Classroom activities that motivate gifted high school students: an investigation of student and teacher perceptions

Abstract

This quantitative study was designed to investigate whether gifted achievers and gifted underachievers differ in their perceptions of the intrinsic motivation of specific classroom activities and if their motivation as measured by the IMI correlates to academic performance as measured by class grades. The study also investigated which activities are frequently used by teachers of gifted students as well as how motivating they believe each activity is to students. The sample included 21 gifted students in a large urban high school and 10 teachers. The students completed a pre-inventory checklist of activities they believe to be valuable and then completed a Likert-scale inventory. The inventory is an adaptation of the Intrinsic Motivation Scale from the University of Rochester and includes subscales which rate students’ enjoyment, competence, perceived choice, and pressure/tension related to a variety of commonly used classroom activities. Teachers completed a two-part Likert-scale inventory of classroom activities: first to investigate the frequency of use of a number of common classroom activities and then to collect data on the teachers’ assessment of the motivating value of each activity. This study may provide insights between research into motivation theories and research in effective classroom activities and may help teachers provide better classroom conditions for all students, but particularly underachieving gifted students.