I come to realize this problem of motivation by awarding is real since I got lot of information from my students as some of them told me that they were given presents by their parents due to performance in other subjects and also some talked of being not motivated by their parents. Some told me that they have defeated their friends in biology and from that I got the point was to award them accordingly. I also come to realize that when a student answers the question in my class, they all give him a hand slap making the student feel happy and they all get motivated in answering questions. What I believe as a teacher is that the more a student answers the questions the better he/she is in terms of performance and understanding of the subject matter.
The specific research questions were:1) Will there be an improve in the subject performance when the students are motivated by awarding them accordingly?;2) Will this research affects the poor students who will not be awarded?;3) What will be the best award suitable for the student performance?
I gathered qualitative data information by individual journal response, views from other teachers and quantitative data by analyzing the average mean mark for the last 2 years of student score and for the other 2 years after action research. I involved students in hand slaps in case of any student attempting to answer any question. This was incredible after I got that most of the teachers and students were supportive to motivations award. In the first year exam, I promised to give the best student a text book for biology and give the most improved students some exercise books and the last student will not be awarded.
The average mean mark improved to 70 which was a B. In the second year I promised to give the best student in the subject a scientific calculator and the most improved will be given a biology text book. It was amazing every student improved in the subject, as a result of the award ,the best student got an A in the subject with an average mean mark being 85 which was an A. I was challenged to buy biology books to all the students in my class but still I was impressed I achieved my objectives and I also got support from the school administrations in awarding these students.
I come to discover that action research improved the students’ performance and their learning ability and also the research specifications did not affect the poor students who were not awarded instead it made them put more effort so as to get the award, and lastly I realized that most of the students like expensive awards that’s why there was a great improvement when I promised the scientific calculator and text books compared to other promised awards.
Conclusion.
In this research I can conclude that awarding students due to their performance is one of the most vital elements in academic performance and it’s evident to my action research that most student performed extremely higher in my subject compared to other subjects due to motivations. This was a dream before employing these techniques in the last 5 years. I therefore recommend the use of this method to enable our students to perform and have a bright future in their life.
References
Crooks, T. J. (2010). Assessing student performance. Kensington, N.S.W.: Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia.
Reason, P. (2008). The SAGE handbook of action research: participative inquiry and practice (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE.
Remenyi, D., & Money, A. (2012). Research Supervisors for Supervisors and their Students Research Textbook Collection.. Reading: Academic Conferences Publishing International.
luvthyself
pro.stewart..docx
0
