Motivation, self-perception and student achievement

As a business lecturer in the FE/HE sector I am fortunate to work with students from many and varied backgrounds of all ages. I arranged for Matt Crabtree, an engaging and inspirational speaker I had seen in action at a corporate conference a few years ago, to visit the college and share his thoughts on what it takes to succeed in your career with the higher education business students. I was curious to see if the students’ motivation and self-perception changed before and after his visit and, in particular, if their grades improved. I started an action research project on this issue in September 2010.

Matt’s lecture was excellent and well received by the students (aged 18-50). His 3 key messages were the importance of optimism, curiosity and networking. These are a good talking point for employability, enterprise and personal development and can be seen in the brief clip below:

I asked the students to complete an online survey and recorded their assignment grades both before and after the guest speaker lecture. Both surveys asked them to reflect upon their time management, commitment to their studies, motivation, confidence and career ambitions. The second survey built upon the key messages in the lecture and also asked the students to record how confident they were about meeting new people and how important they felt self-belief and confidence are for success.

So what did I discover?

The proportion of students achieving a Pass grade remained consistent throughout the year. However, the split between Merit and Distinction improved significantly after the guest speaker’s visit. In my report I acknowledge that there are many factors which could explain this, not least of which is the students listening to and acting on feedback from assignments in the first part of the year to gain better grades.

In terms of their attitudes and motivation, students were increasingly confident in their own ability, saw challenges rather than problems and aspired to careers as managers, senior managers or executives. The vast majority felt increasingly confident about meeting new people and identified self-belief and confidence as important for success. The students were also honest in identifying their shortcomings in terms of organisation and time management.

For me, the key learning points for teaching and learning were the points made that the students feel more fulfilled in their work where they are sufficiently challenged and require constructive feedback and recognition of their efforts to remain motivated. I try to create a challenging but supportive learning environment but know that I can do more and better. My recommendations for the future included increased use of problem-solving activities, project work and other collaborative teaching activities to challenge, inspire and motivate students. Enterprise activities such as The Apprentice style tasks are a great way to do this.