The Impact Of Motivation And Student Achievement

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Self-Contained vs. Departmentalized Classrooms: Examining the Impact of Motivation and Student Achievement Currently, in the state of Georgia, the TKES system used to observe teachers reflect instruction in departmentalized and self-contained classrooms. As a result, schools are transitioning to more departmentalized classroom settings due to increasing enrollment of students, higher demand in differentiation, and easier transitions to upper grade levels. This study will help determine the importance of departmentalized versus self-contained classroom settings. A study by, Dr. Alecia Sthrol showed statistics that teachers in middle school and high school have seen a drastic change in student achievement due to departmentalized classroom settings. However, there were a lot of cons that came along with the process that if not kept to par, would result to a decrease in student achievement. The purpose, of this research is to determine if departmentalized classroom settings or self-contained classroom settings affect student motivation and achievement for fourth grade students. (insert motivation statements here)“According to the self-worth theory of achievement motivation, a sense of academic self-worth is the most critical factor in determining student attitudes and behavior. The key to academic self-worth is students’ perceptions of their own ability in school, especially in comparison with others. Students learn to avoid shame and humiliation due to failure by choosing to not try. This type of, intentional resistant classroom behavior have been coined “negative motivation” (Teel, 2001 p. 16). Methods Participants Twenty-two fourth grade teachers of both a self-contained and departmentalized classroom will conduct the base of t... ... middle of paper ... ...tmentalized classroom settings, because it will ease up faculty stress, and decrease student difficulty, but increase school difficulty because it will allow schools to have higher expectations and rules. Departmentalization in fourth and fifth grades offers academic specialization in which self-contained classrooms are deficient. Departmentalization makes it easier for students to follow the discipline tracking to suit their abilities. It takes full advantage of the best of teacher resources and facilitates instructional planning. In addition, students seem to like the freedom to move around from classroom to classroom in a school day (KSU, 2013). With this understanding, elementary and middle grade educators can collaborate to structure departmentalization programs so that young adolescents get the best start possible in their middle school and beyond (KSU, n.d.).

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