Academic Motivation in 2nd Grade Girls and Boys

Abstract

In doing my graduate research project I will be looking at the question of what motivates 2nd grade girls and boys to engage in academic tasks (activities)? I will be using different methods to conduct my research stemming from observation of the students in an academic setting, surveying the students in the second grade classroom and possibly interviewing some of the students from both genders. I anticipate that there will be differences in the academic motivation among the genders and in finding them I hope it will help elementary teachers in their struggle to motivate such students. By knowing the possible gender differences in the lack of academic motivation teachers can use strategies to help individual students gain more academic motivation. Teachers will also be able to direct their instruction to meet everyone’s needs.