Rhizomatous motivational aspects of Hispanic/Latino students in regular high school programs

Abstract

As mathematics teachers gain knowledge of what factors students perceive as motivating, they will be able to create a classroom environment that better increases motivation. Thus, the information gathered from this study will be useful and meaningful to teachers of mathematics and to leaders of mathematics departments in providing appropriate assistance and guidance to teachers in their quest for finding strategies that persuade students of mathematics to become life-long learners. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the nature of any significant differences in perceptions of motivation of high school students’ enrolled in Algebra I and their teacher’s insights of what students perceive as motivating factors. In addition, the significant difference in perception of motivation between females and males in these same classes was also examined. Nine teachers teaching Algebra I during the 2006 spring semester in a predominately Hispanic/Latino school district in a border town in south Texas participated. The participants, the aforementioned teachers and one hundred sixteen of their students, responded to the motivation section of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) developed by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia and McKeachie at the University of Michigan (1991). Data collected were analyzed and reported using confidence intervals, descriptive statistics and frequency data tables. Major research findings of this study show that high school Algebra I students’ perceptions of motivation in three subscales of the motivation section of the MSLQ (Intrinsic Goal Orientation, Task Value and Self Efficacy) are significantly different from their teachers’ insights of what motivates students in an Algebra I class. Results were examined to find the differences between students’ motivational beliefs and their teachers’ perceptions of motivating factors. In general, results indicate that teachers’ perceptions and students’ own beliefs of motivation do not coincide.