Traditionally, it is considered that grades have a significant motivational influence on students; that is why researches in the field have centered mainly on refining grading instruments and less on discovering alternatives to those. However, in the last years, more and more researches have denied the effectiveness of grades in motivating students to learn; these researches constitute the background of our current study.This study analyzes the possible correlation between the grades students receive and their motivation to learn. At the same time, we attempt to verify whether there is a significant correlation between grades and the internal, respectively external motivation of students.For this purpose we have used a questionnaire to analyze teachers' perception towards the effectiveness of grades in motivating students; 130 teachers from undergraduate education institutions were questioned and the results have been discussed as part of two focus-groups organized on two levels: primary education and secondary education.A first data analysis reveals a significant relation between grades and short term learning, as well as between grades and external motivation; on the other hand an extremely interesting correlation is observed between grades and external motivation, understood as "duty towards parents".Beyond ascertaining the facts regarding the efficiency of grade use in motivating students, we will use the results of the research to suggest alternative ways to motivate students.
Grades and MotivationFor Michel Foucault, school is only a component of the area of disciplinary power, and assessment is only one of its instruments. Thus, if we talk about grades and grading, we should refer to their ability to create conformity. The French thinker highlights the fact that examination is defined as "normative", as "surveillance that allows definition, classification and punishment" (see Michel Foucault, p. 266).Michel Foucault demonstrates that the power of King, which was strengthened and re-legitimized through lavish ceremony by placing himself in broad daylight, was replaced by disciplinary power, diffuse, tiny taking care to hide
Some specialists in education sciences doubt the presence of computer resources in formal education: an almost general feeling that they might represent the Trojan horse wheeling in superficiality, ignorance and lack of discipline (Alessandro Barrico’s barbarians), destroying the ‘serious’ vein of schools, but aren’t there computers in schools? Isn’t there an IT infrastructure widely used in education? When the administration takes over, they make a special room, and they put the computers in that room and they have a computer period with a computer teacher. Our study starts from the hypothesis that the usage of mobile learning in class will intensify learning; starting from this idea, we planned to analyse how much the teachers from a specific region of Romania have at their disposal, the resources and competencies needed for mobile learning and in what measure they are really using those resources and competencies in a systematic manner in the educational.
Keywords: Mobile learning, multitasking, net generation, school teaching
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