SEEU Review vol. 5 Nr. 2 (pdf) - South East European University

Iranda Bajrami, MA
Classrooms were observed from 45–60 minutes. The first step in conducting
this research was to create an appropriate questionnaire for the students and
teachers, and a checklist for the researcher. First, the researcher reviewed the
literature in order to identify what factors were featured in the literature as
contributing to motivation, and then listed all of them, grouped them into
categories, and wrote either questions or a list of choices that would elicit
whether those factors were present in the classroom.
Present Study I: Classroom Observation
Classroom observations and administration of questionnaires took place
over a span of 2 weeks. The total number of observed classes was six. For
the purpose of observing carefully and specifically factors related to
motivation, the researcher relied on a checklist with the items that measure
what are considered to be motivating factors (See Appendix B for
Observation Checklist). The checklist had three main sections on which the
observer focused, which were Personal Characteristics and Behaviour of the
Teacher, Classroom Management and the Learning Activities. In order to
establish inter-rater reliability for the study, a co-observer (co-observer holds
a Masters degree in Reading and has English language experience) was
present in some classroom observations. While observing, the researcher
and the co-observer tried to identify and check whether the teacher used the
strategies that are considered to increase motivation and what the students’
reactions to those strategies were.
Present Study II: Student Questionnaire
Subsequently, a questionnaire consisting of nearly the same items as in
the observation checklist but here posed as questions, was distributed to
students in the observed class. The number of students varied in each class,
but the total number of student questionnaires that were delivered and
returned was 99. After the teachers were observed, they were asked to leave
the classroom for few minutes so that students would feel secure and have
privacy to complete the anonymous questionnaire (See Appendix C, for
Student Questionnaire). The questionnaire consisted of both open and closed
questions in order not to limit students to only the given options. The
researcher, through this questionnaire, wanted to discover if there would be
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