Teachers Behavior And Students Motivation For Learning Education Essay
Behavior is observable outcome of the teacher that affects the student performance in different activities in institution. Behaviors may be positive or negative and effective and ineffective. A behavior produces the requisite results. Behaviors are the action, which is different at different time. There are three types of behavior, thinking, feeling and doing. The classification of thinking behavior is very important for learning process and it can be divided into three domains. These domains are cognitive, affective and psychomotor. Cognitive behavior consists on knowledge outcomes and intellectual abilities and skills. Affective behavior based on individuals hidden abilities likes, attitude, interests, appreciation and modes of adjustment. Psychomotor domain based on perceptual and motor skills (Shah, 2009).
An inspiring teacher can increase the knowledge of the student and develop their skills and personal characteristics, which include socioemotional and spiritual realms in addition to cognitive behavior, which is more likely to be fixed. Personal characteristics are rooted in feelings and beliefs, which cannot be observed directly through the traditional methods and are difficult to identify. A teacher should be able to organize the classroom, have complete command of the classroom and ask probing questions (Ros-Voseles and Fowler-Haughey, 2007). Effective teachers have sound knowledge of the subject, take personal interest in each student, establish a caring loving atmosphere and show interest with students. A teacher must know the art of communication. A large number of studies have revealed that interpersonal relation between the student and teacher are very important for the student motivation and achievement in all subjects. Hence healthy teacher-student interpersonal relation is very important and requisite for the students to engage in learning activities (Brekelmans et al., 2002).
Different teachers show different kind of behaviors in the classrooms for example some are distant and other are sociable. Some are well organized and other is chaotic. Teacher’s behavior is believed to have great impact on student motivation and learning. Because motivation is goal directed behavior and it is the energy need to perform task or achieve some goal. Motivation is also thought to be a mediator between the teacher behavior and student learning (Christophel, 1990; Frymier, 1994). By expanding the traditional views of motivation, they construct the new term learner empowerment, which can be defined as the student feeling of competence to perform a task. Moreover, teacher’s behavior influences the student empowerment (Frymier et al., 1996).
In educational psychology, the student motivation is one of the important elements that contribute to the learning process. Several investigations have been conducted that examine the motivational conditions of learning. The underlying implication of student motivation appears to lay the process of “how” students are taught rather “what” they are taught. Motivation has been described as a process that includes the specific directive and stimulating properties. This can lead the students to arousal and investigative behaviors give directions and purpose to their behaviors, allow behaviors to persist and lead to choices of preferred behaviors. A general pattern to the student motivation towards learning often takes the following sequential forms: student energy, volition, direction, involvement and completion. If one of the student motivation break down the entire process may come to a complete halt.
The theory of motivation is difficult to understand because of the false beliefs related to this concept. These five beliefs are following:
It is thought that when students are not willing to involve themselves in class activities or assignments they are unmotivated. Although students are not motivated to learn, they are motivated to do something else. If motivation is not directed towards learning it is directed towards disruptive behavior.
Second, believe is that teacher motivating the student. No one person can claim sole responsibility for motivating another person. Teachers can make learning attractive and stimulating, provide opportunities and incentive allow for development and student interest.
Thirdly it is believed that students must learn in order to survive, make them learn is more impotent then their motivation to learn. However, forced learning today may result in no learning tomorrow.
It is believed that threats can facilitate the student motivation to learn. However, using threats only make the student frightened. In long term, use of threats the student start avoiding the teacher and the subject matter.
Finally, it was thought that the learning automatically improves with increased student motivation. Motivation appears to be the important element that can enhance student desire to learn. It provides the foundation for effective instruction.
Student motivation can be divided into trait or state motivation. Trait motivation is a general enduring predisposition towards learning while state motivation is an attitude towards a specific class. Motivation towards learning is often stimulated through various forms of modeling, communication of expectations, direct instructions or socialization by the teacher. This scheme includes both affective and cognitive behavioral elements. According to this view teachers are active agents within the educational environment and capable of stimulating the student motivation towards learning.
Learning situations can be divided into three phases of the time continuum. At the beginning of the learning process, the student motivation is influenced by attitudes towards the general learning environment, subject, teacher, self and basic personal needs. During learning phase, student motivation is enhanced by stimulating process of learning experience. At the end of learning task, student feedback can provide reinforcement value attached to the learning experience (Christopher, 1990).
In the conceptualization of direct instruction, a loosely defined set of teacher, classroom, and curriculum variables considered to be foremost in explaining growth in student achievement in the elementary grades. The principles of direct teaching include daily review, presentation of new material in a clear manner, guided practice, teacher feedback, independent practice, and weekly and monthly review.
Statement of the Problem
Because of miss behaving teachers still working in our country, student face many problems such as; feel problem to communicate with their teacher, they have problem in understanding the subject, they hesitate to discuss their problem with teachers. The above all problems have negative impact on student learning and motivation. For this reason, there is a need to improve the situation of teacher’s behavior and student’s motivation for learning.
Significances of the Study
It is stated, “Educational system of any country can provide the guarantee of success and prosperity for their nations”. The teachers can bring the qualitative changes in raising the standards of education, which ensures the welfare, progress and prosperity of the nation. For this purpose, it is need to conduct research in the relative field so that the teaching skills can be improved. This research study will help a lot to understand how the behavior of the teachers and student motivation affect the learning process of the students. Teachers who have the interpersonal skills and positive behavior affect the learning and achievement of the student in classrooms. This research will help to understand the professional attitude as it is to believe that professional attitude serves in many valuable ways and knowing these attitudes can serve a lot. Some students are sharp and some students are very lazy in their studies. For this situation, teacher should cooperate with their students, and work for the improvement of students in their study. After this study, we shall know about the behavior of teacher with their students and know about that their teacher given equal importance to each student. We shall also able to know about the student’s motivation for their learning, completion of the study and interest of study, how to success in their life.
Research Objectives
To investigate the behavior of the teachers at the elementary level
To know about the problems of students in their classroom after lecture
To assess student motivation for learning at elementary level
To find out difficulties of the students in their studies
To assess the effect of behavior on learning process of the student
To know about the student-teacher interaction problem because of teacher behavior in class
To observe the effect of teacher behavior on the student motivation for learning
Chapter 2
Literature Review
Behavior
To know the mental process of other person and animal, one has to see what they do and what they do is called their behavior. Behavior is the observable action, reaction, response or a movement made by a person, object or an organism under specific circumstance of mental process. Behavior can be conscious or unconscious. All our behavior is unconscious carried out. Behavior is set by our beliefs and values.
Various authors have defined it in different words:
Taneja (1989) stated that “the meaning of behavior is conduct or carry oneself or behavior is what we do, especially in response to outside stimuli”.
UNESCO (1986) documented that “any thing that an organism does that involves action and response to stimulation.”
Joyce (1980) also defined that “behavior is lawful and subject to variables in the environment”. He further defined that “behavior is an observable, identifiable phenomenon”.
John Watson, one of the first behaviorists, argued that the science of psychology must concern itself only with observable events. Watson pointed out that we cannot observe events such as thinking or feeling, nor can we directly observe “the mind.” He believed, therefore, that psychologist should not try to explain behavior in term of something that cannot be observed (Watson, 1913).
Approaches for Effective Behavior
There are three approaches for the effective behavior and effective institutions. These approaches are described by Sybouts in 1994. These approaches are as follows:
Goal Attainment Approach
The goal attainment approach bases the effectiveness of institution, on its achievement of goals and purposes. Learning objectives, subject content, standardized tests, and national norms are all considered being important. Another concern with using the goal attainment approach is the question of goal ownership and one final consideration is goal expectations.
Process Approach:
The process approach emphasizes the processes and means that administrations and teachers use to heightened student out-comes. Principal focus on process seems to be instructional leaders. They take an active part in classroom instructional programmes and curriculum development and have a clear view of goals to be achieved. Too much important can be placed on process.
Environment Response Approach:
This approach is linked with perception. Principals work to illustrate to members of the school board, parents, and numerous other interest groups that their colleges are successful. This approach is a type of environmental selling programme.
Five Key Behaviors Contribution to Effective Teaching
Approximately 10 teachers show promising relationship to desirable student performance, primarily as measured by classroom assessments and standardized tests. Five of these behaviors have been consistently supported by research studies over the past two decades (Brophy, 1979). Another five have had some support and appear logically related to effective teaching. The first five we will call key behaviors, because they are considered essential for effective teaching. The second five we will call helping behaviors that can be used in combinations to implement the key behaviors. The key behaviors are the following.
1. Lesson clarity
2. Instructional variety
3. Teacher task orientation
4. Engagement in the learning process
5. Student success rate
Teacher Behavior and Effective Learning
In recent year, many co-relational studies have been conducted at various elementary levels. This study includes different types of teachers and students and uses various methods of addressing. There was sufficient replication and overlapping to provide dependable knowledge about relationship between teacher behavior and student learning (Good, 1979).
Previous studies support that “direct instructions” are effective for producing student learning of basic skills (Rosenshine, 1979). The critical aspects include:
Teachers focus on academic goals
Promote extensive content coverage and high levels of student involvement
Select instructional goals and materials and activities and include immediate academically oriented feed back
Create an environment that is task oriented but relaxed
Taken together these studies provide strong support for the following generalizations:
Teachers make a difference. Teacher elicits much more student learning then others and their success is tied to consistent differences in teaching behaviors (Good and Grouws, 1977).
Even so, there is no support for the notion of generic teaching skills, if these are defined as the types of very specific behaviors typically included in performance based teacher education programmes. If any specific teaching behaviors are appropriate in all contexts. On the other hand, when data are integrated at a higher level of generality, several clusters or patterns are consistently related to learning gains.
One of the includes the teachers expectations and role definitions. Teachers who believe that instructing students in the curriculum is basic to their roles who fully expect to conduct such instructions, and who set about to do so in their classrooms, are more successful than teachers allocate most of their time for teaching and spend most of the time accordingly.
Another basic cluster includes such variable as classroom management skills, student engagement/time on task and student opportunity to learn material. Effective teachers know how to organize and maintain the classroom-learning environment that maximizes the time spend in productive activities and minimize the time loss during transition period.
Another cluster indicates supports for the various elements of the direct instructions. First studies of general approaches to instructions consistently revealed that students taught with a structured curriculum do better than those taught with individualized or discovery learning approach and those who receive more instruction from the teachers do better than those on their own do or from one another. Teacher talk in the form of lectures and demonstrations are important, as these are time-honored methods of recitation, drill and practice. The instructions that seems most efficient involves the teachers working with the whole class and small groups in early grades, presenting information in lectures/demonstrations and then follow up with recitation and exercises in which the student get opportunities to make response and get corrective feedback. Teacher maintains the academic focus, by keeping the student involved in the lesson and engaged in seatwork, monitoring their performance and providing individualized feedback. Success rate of answering the question during lectures is high.
When teachers are working with low ability student, they need to move at a slower pace and provide more repetitions and individualized monitoring to make sure that over learning is attained (Brophy, 1979).
Motivation
Motivation refers to “the reasons underlying behavior” (Guay et al., 2010).
Paraphrasing Gredler, Broussard and Garrison (2004) broadly define motivation as “the attribute that moves us to do or not to do something”.
Motivating Students for Learning
Here are some teaching ideas for how to motivate students:
Expectations
Teacher should set a reasonable learning objective for every lesson that allows their students to progress in the classroom. Expect student to achieve the objectives, and their study show that student achieve at higher rates when their teacher have high expectations for them.
Success
Motivate students by showing them that they can be successful in the classroom. Teacher can differentiate instruction to meet the student’s needs by adjusting the corresponding class work to the appropriate levels. Class work can modify in a variety of ways: shortened assignments, extra response time or enrichment activities.
Relevance
Show students how what they are learning matters in real life. This is one of the most effective learning techniques, especially for the older students, as it gives them meaning and purpose for their hard work. Guide student to discuss the new material and allow students to draw on their own experiences to learn and understand new material.
Engaging questions
Lead in with questions that will get the student talking. Encourage student to discuss the topic by bringing what they know about the topic to the classroom discussion. Clarify any questions that arise by encouraging the student to talk to each other first and expand on their pre-existing knowledge.
Incorporate Different Learning Style
Use a variety of teaching strategies in the classroom to facilitate the lesson. Classroom discussion consists of whole group learning. Cooperative group learning allows student to work together on assignments in small groups. Direct instructions allow teachers to model lesson assignment first so student can work independently at their desk.
Rewards And Privileges
Rewards and privileges are great motivational tools for hard work. Teachers can use a variety of them to encourage student motivation for participation. For example a token based economy is a great reward system that let student earn points that can be cashed in for prizes such as pencil, notepads. Motivating students with these methods is particularly effective for younger students.
Intrinsic motivation is motivation that is animated by personal enjoyment, interest, or pleasure. As Deci et al in 1999 observed, “Intrinsic motivation energizes and sustains activities through the spontaneous satisfactions inherent in effective volitional action. It is manifest in behaviors such as play, exploration, and challenge seeking that people often do for external rewards”. Researchers often contrast intrinsic motivation with extrinsic motivation, which is motivation governed by reinforcement contingencies. Traditionally, educators consider intrinsic motivation to be more desirable and to result in better learning outcomes than extrinsic motivation (Deci et al., 1999). Motivation involves a constellation of beliefs, perceptions, values, interests, and actions that are all closely related. As a result, various approaches to motivation can focus on cognitive behaviors (such as monitoring and strategy use), non-cognitive aspects (such as perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes), or both. For example, Gottfried (1990) defines academic motivation as “enjoyment of school learning characterized by a mastery orientation; curiosity; persistence; task-endogeny; and the learning of challenging, difficult, and novel tasks”. On the other hand, Turner (1995) considers motivation synonymous with cognitive engagement, which he defines as “voluntary uses of high-level self-regulated learning strategies, such as paying attention, connection, planning, and monitoring”.
Theoretical Approaches of Motivation
According to Stipek (1996), early approaches to the study of motivation were rooted in the literature on extrinsic reinforcement. Within this literature, all behavior, including achievement, was believed to be governed by reinforcement contingencies. Proponents of this approach included B.F. Skinner, who identified different types of reinforces. Positive reinforces, or rewards, are consequences that increase the probability of a given behavior they were made contingent on, whereas negative reinforces are consequences that increase the probability of a given behavior by removing or reducing some negative external stimulus. Punishment, on the other hand, refers to unpleasant consequences that decrease the probability of a given behavior. Under this framework, the teacher’s job is clear: to use good grades and praise to reward desired behavior and bad grades or loss of privileges as punishment. As Stipek notes, this approach is limited to the extent that rewards and punishments are not equally effective for all students, and desired behaviors (such as paying attention) are difficult to reinforce. Moreover, the benefits of extrinsic rewards tend to decay over time (Stipek, 1996).
These limitations, coupled with changing perspectives on motivation, ultimately led to yet another transformation of the literature on motivation emerging in the late 1960s and 1970s. This third-wave literature is characterized by the belief that behavior is affected by cognition rather than the consequences of one’s actions (Stipek, 1996). Broussard and Garrison (2004) observe that contemporary motivation research tends to be organized around three questions:
Can I do this task?
Do I want to do this task and why?
What do I have to do to succeed in this task?
Development of Motivation
Although research is based on the motivational levels of the elementary-age children, however motivation fluctuates and develops over time and with age. Initially the intrinsic motivation is quite high in the children (Broussard and Garrison, 2004). Elementary children have very positive self-concept and high academic expectations. However, motivation tends to decline over time when children leave the elementary stage and interest in reading and writing for pleasure decline with age (Guthrie, 2000). Gottfried in 1990 observed that the domain of general-motivation increases between the third and fourth grade. In 2002, Eccles and Wigfield found that the children attach more value to activities at which they excel over time, suggesting they will increasingly be more motivated to learn in subjects in which they experience success.
Nature of Learning and Theories
Learning is very important part of life and effect the structure of our personality and behavior. Individual starts learning immediately after birth. Direct and indirect experiences mould and shape the learning and thus behavior of the individual. Many thinker and psychologists define learning as following:
Kingsley and R. Garry in 1975 defined learning as a process by which behavior is originated or changes through practice and training.
Learning is an episode in which a motivated individual attempts to adapt his behavior to succeed in a situation, which he perceives as requiring action to again a goal (Pressey, Robinson and Horrocks, 1967).
Learning is relatively a permanent change in behavioral potentiality that occurs because of reinforced practice (Kimble, 1961).
On the account of above definition, we can say that learning is the process which brings relatively permanent changes in the behavior of a learner through experience or practice.
Factors Affecting Learning
Learning process is centered on three elements:
The learner whose behavior is to be changed or modified.
The type of experience or training required for modification in the learner’s behavior.
The men and material resources needed for providing desired experiences and training.
Therefore, the success and failure in the task for learning in terms of introducing desired modification in the behavior of a learner will automatically depend upon the quality as well as the management of the factors associated with the above cited elements.
Factors Associated with Learner
Learner is the key figure in the learning task. He has to learn and bring desired modification in his behavior. How he will learn is associated with the following factors:
Learners Physical and Mental Health
Learning is greatly affected by the learner’s physical and mental health especially at the time of learning. A simple headache or stomachache can play havoc in the product of learning. A tense, emotionally and mentally disturbed learner cannot show satisfactory results in learning.
The Basic Potential of the Learner
Learning heavily depends upon the learning potential of the learner. Such potentials are:
Learner’s innate abilities and capacities for learning a thing.
Learner’s basic potential in term of general intelligence and specific knowledge understanding and skill related to a particular learning area.
Learner’s basic interests, aptitudes and attitudes related o the learning of a particular thing and area.
The Level of Aspiration and Achievement Motivation
Learning is greatly influenced by the level of aspiration and nature of motivation possessed by a learner.
Goals of Life
The philosophy of immediate and ultimate goals of one’s life affect the process and product of learning. His mode and way of looking towards things, his inclination towards learning a particular subject and patience and persistence in perusing his learning despite the heavy odds. All depend up on his goals and philosophy of life.
Reading and Will Power
A learners readiness and power to learn is a great deciding factor of his results in learning. No power on the earth can help a learner if he is not ready to learn. Certainly if he has a will to learn a thing hence automatically, he will himself find ways for effective learning (Horton and Turnage, 1976).
Learners Autonomy
Learner’s autonomy can be defined as the capacity and of learning rather than the set of behaviors.
It is indeed an ability, ”a power or capacity to do something” and not a type of conduct, ”behavior”. ‘Autonomy’ is thus a term describing a potential capacity to act in a given situation _ in our case, learning _ and not the actual behavior of an individual in that situation (Holec, 1981). David Little defines the concept in similar terms, stating that ‘essentially, autonomy is a capacity _ for detachment, critical reflection, decision making and independent action (Little, 1991).
Self-regulated Learning
Self-regulated learning is the branch of educational psychology and has its roots in research conducted in 1960’s into a range of self-regulated learning process such as self-reinforcement, self-efficacy perception, goal setting and self-evaluation. In general, it can be described as self-regulated to the degree that they are metacognitively, motivationally and behaviorally active participants in their own learning process. Such students personally initiate and direct their own efforts to acquire knowledge and skill rather than relying on teachers, parents, or other agents of instructions (Zimmerman 1989). However, it is a mental phenomenon but volition, motivation and self-efficacy play a major role in self-regulated learning and have primary focus on behaviors (Lewis and Vialleton, 2011).
Effective Teaching for Elementary Level
The following steps required for effective teaching at elementary level:
Passion
Probably more than anything else, teachers report that it is important to have a passion for what you do. A number of researches showed that “enthusiasm for children” as a key attribute. This enthusiasm makes the teaching truly effective and is closer to drive. Being an elementary educator is not always easy. There may be physical and financial challenges. However, if you feel that what you are doing makes a difference, that sense of accomplishment can sustain and motivate you. “This is not a career for someone just looking for a job working with kids because they are cute and it looks like fun. This is a career that must ignite your passion.”
Perseverance
This is another characteristic frequently cited. Some respondents referred to perseverance as “dedication”; according to other researchers it was “tenacity.” However some other describe it as the willingness to fight for one’s beliefs, whether related to children’s needs or education issues. Teachers have to be willing to be long-term advocates for improving the lives of children and their families. Respondents in this study believe children need and deserve teachers who can overcome bureaucracy and handle rules and regulations.
Willingness to take risks
A third related characteristic is the willingness to take risks. Successful educators are willing to shake up the status quo to achieve their goals for children. Great teachers are willing to go against the norm. Taking a risk means not settling for a “no” answer if a yes will improve the quality of a child’s education. For example, one teacher reports wanting to team teach her preschool class with a self-contained special education program adjacent to her room. Integration of programs had never been done before at her school, and faculty and administration alike looked at the idea with skepticism. To secure administration approval, the teachers had to conduct research, do a parent survey, and bring in outside experts. They held parent meetings to convince both the families of children with disabilities and those of children without disabilities that their children would benefit. After much energy and effort, the program was initiated on a trial basis. Five years later, it is one of the most successful and popular programs at the school (Villa and Colker 2006).
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is the flip side of perseverance and willingness to take risks. Pragmatists are willing to compromise. They know which battles are winnable and when to apply their resources in support of children. The important point, is that effective teachers understand that by temporarily settling for small wins, they are still making progress toward their goals.
Patience
In line with pragmatism is the characteristic of patience. There is a need to have patience both when dealing with “the system” and when working with children and families. Not every child learns quickly. Some behaviors can challenge even the most effective teacher. Children need reminder after reminder. Good teachers have a long fuse for exasperation, frustration, and anger. They regard all such challenges as exactly that- challenges. Effective teaching requires patience.
Flexibility
This is the sixth characteristic linked to successful teaching. Indeed, any job in early elementary school education demands that you’ll be able to deal well with change and unexpected turns. Whether it’s raining outside and you have to cancel outdoor play, or your funding agency has drastically reduced your operating budget, you need to be able to switch gears at a moment’s notice and find an alternative that works. Sometimes the challenges are both drastic and sudden. There should be “flexibility” in the way of teaching so that one can teach effectively.
Respect
It is strongly believed that respect for children and families are basic to being a good early childhood teacher. Some identified this characteristic as an “appreciation of diversity.” They described it as not only respecting children and families of all backgrounds, but also as maintaining the belief that everyone’s life is enhanced by exposure to people of different backgrounds who speak a variety of languages. We know that children’s self-concepts flourish in an environment of respect. Good teachers create this environment naturally.
Creativity
An eighth characteristic is creativity. It takes creativity to teach in a physical environment that is less than ideal or when resources are limited. It takes creativity to teach children from diverse backgrounds that might not approach education in the same way. It takes creativity to teach children with differing learning styles that think and learn in different ways. In addition, most of all, it takes creativity to make learning fun. Creativity is a hallmark of an effective teacher.
Authenticity
This is another frequently cited characteristic of effective teaching. Some respondents referred to this attribute as “selfawareness.” Being authentic mean knowing who you are and what you stand for. It is what gives you integrity and conviction. Young children are shrewd judges of character; they know whether a teacher is authentic, and they respond accordingly.
Love of learning
The next characteristic is love of learning. To inspire children with a love of learning, teachers themselves ought to exhibit this characteristic. Teachers who are lifelong learners send children the message that learning is an important part of life. It is important for effective teaching that teacher involves seeking out knowledge.
High energy
Though it may have more to do with temperament than disposition, many teachers felt it important that teachers display high energy. Most children respond positively to teachers with high energy levels, valuing their enthusiasm. As it was observed by researcher, “The energy it takes to get up every day and work on behalf of young children and families is enormous.”
Sense of humor
A final vital of effective teaching pinpointed by respondents in the study was having a sense of humor. Learning should be fun; nothing conveys this message more than a room that is filled with spontaneous laughter. As it is clear from the statement of all the children that they love them and respect them and be willing to laugh when it’s funny. . . even when the joke’s on them.
Learners Empowerment
Empowered learner means to be motivated to perform tasks, and more specifically an empowered person finds the tasks meaningful, feels competent to perform them, and feels his/her efforts have an impact on the scheme of things.
When teachers were immediate and made the content relevant, students felt more empowered to learn. More specifically, instructor use of verbal and nonverbal immediacy and relevance were all positively associated with students’ feelings of meaningfulness, competence, and impact. Student levels of state motivation were also positively related to all three dimensions of empowerment, however trait motivation was not. Based on these results Frymier and his colleagues concluded that learner empowerment was a state phenomenon that resulted from situational factors such as teacher behaviors (Frymier et al., 1996). As stated earlier, this conclusion was not consistent with contemporary views of motivation that conclude it is a result of both individual characteristics such as student personality (Weiner, 1990) as well as situational characteristics such as teacher behavior (Keller, 1983). They reported that self-esteem was positively associated with students’ feeling of competence*an empowerment dimension. Self-esteem is a component of self-concept (Chiu, 1988) and would be considered a stable individual characteristic. Therefore this provides some evidence that learner empowerment is likely to be influenced by personal characteristics as well as situational characteristics. Frymier et al. (1996) provide further support for this view when they make the distinction between ”empowered” and ”empowering.” ”Being ’empowered’ refers to an internal condition that an individual experiences, similar to experiencing state motivation or state anxiety,”.
Hart, Stasson and his colleagues in 2007, support the concept of empowerment as a form of motivation results from both internal learner characteristics and situational factors such as teacher behaviors. Hart and his research fellows hypothesized that temperament would be associated with both intrinsic and extrinsic achievement motivation. They report that the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) account for three times as much variance in intrinsic achievement motivation than in extrinsic achievement motivation. They conclude that extrinsic motivation is more likely to be impacted by situational characteristics where intrinsic achievement motivation is ”relatively immune from many contextual factors”.
Student Characteristics
Temperament and learner orientation are the student characteristics that have a great impact on the learning (McCroskey et al., 2004).
Temperament
Temperament is the student characteristic which have three traits as being ”manifest through communication”. Students, who exhibit extroversion (sociable and assertive), neuroticism (anxious and emotional), and psychoticism (aggressive and antisocial) do so communicatively and via immediacy. It was found that students with different temperament have different levels of learning at school (Hart et al., 2007).
Learner Orientation
Learner orientation was conceived by Eison (1981) as a perspective students bring into the classroom that is primarily focused either on learning or grades. Learning-oriented students regard course information as essential and ultimately rewarding (Jacobs, 1992) while grade-oriented students place an emphasis on grades and view their classes as a series of hurdles to overcome (Gorham, 1999).
Research has consistently found that learning-oriented and grade-oriented students respond differently to teachers and the learning environment (Houser, 2006). Pollio and Beck, 2000 suggest student orientations affect the way they think of themselves in the classroom. This research supports the notion that students’ orientations toward grades and learning impacts what students experience in the classroom and therefore, likely is related to students’ feelings of empowerment.
Chapter 3
Materials and Method
Data Collection
The study was based on the effect of teacher’s behavior on the learning and motivation of the student. About 241 questionnaires were filled to gather the information about their personal information, locality and schools. The questions include in the questionnaires told us about their teacher’s behavior and their motivation for learning. The samples were collected by visiting the many different public and private schools of Lahore in October 2012. This study is quantitative study.
Population
The population of the study is comprised of the students of Elementary level from both private and public sectors. 241 students were participated in the research and asked to fill the questionnaires. Among them fifty percent are from private schools and fifty percent are from public schools. Both male and females participated in the study together with fifty percent males and fifty percent females.
Limitations of the Study
Limited time and number of population
Limited resources
Students feel shy and hesitate in front of their teachers to talk about theirs teacher’s behaviors
Scoring
Rating response based on the following scoring procedure. Items of the questionnaires were scored as:
Statement as S1, S2, S3 . . . . . . . Sn
Never as 1
Rarely as 2
Some times 3
Often as 4
Always as 5
Gender
Male as 1
Female as 2
Grades
Sixth standard as 1
Seventh standard as 2
Eight standard as 3
Locality
Urban as 1
Rural as 2
Statistical Analysis
It is very important step to apply the statistics to the results to check the validity and reliability of the study conducted. The stats was applied to the results by using SPSS-16.0 version. The descriptive stats was calculated for all the data collected and mean and standard errors was computed. One way ANOVA was applied to see the significance level among the male and female groups. T-test was applies to compare the means of groups.
Chapter 4
Data Analysis and Interpretations
Table 1
Analysis of Teacher Behavior among male and female student at elementary level
Gender
N
Mean
Std.dev
t-value
Sig. (2- tailed)
Male
121
63.40
6.60
-4.206
.000
Female
120
66.62
5.19
Above table shows that there is a significant difference of teacher behavior among male and female students at elementary level as t-value is significant at significant level of 0.05. Mean value of female students is higher as compared to male students this mean that majority of female students opinion about teacher behavior is good.
Table 2
Analysis of Teacher Behavior in public and private schools at elementary level
School
N
Mean
Std.dev
t-values
Sig. (2- tailed)
Public
121
65.93
4.55
2.37
.019
Private
120
64.07
7.31
2.36
.019
Above table shows that there is a significant difference of teacher behavior in public and private schools at elementary level as t-value is significant at the significant level of 0.05. Mean value of public schools is higher than private schools this mean that majority of public schools have good opinion about their teacher behavior.
Table 3
Analysis of male and female student motivation at elementary level
Gender
N
Mean
Std.dev
t-values
Sig. (2- tailed)
Male
121
67.54
7.22
-1.29
.198
Female
120
68.64
5.87
-1.29
.197
Above table shows that there is no significant difference among males and females students motivation for learning as t-value is not significant at significant level of 0.05. Mean value of both male and female students’ motivation is almost same.
Table 4
Analysis of student motivation in public and private schools at elementary level
School
N
Mean
Std.dev
t-values
Sig. (2- tailed)
Public
121
68.71
6.20
1.46
.143
Private
120
67.46
6.93
1.46
.144
Above table shows that there is no significant difference among public and private school students motivation for learning as t-value is not significant at significant level of 0.05. Mean value of both public and private students’ motivation is almost same.
Table 5
Teacher behavior Descriptive
Class
N
Mean
Std.dev
6th
68
62.97
6.52
7th
67
65.98
6.33
8th
106
65.69
5.49
Above table shows that 68 students of class 6 participated in research with the mean value of 62.97, 67 students of class 7th take part in research with mean value of 65.98 and 106 student of 8th class take part in research with the mean value of 65.69. Mean value of 7th is higher than other two classes this means that they have good opinion about their teacher behavior.
Table 6
Student Motivation Descriptive
Class
N
Mean
Std.dev
6th
68
66.64
6.74
7th
67
67.79
6.14
8th
106
69.20
6.62
Above table shows that 68 students of class 6 participated in research with the mean value of 66.64, 67 students of class 7th take part in research with mean value of 67.79 and 106 student of 8th class take part in research with the mean value of 69.20. Mean value of 8th class is higher than other two classes.
Table 7
Teacher Behavior ANOVA
Sum of Squares
Df.
Mean Square
F
Sig
between groups
396.71
2
198.359
5.444
.005
Within groups
8671.26
238
36.43
Total
9067.98
240
Above table shows that in public and private schools, there is significant difference between the groups and within the groups of male and female students at the significant level of 0.05 for their opinion about teacher behavior. The F value for the ANOVA is 5.444.
Table 8
Student Motivation ANOVA
Sum of Squares
Df
Mean Square
f
Sig
Between groups
279.954
2
139.97
3.281
.039
Within groups
10154.03
238
42.66
Total
10433.99
240
Above table shows that in public and private schools, there is no significant difference between the groups and within the groups of male and female students as the value of significance is higher than the significant level of 0.05 for their motivation for learning. The F value for the ANOVA is 3.281.
Table 9
Multiple comparisons
Dependent
Variable
(I)
(J)
Mean Difference
(I-J)
Sig.
Teacher behavior
6th
7th
-3.01449*
.011
8th
-2.72752*
.011
7th
6th
3.01449*
.011
8th
.28696
.950
8th
6th
2.72752*
.011
7th
-.28696
.950
In the above table of multiple comparisons there is significant difference found in the opinion of 7th and 8th class about their teacher’s behavior when compared with class 6th at the significant level of 0.05. When opinion of 7th class about their teacher behavior is compared with the 6th and 8th class significant difference found in opinion of 7th and 6th class at the significant level of 0.05 and no significant difference observed in opinion of 7th and 8th class.
Table 10
Multiple comparisons
Dependent
Variable
(I)
(J)
Mean Difference
(I-J)
Sig.
Student motivation
6th
7th
-1.14399
.567
8th
-2.56049*
.033
7th
6th
1.14399
.567
8th
-1.41650
.348
8th
6th
2.56049*
.033
7th
1.41650
.348
Above table of multiple comparisons shows that there is significant difference found in class 6th and 8th for the student motivation at the significant level of 0.05 while no significant difference found in other two classes.
Chapter 5
Discussion, Conclusions and Recommendations
Discussion
The only way of success for any country is educate people. Teachers can help a lot not only to improve the standards of education but the literacy rate. However, unfortunately we are lacking in the sector of education. The study was based on the effect of teacher’s behavior on students for their motivation for learning. The data was collected through the questionnaires in public and private schools of Lahore. Both males and females participated in the research. They answer the questions in relation to their teacher’s behavior and questions related to their motivation for studies. The data was tabulated, analyzed and interrupted in the light of the objectives of the study.
In the present study the male and female students of public and private schools participated in the study and answer the questions linked with teacher behavior. It was observed that at elementary level, there is a significant difference in the opinion of the students about their teacher’s behavior and t-value of significance is 0.005. The mean value of females is higher for females that mean they have good opinion regarding their teacher’s behavior. The results of study show that female students praise their teacher more for their good behavior. According to them their teacher talks politely, gave them chance to speak and ask questions in last of lecture. Their teachers gave them marks fairly and do not make discrimination among their students. They do not physically punish them or shout over them over all they have admirable opinion about their teachers behavior. These results are in agreement with Iqbal (1996) who expressed that good teachers are fair in dealing with students. These are also in agreement with McCroskey (2001) expressed that psychoticism (aggressive, antisocial) and neuroticism (anxious and emotional) behavior of the teachers have negative effect on student feelings of classroom competence. They feel hesitate to communicate with their teachers and this overall has a bad impact on their motivation for learning. These results are also in agreement with the Heisel, McCroskey and Richmond (1999), Milton in 1986 and Houser raised similar issue in 2005.
In the present study most of the male student at elementary level in public and private schools think that their teachers use harsh words with them and sometimes they physically punish them. They also think that teaches do not give them marks fairly. For these reasons their mean value was lower than female students as explained by McCroskey and his colleagues in 2001 and Iqbal in 1996. It was said by Yeh in 2003 that excellent teachers are fundamental in ensuring the educational quality. Teachers thoughts and believes and their behavior, manners, teaching efficiency and class management has great influence on students. It was accept as true by Judson in 2006 and Ho in 2009.
There is significant difference between the public and private schools about their teacher’s behavior and that means there is slight difference in the behavior of public school teachers than private school teachers. The behavior of public school teachers is good than private school teachers. The salary package of public schools teacher is better than private schools. This might influence the behavior of teacher as many teachers depend on their salaries to fulfill their needs. If they are unable to do that, it might make them grumpy and affect their behavior. Aggressive, emotional and grumpy teacher would not help the student in their learning and motivation and their achievements Hart et al, in 2007 and Cole and McCroskey in 2000 explained the same.
In the table 3 the results shows that there is no significant difference in the motivation of the male and female students. Questions were asked regarding to their motivation for learning. Both answered that they like to go to school. They take interest in doing their homework. They understand the lecture and in the end, they become able to answer the questions. They work hard in the examination and they want to get good grades. Only few students said that they hesitate to talk to their teachers because of their low confidence level. Only small number of students takes part in the extracurricular activities but many of them take part in their classroom activities.
Good learning behaviors in the classroom and telling the teachers what they understand and suggest new activities in the classroom. This all is exhibit by the students just because of the good behavior of the teacher. Excellent teaching strategies can influence the learning behavior of the students in the classroom. Boyle and his colleagues accept this as true in 2001.
As both public and private schools were included, no significant difference was found in the motivation for learning of public and private school students at elementary level. The value of significance is greater than 0.005. Students at elementary level show almost similar interest in the study. As their age group is almost similar and lie in the range of 11 to 18 years. They all feel same about their studies and their motivation for learning. About 68 students of class 6, 67 students of class 7 and 106 students of class take part in research project but 7th class has highest mean value of 65.98 it means that they have good opinion about their teacher’s behavior. All the students have clear ideas about superior teaching quality and circumstances in which they can produce good quality work. Students that take part in the research believed that not only the verbal communication influence their learning in the classroom but non-verbal communication (like gesture, head movement, eye contact, silence, touch, tone of voice facial expressions) also included in teaching behavior and effect their learning process. Dogarel and Nitu believed the same that the effect of interaction could be emotional, physical, cognitive or any combination of these factors. If teachers are unaware of the complex details of the element of interaction, they fail to become more striking and powerful. Both verbal and non-verbal communications are the critical elements of effective change in personality and behavior. It is believed that positive change in the teacher’s behavior and attitude is responsible for positive change in classroom climate (Dogarel and Nitu, 2007).
In table 6 there is the descriptive stats for all the students to check their motivation it was observed that 8th class has highest mean value of 69.20 than other two classes that means they are motivated for learning at highest level. As they are, grow up and mature enough to understand the importance of education in their life for their carrier. These results are in agreement with the findings of Broussard and Garrson in 2004 and Guthrie in 2000. They believe that motivation level fluctuates with time and it is high in the elementary school level. However, according to Eccles and Wigfield (2002) students are exceedingly motivated in the subject they experience success. There is significant relation was found in the motivation for learning and teacher’s behavior. Frymier and his colleagues in 1996 found the positive relation in the students leaning motivation and teacher’s behavior. It was observed by Iqbal in 1996; Ho in 2009.
Conclusion
After analysis of data it was concluded from the results that
Mostly the teachers have good behavior towards their students.
Teacher talks with them politely and gave them chance to ask question in the end of lecture.
They encourage students to make decisions about studies.
Only male students complain that teacher punish them physically and use harsh words for them.
Majority of the students feel that teachers discriminate among students and do not give them marks fairly.
This results in inferiority complex in students and they feel shy and hesitate to talk with their teachers.
Majority of teachers follow the rules and regulations of school.
They come in class regularly and write important points on the black board.
Majority of the students work hard and want to get good grades in class.
Some students feel that they are not going good in the class and sometimes they feel low confidence in the class.
Although students feel motivate for learning but physical punishment, harsh words and unfair marking have negative effect on learning motivation.
Good behavior and sense of responsibility towards their students increase the learning motivation and have positive effect on class climate.
Recommendations
In the light of the result analysis of this study, it is recommended that
Teacher training today do not ensure skilful teacher-student interaction. Therefore, there is a need to improve the teacher training courses so that they can effectively communicate with their students.
The results of such study may open the new door for the future research and there are many areas remaining for future research.
Many improvements have been made in the law and legislations so that teachers cannot physically punish or torture the students. However, there is still some teacher physically punish their students. Therefore, there is a need to apply the laws strictly in the country.
We must facilitate and fund the learning programs for both teacher and students so that we can improve the quality of education and literacy rate in our country, which is the basic, need of our country.
There are many projects working internationally to educate teachers and promote research in related fields. We should start such projects in our country too.
Teachers should improve their behavior, teaching skills and increase their knowledge so that they can manage class and keep the students busy in positive activities.