Review and Study Blog

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The reviewed article:
Motivational Patterns Observed in Sixth-Grade Science Classroom, by Okhee Lee and Jere Brophy
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 33, No. 3 PP. 303-318 (1996)

Purposes of this article:
To emphasize the value of distinguishing motivation to learn from intrinsic motivation, and of distinguishing general motivational traits from situation-specific motivational states
To value the importance of considering subject-matter content in classroom motivation.

Methods for this study:
The topic is kinetic molecular theory. The curriculum is based on a conceptual change approach in science, which is stimulate students' conceptions and misconceptions. The specific contents are: the nature of matter; three states of matter; thermal expansion; dissolving; melting and freezing; boiling and evaporation, etc. Teachers are asked to encourage students to apply the knowledge they obtaind to explaining other daily phenomena. The class is taught by an interactive way with hands-on experiments, etc. Otherwise, the class is conducted in normal procedure, such as quizzes, reports and activity book. Data are collected and analyzed by two people. They also check the consistency of the data through the process. The study is measured by three motivational levels, which are "behavioral engagement", "cognitive engagement", and "intrinsic motivation." The behavioral engagement is the first step attention. The cognitive engagement is more involved behavior when facing confusion or difficulty to the topic. The intrinsic motivation is enthusiasm in learning. The data from interviews and observations are compiled in terms of the levels of task engagement.

Conclusions and Discussions:
This article discussed the students' behaviors and effective methods to improve their motivation to learn science. There are various methods to be advocated to improve the situation; however, the key is to recognize that there are many of the factors to see students' motivational levels. This also indicates that the multi-aspects of classroom, such as teachers, curriculum, methods, academic tasks, and subject-matter contents, can be the factors to observe. As their conclusion, "Thus, instructional programs or teachers address their intervention strategies more specifically in response to the characteristics of individual students."