Revista Institutului de Pregtire Didactic

DEVELOPING PRE-ADOLESCENT STUDENTS POTENTIAL

BY STIMULATING THEIR MOTIVATION AND POSITIVE
ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCHOOL
TUAN LIANA
Universitatea 1 Decembrie 1918, Alba Iulia

Abstract
Fr das Lehrkraft sollte der Ansporn der Schler fr die Motivierung zum lernen einer
der Haupt- sowie stndige Begrndung sein, umso mehr, als die Motivierung als zweiter
in die Hierarchie der Wichtigkeit der Faktoren beigemessen wurde.
Die Qualitt der Egebnisse in die Ttigkeit des lernens, sowie die Anpassung der Schler
an diese Ttigkeit sind abhngig auch von der Art und Abstufung der Motivierung des
lernens. Um die Aufnerksamkeit fe die lern Ttigkeit der Jugendlichen Schler
anzuspornen, wir haben eine Reihe von Aktivitten entworfen und implementiert.

Each stage in ones life has certain bio-psychical characteristics, using

mechanisms and different adjusting resources, possibilities and specific limits. Teachers
not knowing or ignoring the physical evolution of the child, the evolution of the
characteristics, functions and psychical processes, the progresses specific to each stage may
generate adjusting difficulties that may have serious consequences on the development of
the young persons personality.
One of the periods when we may register frequent school adjusting difficulties is
represented by the debut of pre-adolescence, a period that coincides with the transition from
primary level to the secondary level in which, because of a fragile emotional and psychical
equilibrium and a developing personality, numerous adaptive behaviors are assimilated and
long-lasting behavior patterns are formed. These are transferred to the future activities.
Once the student faces this transition, he/she faces numerous changes at the level
of the instructive-educative activity, which are expressed by new demands and strains, the
contact with more diversified human models and more diversified types of lessons, which,
because of the bio-psychological transformations may generate difficulties in school
adjustment. These changes refer to the following aspects:
- a new image of the teacher, which mainly refers to the alteration of the teacherstudent relationship, i.e. teachers affective neutrality;
- teaching each subject by a different teacher, each teacher having his/her own
teaching/evaluation style;
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- an increase in the subjects matters and their difficulty level;

- less free time and more hours dedicated to individual study;
- an evaluation shift from qualificatives to marks.
The study motivation represents the factors that make the student carry out activities
meant to lead to the assimilation of new knowledge, skill development and these play a very
important role in the optimization of the learning activity an making the students aware of the
contents of the learning. This motivation triggers effort intensification, attention focus,
mobilization of the necessary nervous and psychical energy to develop the learning act, get over
difficulties met during this process and to solve the learning tasks.
D. Ausubel and F. Robinson consider that the main components of school
motivation are as it follows (Ausubel, Robinson, 1981):
- the cognitive impulse it belongs to intrinsic motivation and it is represented by
the need to know, to understand, to operate with the knowledge, to formulate and solve
problems;
- a strong affirmation of the self this includes the need to be successful at school,
and this generates self esteem and the need for prestige within the group one belongs to.
Very often one notices anxiety moods generated by a possible failure which may cause loss
of self esteem and prestige;
- the need to affiliate this represents the need to obtain and keep a persons or the
group with which the student identifies approval (teachers, parents, peers).
These three components may appear separately or combined during any moment
of the school activity, their action and importance being different according to age or
individual. During pre-adolescence, the need to affiliate, which predominates at the primary
level, decreases its intensity and is redirected from the teachers and parents to their peers. A
motivational factor which is very powerful during this stage is competition to get school
results, but the negative appreciations of the members of the group regarding superior
school results will diminish the students interest towards school activity thus generating a
decrease in the school efficiency.
Among the school activity specific causes that may generate a decrease of
students motivation towards the learning activity we may mention:
- the existence of an affective environment that does not satisfy the need for
students affective security;
- denying the students who have poor school results group membership, the
appreciation of the rest of the group by labeling and marginalizing them;
- ignoring the communication of the objectives of the instructive-educative
activity;
- promoting authoritarian relationships, based on disciplinary coercion, which
makes the student be a passive listener, a simple object to education, lacking any initiative;
- exaggerated indulgence, teachers lack of firmness and exigency, the incapacity
to impose a school conduct suited to the demands;
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- not knowing or not respecting the bio-psychical particularities specific to preadolescence and to individual peculiarities, to the capacities and the intellectual limits of
each student;
- using a poor evaluation strategy:
- delayed communication of the results of the evaluation
- grading the students at random examinations
- grading the students according to their behavior: indiscipline, lack of attention
- centering evaluation on penalizing the failures, the difficulties and not trying to
dispose of them
- promoting competitive evaluation and not progress evaluation, through which the
one may record the progress from one level to another
- promoting subjective evaluation, based on unfair treatment of the students.
Stimulation of the students motivation by the teachers should represent one of the
fundamental and permanent objectives of the instructive-educative activity as motivation
holds the second position in the hierarchy of the importance of the school success factors,
after school intelligence (Ausubel, Robinson, 1981). The quality of the results of the
learning activity and the students adjustment are conditioned by the degree and the type of
motivation that supports school learning. Within the variables that determine the learning
motivation, school may influence or control only the ones that belong to it: student-teacher
interaction, student-student interaction, the content of the learning process, the didactic
methods, evaluation of the school performance, the needs and the domains of interest of the
students, the school results that materialize in school successes and failures.
In a recent research during which we have investigated the adjusting difficulties of
pre-adolescent students we have had as hypothesis the fact that the implementation of
interventional programs at the level of 5th grade students and their parents contributes to
prevention/amelioration of pre-adolescent students school non-adaptation. These programs
should aim at achieving equilibrium between specific secondary level school exigencies
and the students feedback behavior towards these.
Starting from the definition of school adjustment concept and endeavoring a first
step towards operationalization, we have come to the conclusion that we may approach two
dimensions: 1) pedagogical adjustment (instructional) and 2) normative and relational
adjustment with its subdivisions normative adjustment and relational adjustment, aspects
that concord with some other scholars in the field (Cosmovici, Iacob, 1998). One of the
operational indicators afferent to pedagogical adjustment has been the valorization of the
students potential by developing positive motivations and attitudes towards the school
activity. In order to achieve the objectives of our investigation, i.e. stimulating and
developing students interest and positive motivation towards school activity we have
devised and implemented a planning of the classes within the Counseling and School
Orientation curricular area. We have included specific activities that should meet the real
needs of 5th grade pre-adolescent students. We have identified these needs during the course
of our investigation.
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In order to quantify the indicator mentioned above, in the initial phase we have
used the Observation Sheet regarding the students interest and preoccupation towards
school activity. This is structured in 14 items that highlight the students participation to
the lesson, the rapport modality to the content of the lesson, manifestation of interest
towards some subjects, receptivity to school requests, the way students prepare their
homework, the attitude and behavior during classes.
After we have applied this instrument, during the ascertaining stage, we have
recorded the following results:
Table no. 1: Students interest and preoccupation towards school activity
Motivated, interested, preoccupied
Passive, with fluctuant interest and motivation
Not motivated, not interested
Total

Frequent
17
24
8
49

%
34,7
49,0
16,3
100,0

One may notice that the highest percentage belongs to the students that manifest
passivity or fluctuant motivation (49%), while a lower percentage of students manifest
interest and preoccupation towards the school activity (34,7%), and 16,3% form the
students we have investigated are not motivated and not interested in the school activities.
According to these results we have concluded that, by carrying out activities to
stimulate motivation and an increase in the interest towards the school activity we shall
obtain a better pedagogical adjustment and an increase in the school efficiency.
During the experimental phase, in order to arouse interest, to stimulate
preoccupation and positive motivation we have designed and carried out educative
activities within Counseling and Orientation curricular area. The most significant issues
regarding present papers objective are: Learning Management, Self-awareness and
personal development. For each of these themes we have detailed the educational activities,
their stages, the resources that have been involved (methods, means, organizational forms)
and the evaluation of the activity. We mention the following activities:
- for the Learning Management module: My style and my learning strategies,
Motivation of learning and its sources, How do I memorize?, How do I study?,
How do I take notes?, Efficient reading
- for the Self-awareness and personal development module: Who am I?, I in the
eyes of those around me, My successes, My qualities.
As a way to carry out the activities, we have chosen one based on teacher-student
interaction, the students having the possibility of expressing what they know and to learn
what they are interested in by discovering it. At the same time we have started from the
premise that the success of Counseling and Orientation classes is granted by active and
responsible involvement both of the class master (counselor) and of the students. This leads
to a student-student and teacher-students interaction that is based on respect and mutual
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trust. Thus, we have used active methods, mainly group methods such as: brainstorming,
Phillips 6/6, debates, problematization, group work, role play, exercise, The tour of the
gallery, One remains, the others move on, SWOT analysis, I know-I want to know-I
have learnt, bunch method, SINELG method etc.
After having carried out these activities (during a term), we have applied again the
samples used during the ascertaining stage and we have recorded the following results:
Table no. 2: Students interest and preoccupation towards school activity
Motivated, interested, preoccupied
Passive, with fluctuant interest and motivation
Not motivated, not interested
Total

Frequent
30
16
3
49

%
61,2
32,6
6,1
100,0

As compared to the first data, recorded during the ascertaining stage, one may
notice significant changes. The number of motivated, interested students has increased in
rapport with the passive, not interested ones. This fact demonstrates the important role the
independent variable played, the intervention within the development of the Counseling
and Orientation classes, with a special focus on the learning management and on the
learning motivation.

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