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Project description
The rationale for the project is that the best way to learn what motivates students is to consult students themselves, as many of them as possible. Dörnyei and Csizér (1998) state that ‘[m]otivating students should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness’ (p.207). Motivated students have increased attainment.
The students involved in this project will play an integral role in the collection and correlation of both quantitative and qualitative data providing results to indicate the necessary steps to develop new approaches to strengthen teacher practices. The project will also endeavor to reassess common teaching methods and create new methods and pedagogical practices to combat any anxiety or motivation issues that may be prevalent in the learning process which impact on ESL.
The transnational perspective is imperative as the results will be obtained from five different educational systems through the participating partners providing a sample of over 1000 and a true EU overview of the subject. The comparability of the data collected from the five participating schools will provide hard data related to the issues to anxiety and motivation in the classroom and develop new approaches to strengthen the education and teaching resources of EU teachers.
Students will gather insider knowledge through both formal and informal methods related to teaching strategies that they and their peers find motivating and that reduce anxiety in the science and language classroom. The idea behind the project springs from research conducted in Cyprus on foreign language classroom motivation and anxiety (Walker, unpublished EdD thesis) and on foreign language classroom anxiety (Walker & Panayides, 2014). It is important because when students are happier and more engaged in learning, the classroom climate improves and drop-out decreases.
The students will experience the obstacles faced in any research as well as the ways to overcome these. They will identify connections between various ideas regarding motivation and anxiety and distinguish conflicting viewpoints resulting in high-level reasoning, critical thinking and intercultural awareness while gaining invaluable experience in research methods to provide them with transversal skills for work in later life.
Students will be allocated set tasks so as to ensure that all members of the partnership have comparable data and the pedagogical implications deduced are generalizable on a Pan European level. Students are encouraged to engage in autonomous thinking in designing and developing the less formal part of the collaboration.
Teachers need to be involved in the process too as Gokce (2010) found, if teachers lack sufficient knowledge in the subject of motivation, or are not motivated themselves, they are likely to find it difficult to motivate their students to learn. The research findings will be used to tailor current teaching practices by analyzing and identifying the main concerns related to science and language subjects. As a result of the research, policy reforms and recommendations will be discerned and disseminated providing fellow EU teachers new relevant insight to improve the level of teaching in EU and new adoptable ideas.
Teachers involved will receive training on classroom anxiety, motivation, teaching strategies and behaviours. Furthermore the teachers will learn from the students’ lists of proposed strategies and behaviors which their peers want and need in order to increase their motivation and anxiety. The results will have the knock on effect of making teaching more attractive for all involved and reduce teacher burnout.
Thus both students and teachers gain both directly and indirectly from their participation in the project.
The core objectives for the project are to:
-Provide students with the opportunity to take part in an international research project and by doing so provide valuable transversal skills through being the main researches in an international project.
-Examine issues related to anxiety and motivation in the classroom and to identify best practices that will lead to higher motivation levels, less anxiety and positively impact those at risk of ESL (student researchers).
-Have students learn qualitative and quantitative forms of data collection (on anxiety and motivation) at an international level.
-Have students undertake 5 rounds of qualitative and quantitative data collection during 5 multinational exchanges. Students will use interview schedules and mini-questionnaires designed for each mobility by the students.
-Conduct common international research to facilitate policy reforms and educational recommendations strengthening education. 3 pre-designed questionnaires will be used for this.
-To address complex classroom realties and adopt new methods and tools based on the findings.
-Implement the use of ICT throughout the project including 5 webinars
-Create 5 permanent displays "Trees of Learning" in each partner school.
The students involved in this project will play an integral role in the collection and correlation of both quantitative and qualitative data providing results to indicate the necessary steps to develop new approaches to strengthen teacher practices. The project will also endeavor to reassess common teaching methods and create new methods and pedagogical practices to combat any anxiety or motivation issues that may be prevalent in the learning process which impact on ESL.
The transnational perspective is imperative as the results will be obtained from five different educational systems through the participating partners providing a sample of over 1000 and a true EU overview of the subject. The comparability of the data collected from the five participating schools will provide hard data related to the issues to anxiety and motivation in the classroom and develop new approaches to strengthen the education and teaching resources of EU teachers.
Students will gather insider knowledge through both formal and informal methods related to teaching strategies that they and their peers find motivating and that reduce anxiety in the science and language classroom. The idea behind the project springs from research conducted in Cyprus on foreign language classroom motivation and anxiety (Walker, unpublished EdD thesis) and on foreign language classroom anxiety (Walker & Panayides, 2014). It is important because when students are happier and more engaged in learning, the classroom climate improves and drop-out decreases.
The students will experience the obstacles faced in any research as well as the ways to overcome these. They will identify connections between various ideas regarding motivation and anxiety and distinguish conflicting viewpoints resulting in high-level reasoning, critical thinking and intercultural awareness while gaining invaluable experience in research methods to provide them with transversal skills for work in later life.
Students will be allocated set tasks so as to ensure that all members of the partnership have comparable data and the pedagogical implications deduced are generalizable on a Pan European level. Students are encouraged to engage in autonomous thinking in designing and developing the less formal part of the collaboration.
Teachers need to be involved in the process too as Gokce (2010) found, if teachers lack sufficient knowledge in the subject of motivation, or are not motivated themselves, they are likely to find it difficult to motivate their students to learn. The research findings will be used to tailor current teaching practices by analyzing and identifying the main concerns related to science and language subjects. As a result of the research, policy reforms and recommendations will be discerned and disseminated providing fellow EU teachers new relevant insight to improve the level of teaching in EU and new adoptable ideas.
Teachers involved will receive training on classroom anxiety, motivation, teaching strategies and behaviours. Furthermore the teachers will learn from the students’ lists of proposed strategies and behaviors which their peers want and need in order to increase their motivation and anxiety. The results will have the knock on effect of making teaching more attractive for all involved and reduce teacher burnout.
Thus both students and teachers gain both directly and indirectly from their participation in the project.
The core objectives for the project are to:
-Provide students with the opportunity to take part in an international research project and by doing so provide valuable transversal skills through being the main researches in an international project.
-Examine issues related to anxiety and motivation in the classroom and to identify best practices that will lead to higher motivation levels, less anxiety and positively impact those at risk of ESL (student researchers).
-Have students learn qualitative and quantitative forms of data collection (on anxiety and motivation) at an international level.
-Have students undertake 5 rounds of qualitative and quantitative data collection during 5 multinational exchanges. Students will use interview schedules and mini-questionnaires designed for each mobility by the students.
-Conduct common international research to facilitate policy reforms and educational recommendations strengthening education. 3 pre-designed questionnaires will be used for this.
-To address complex classroom realties and adopt new methods and tools based on the findings.
-Implement the use of ICT throughout the project including 5 webinars
-Create 5 permanent displays "Trees of Learning" in each partner school.