Browsing by Author "Aalto, Severi"

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine the motivation of 7th to 9th graders in secular ethics and the factors related to that. The study also examined the connections between the factors behind motivation and connections related to pupils background information. Pupils' interest in different contents of secular ethics was also explored. Method. This study was a quantitative survey, but it also included a qualitative section. The motivation scale of the questionnaire is based on Pintrich's (1988) MSLQ ((Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire) and Ruohotie's (1993) APLQ (Abilities for Professional Learning Questionnaire). The data was collected in April 2015. 75 pupils from four schools in Helsinki answered the questionnaire. The quantitative data was analyzed by using PASW Statistics 18. The answers from qualitative section were analyzed by using content analysis. Results and conclusions. The study showed that pupils were motivated by and interested in secular ethics. Secular ethics was also regarded as an important and useful subject. Several correlating factors affected to pupils' motivation. The intrinsic orientation correlated with many motivation factors. One of the crucial findings was the strong correlation between intrinsic orientation and the way teachers interacted with the pupils. There were no differences between boys and girls in their motivation factors except (in relation to) teaching material and methods. Good grades were connected between expectations of success and beliefs of intrinsic succeeding. The study also revealed that pupils were motivated by several contents of the secular ethics but moral and ethics were the most important. The results of this study can be utilized in the teaching of secular ethics in increasing pupils' motivation.