Chapter 4: The Contexts of Individual Motivational Change

A few years ago I interviewed students in their last year of primary school. In a few months they would be attending the same local secondary school. Although they all shared some apprehension and excitement about their forthcoming transition to secondary school, they spoke very differently about school and their expectations, what made them feel successful at school and what motivated them to learn. Marnie, Shane, and Paul were three of those students. Marnie was a high achieving student. In primary school she was very well regarded by students and staff and liked being important and special. This made her feel very successful. Near the end of her last year in primary school Marnie wasn’t looking forward to going to secondary school as she was concerned about going from the top of one school to being the youngest in secondary school. Shane came from the same primary school as Marnie, and the principal’s comment to me about the two students “I see you’ve selected [students at] the extremes” suggested the principal believed Shane and Marnie had very different approaches to school. In talking with Shane, I found that he thought there was little to make him feel successful at school, except easy work. He expected everything to be different in secondary school and was cautiously looking forward to it.