Project 2 | Prospectus Brainstorming

Research Question: What motivations/considerations affect student engagement with

assignments? If there are negative systemic influences, how can they be changed?

Notes:

-It seems like most research is focused on getting students to do stuff and not

understanding students experiences.

-Motivation as cost benefit.

-What motivates students as broader question and specifics as examples eg Motivation

model > specific cost benefit

-I feel like research looking at how to make the system better for students (as opposed to

how to make students do things) and understand their experiences is lacking. I want this

project to be an analysis of academic motivation from the students perspective.

Q1: Brainstorm

Proto-Thesis:

I want to better understand how students perceive school assignments and how

that affects their engagement with the curriculum. Additionally, I want to investigate what

subconscious motivations might affect students’ behaviors, if there are any that prove to be

relevant. I’m emotionally invested in the answers to questions about the school system, so I’m interested in this research. It also more closely aligns with my major, Psychology, than other topics I’ve considered. I think that economic theories of motivation will prove to be good models to use in conceptualizing student motivation. I believe this based on the assumption that student motivation is largely extrinsic in nature as opposed to intrinsic and will therefore be less (emotional) state dependent than intrinsic motivation and more stable over time and therefore able to be accurately modeled with a cost-benefit framework.

Rough Framework:

Ideas I’m interested in including in my project include: 1. That the research base is centered around the perspectives of educators and not students./Research is in the pursuit of figuring out how to get students to do things and not to understand their experiences. 2. That people’s, and especially students’, motivation is the result of a cost-benefit analyses. 3. That student behavior is not simply a factor of motivation but also rational thought/planning

Key words:

cost-benefit, motivation, student, assignment, effort, engagement, theoretical

framework, perspective, time, allocation, apportionment.

Q2: Scholarly Sources

Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. "Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions

and new directions." Contemporary educational psychology 25.1 (2000): 54-67.

Seifert, Timothy. "Understanding student motivation." Educational research 46.2 (2004):

137-149.

Studer, B., and S. Knecht. "A benefit–cost framework of motivation for a specific activity."

Progress in brain research 229 (2016): 25-47.

Q3: Primary Sources

Fig. 1 - A Twitter user expresses 1. That school overwhelms them with assignments from

different classes 2. That they don't feel that school gives them motivation to engage with the

material. 3. And that this has negative effects on thor wellbeing. (Tweet linked here)

Fig 2. - A TikTok in the “relatable” style describes the behaviors of 1. Calculating how an

assignment will affect one's overall grade and 2. Procrastinating one’s school work. (TikTok

Linked here (00:05:28 to 00:05:34))

Fig 3. - A TikTok in the “relatable” and comedy style comments on students 1. Losing interest in school over time and 2. Consciously choosing to engage in other activities instead of engaging with their assignments. (TikTok Linked here (00:00:00 to 00:00:13))

Discussion of Primary Sources:

I selected Figs. 1-3 to illustrate different but related aspects of student disengagement. Fig 1

mentions the issue of having “too many assignments from different classes,” which I think is an important factor that students consider when deciding how to apportion their limited time. Students, as Fig. 2 illustrates, understand the system and will try to optimize their approach to achieve the desired grade with minimal effort, as is alluded to in the figure. Fig 3 provides a good example of a student choosing how to spend their limited time, albeit in a self-consciously illogical manner. I think that these sources are a helpful supplement to my main claims, showing actual student perspectives (or at the least media targeted at a student audience) which corroborate the claims I plan to make about student engagement with academics.