V22 Report for EMOD59BWord文件下载.docx

1、Submitted by: Guoqiang CaoSubmitted to: Dr. Anthony ColesDate: 28th Jan 2011MA EducationYear 1Birmingham City University Faculty of Education, Law and Social ScienceAcknowledgementsI would like to thank the following: Dr. Anthony Coles - Reader in Post-Compulsory Education, my supervisor, for his en

2、couragement, patience and expert advice; Dr. Jim McGrath and Dr. Tony Armstrong, for supplying so much invaluable information; and finally special thanks go to my friends and family who have supported me throughout my research.Table of contents_Abstract （100 words） 4Introduction （350） 5Methodology （

3、1200） 7Literature Review （2000） 12Critical Reflection on Literature （800） 20Conclusion （300） 25 References 26Abstract Academic achievement can be affected by an individuals motivation. Students motivation could be divided in to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in the classroom. First, it has been

4、considered intrinsic motivation served as the dominant function for the learning （Law, 2009）. Secondly, some factors of extrinsic motivation could have the negative effect on learning （Law, 2009）. At the same time, intrinsic motivation could be affected by many factors. For example, the forms of lea

5、rning （such as the lecture and the small-group learning） could also affect students intrinsic motivation （Springer, 1999）; setting goals may also benefit the academic outcome of intrinsic motivation （Linnenbrink, 2005）; however, the instruction procedures may did not have significant effect on stude

6、nts intrinsic motivation （Berger, 2009）.IntroductionThe topic of this report was motivation in relation to student centered learning methods （small group learning）. According to my work experience, some students were not interested in learning at the start of the first year; some other students inte

7、rest became less and less in the period of learning. From my personal perspective, I was always motivated to keep on inquiring about things unknown to me. I wanted to find a right way of using motivation to keep students engaged in the learning activity. Motivation is “an inferred process within a p

8、erson or animal that causes movement either toward a goal or away from an unpleasant situation” （Wade, 2008: 440）. Many motivational theories could be used in the education context, such as motives and needs, expectancy theory, and equity theory, cognitive theory, reinforcement theory and goat setti

9、ng theory （Law, 2009）. The motivation occurred in classroom could be divided into two categories: Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation meant that someone was motivated by internal factors （such as fun/interest）. Extrinsic motivation meant that someone was motivated by

10、external factors （such as rewards or pressure） （Beswick, 2010）. These ideas will be developed in the Literature Review.In small group teaching （SGT）, which placed more emphasis on providing students with an opportunity for collaborative learning rather than the presence of a tutor （Exley, 2005: 1）,

11、we strive towards some kinds of motivation which stimulates students to learn new things, some kinds of motivation that will lasts not only in classroom but also in their future life. The task of a tutor is to specify the goals of the course as subject objectives, arrange students into different gro

12、ups, make sure that the discussion of the groups is on track, and lead students march on the right direction. The more important aspect was to help students build a model on how to face and deal with a new situation from both personal feeling and personal perception perspectives. In this report I wi

13、ll first discuss some literature on student-centered learning, small group learning and motivation. I will then reflect on the literature combining with knowledge from my professional practice. Finally, I will generally describe how to use motivation through small group learning in student-centered

14、learning context.Methodology （500-750）I implemented the literature review and a reflection on the literature discussed. My approach to implement the research was shown as follow.1. Identify the search terms for the topic, and choose search tools/engines;2. Carry out the research, considering repeati

15、ng searches if necessary;3. Select the literature after scanning and recording the quality of conclusions in the literature searched;4. Classify and extract conclusion/data, then summarize and combine these conclusions;5. Write a critical reflection on the literature, and write the report.Quantitati

16、ve research methods and Qualitative research methods“Quantitative research is a type of educational research in which the researcher decides what to study; asks specific, narrow questions; collects quantifiable data from participants; analyzes these numbers using statistics; and conducts the inquiry

17、 in an unbiased, objective manner. （Creswell, 2008:45-66）” Comparing with quantitative research, Berg （1989） believed that qualitative research is more time consuming. A qualitative researcher should clarify the goals during the design stages, which can only depend on researchers knowledge of strate

18、gies and analysis, rather than by running a computer program. “Qualitative research is a type of educational research in which the researcher relies on the views of participants; asks broad, general questions; collects data consisting largely of words （or text） from participants; describes and analy

19、zes these words for themes; and conducts the inquiry in a subjective, biased manner.” （Creswell, 2008:45-66）BiasMy skill, knowledge and my professional experience could be the first source of bias, because I was a postgraduate in a university, and I did not have enough research skills and experience

20、 in education, furthermore, I only worked in one college in the south-east of China for several years. Secondly, the choice of search engine could generate bias. Because the different search engine was linked to a different databases through a certain kind of search technology. The source of literat

21、ure could also generate bias, because the academic level of publishers was different, the type of journal had different strengths and weaknesses （Journal or book）, the amount of literature searched was limited in scale. For example, the books always were deep and comprehensive, but not so up-to-date

22、. Furthermore, each publisher was related to different social institution. For example some publishers were sponsored by the government or a company. TriangulationTo decrease the degree of bias, I should use triangulation tactics. I first identified the keywords for my research topic, such as studen

23、t-centered learning, small-group teaching （or small-team teaching/learning） and motivation. In addition, some useful tips were helpful as follows: Boolean logic words （like and, or and not）, the truncation symbol （motivat* equal to motivator, motivated and motivation）, wildcard symbol （?）, and phras

24、e searching. Thirdly, I searched the literature through two or three different search engines, such as Google Scholar, Swetswise and EBSCO （Elton B. Stephens Company, who supply an integrated service that combines reference databases, subscription management, online journals, books, linking services

25、 and A-to-Z solutions） or EThOS （Electronic Theses Online Service）. Google Scholar is a general scholarly search engine; the Swetswise is an electronic journal web service; and the teacher reference center in the EBSCO was a special search tool for teachers. For the literature sources, the majority

26、of literature should be chosen from the high academic level publishers. On the other hand, it is necessary to pick up at least one or two literature sources which were produced by independent authors or publishers. Then, to understand the concept of student-centered learning, small group learning an

27、d motivation, I could find some books in the Kenrick library （an academic library）. But the books were not up to date, therefore I had to search some up to date journals to offset the weakness of the books. ValidityValidity means relates to the choice of a right instrument to measure the thing which

28、 is intended to measure in a study （Golafshani, 2003）. To identify the validity of my literature search, the search key word would be either motivation or small group teaching/leaning, or both. Furthermore, the search engine should be an academic search engine. To identify the validity of a literatu

29、re searched, I checked the research question, the research methods/instruments, the data collected, so that this data, instruments could deal with the research question. For example, in a quantitative research, the quantitative data could be collected through questionnaire; in a qualitative research

30、, the qualitative data should be collected through interview or questionnaire. To improve the validity of the conclusion of the report, except identifying the research methods on the literature searched, the conclusion of the report should be built after qualitative and quantitative analysis. The we

31、aknesses were that this was small scale some key sources may have been missed.ReliabilityReliability refers to whether similar results could be obtained by another person by repetition （Golafshani, 2003）. To identify the reliability of the way of literature research, I searched it twice （one week gap）. Only one source, which was obtained through Google scholar, could not be found at second time. It could well be that I used a different combination of key word and search engine. To maximize the reliability of the