don’t get marks