The motivation and engagement of students in schools is a major area of educational research. There are a range of factors that have been identified as influencing this motivation and engagement, including academic, behavioural and social factors (Fredricks et al., 2004), socio-economic factors (Munns et al., 2006; Alloway et al., 2002) and an individual's motivation (Martin et al., 2010). There have been many academic and 'social' researchers who have investigated these and other factors that potentially affect student engagement. This present investigation comprised three inter-related studies. Study 1 was designed to test the motivation, engagement, connection to school, school enjoyment, relationships with teachers, relationships with students, students' perception of teachers' teaching. Study 1 used survey-design and quasi-experimental design data analysis of current students through a 72 - question survey. A total of 8 schools and 228 students participated in the study over three separate occasions. The schools chosen were four schools with an intervention in place (identified in this thesis as 'The SAMMY intervention', or 'SAMMY'), and four schools that matched the size and demographic of the intervention schools to act as the control (non-intervention) group. Study 2 was a qualitative study, in which students, their parents and the teachers involved in the intervention participated in focus groups. Through these focus groups, the study examined the perceived impact of an intervention on areas such as the motivation, engagement, connection to school, school enjoyment, relationships with teachers, relationships with students, students' perception of teachers' teaching and students' perceived engagement with the intervention. The study also investigated any additional themes that emerged from data generated from SAMMY students, parents and teachers that identify areas of SAMMY that have had an impact, or conversely, no impact on their schooling. Study 3 was a qualitative study of two different groups of alumni who had been involved in an intervention over the past ten years. These alumni participated in focus groups for this study. Through these focus groups, the study examined the perceived impact of SAMMY on areas such as the motivation, engagement, connection to school, school enjoyment, relationships with teachers, relationships with students, students' perception of teachers' teaching and students' perceived engagement with the intervention. The study also investigated any additional themes that emerged from data generated from alumni to identify areas of the intervention that have had an impact, or conversely, no impact on the alumni's schooling. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was undertaken with MPlus version 7 (Muthén & Muthén, 2012) to assess the factor structures. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was also used to identify the underlying relationships between measured variables (Norris and Lecavalier, 2009). Hierarchical Linear Modelling and ANOVA were then used to in analysing the survey data as part of Study 1. The findings showed that statistically, the intervention has a limited effect on the growth of the motivation, engagement, connection to school, school enjoyment, relationships with teachers, relationships with students, students' perception of teachers' teaching and students' perceived engagement with the intervention over the three times tested. However, the baseline was higher on all constructs at Time 1, and the intervention group was higher at Time 2 and Time 3 than the non-intervention group. The qualitative findings showed a range of factors in the intervention that had a positive effect on the motivation, engagement, connection to school, school enjoyment, relationships with teachers, relationships with students, students' perception of teachers' teaching and students' perceived engagement with the intervention.
| Date of Award | 2018 |
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| Original language | English |
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