Browsing by Author "Lännenmäki, Minna"

The aim of this study was to examine what kind of motivational groups can be identified in vocational education students, whether these groups differ in terms of school engagement and school burnout, and if so, how. In order to improve the completion of education and prevent dropping out, it is important to be able to target support measures effectively. With the reform of vocational education, teachers' efforts have shifted from group-based contact teaching to the planning of individualized curricula. Therefore, secondary goal of the study was what kind of students would prefer to study in their own familiar group and for which students individualized study programs are important. The data used was obtained through an online questionnaire in the autumn of 2019, the participants were students at a vocational college in southern Finland (N=786). Well-being was measured by school engagement with the OKI and RAPS instruments, school burnout with the BBI-10 and motivation with the achievement goal orientation instrument. In addition to variable-centric methods, a person-centered approach was utilized to obtain information about students’ individual profiles and how the groups formed differed. Four motivation groups were identified: mastery-oriented, success-oriented, indifferent and avoidance-oriented. Differences between groups in school engagement and school burnout were examined using the Kruskal-Wallis U-test. According to the study, the different motivation groups showed significant statistical differences in terms of school engagement, with the highest engagement being mastery- and success-oriented and the least engagement in indifferent and avoidance-oriented students. Similarly, they differ in terms of school burnout: the mastery-oriented students experience the least school-burnout and avoidance-oriented students the most. There is no difference in the desire to study in the same familiar group between different motivation groups, as the majority of students in all groups would like to do so. Individual study programs are the most important for students who are mastery or success-oriented, strongly engaged to school, and experience the least school burnout. Based on the results, it would seem to be an advantage for schools to identify students who are motivated, school engaged or burnt-out in different ways. Avoidance or indifferent orientation, poor school engagement and school burnout may accumulate for the same students. It might be reasonable to offer support measures to these students. The results also support the idea that differently motivated students benefit from different kinds of support. For example, the indifferent and the avoidance-oriented would benefit from a greater effort to promote engagement to school, while the success-oriented should be counselled towards the joy of learning for the sake of learning.