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- Alexandra Moloney
Alexandra
Moloney
Student engagement and Motivation
My research report investigates the extent in which having a student led approach to a visual design project supports student engagement and motivation. The research outlined in this report assesses how a design project designed within the specifications of the current Leaving Certificate art curriculum can offer students adequate choice, appeal to multiple interests and offer valuable learning experiences as a way of addressing a lack of motivation and engagement observed in students at second level. This report identifies teaching strategies and interventions that will support student engagement and motivation in the art classroom. This research was formulated in response to the work of Melanie Peters, Barbra Hendrickson Andrews and Rebecca Sokol Levine on motivation and engagement in the classroom.
The research outlined in this report was conducted through action research in which data was collected through questionnaires, focus groups, observations and student work. As this was a qualitive study these methods were chosen prior to commencing research. The findings from these four methods confirmed that having a student led approach to a design project does in fact support student motivation and engagement. The key strategies and interventions that had the most profound impact on increasing engagement and motivation were providing students with adequate choice, allowing for student’s voice within their individual project and providing regular formative feedback.