CLASSROOM MOTIVATION - STRATEGIES OF 1ST-YEAR TEACHERS

During a 16-week period, the motivational strategies used by 30 first-year elementary school classroom teachers and the on-task behaviors of their respective students were monitored. The motivational strategies were categorized as either getting attention, emphasizing relevance, building confidence, or imposing rewards and punishments. Although a variety of strategy types were used by each teacher, the frequency of reward and punishment use was significantly greater than the frequency of each of the other types. Data analysis indicated a significant positive correlation between relevance strategies and on-task behaviors, whereas a negative correlation was shown between the on-task behaviors and the reward/punishment strategies. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of student age and the type, number, and ease of use of the selected strategies.