Motivational beliefs, well-being and school adaptation

Theoretical framework

Motivation is the ensemble of predominantly internal mobiles or impulses that triggers,

supports and directs the student's behavior in the learning activity. It represents the meaning by

which the pupil's internal energies are mobilized in order to achieve high performance in school

activity. Motivation is actually the cause for which the student participates in some activities or

not. According to English dictionary1, belief is confidence or trust in a person or thing, belief

that is not based on proof, faith in a code of ethics, standards, merits, with synonyms2:

confidence, faith, conviction. Motivational beliefs define those states that lead to action or

inaction, depending on the previous experience, of what the family, society, school have

implemented in the student's mind. In the school environment we discover that learning purposes

can be self-overcoming or exceeding others or not being overrun, surpassed by colleagues and

motivational orientation can be intrinsic or extrinsically based.

In the school environment, through a longitudinal analysis we find professional,

cognitive, relational, social-moral, individual and even material reasons. Motivation dresses

several forms, according to the analysis criteria: stimulatory/inhibitory, intrinsic/extrinsically,

cognitive/affective. The issue of education is given by knowing the intensity of motivation for

the good end of school tasks. The consequences of too intense or too low motivation may

represent test stones for teachers from classes who are meant to bring the pupil to the brink of

school achievement. Both over motivation and under motivation lead to failure, so the dosing of

motivation and its permanent adjustment becomes a new priority. Ion Cerghit underlines the

1
https://www.dictionary.com
2
https://www.thesaurus.com

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need for medium-level activation. Maintaining the gap between the difficulty of the theme and

the degree of intensity of motivation is necessary to support self-awareness, the mobilization

degree – the permanency of the understatement has negative effects on the activity of solving

difficult working tasks.

With the entry into the preparatory class, the development of child affectivity becomes

much more complex, with the school being an environment with norms and rules. This

contradiction between the wishes and possibilities of the child to satisfy them is a context that

leads to stress and also to the transition from actions dictated by their own pleasure, to those

required by social norms, enriching the child's affective life. The varied situations in the

education process guide the development of aspirations, self-sufficiency, self -effectiveness,

wellbeing for school adaptation, reporting to their own capacities, and comparison with the co-

elders3. Thus, the foundations of affective reactions as a component of morality are laid down,

through the efforts made to meet the requirements of achieving certain objectives, by training the

volitional components.

The child can be put in situations of higher feelings training in the family or

kindergarten, but the school offers a richer range of activities and opportunities to develop

superior feelings. The promotion of social values through different notions, the aspirations of the

class, of interest groups lead to the formation of moral feelings, aesthetic and intellectual feelings

that contribute to stimulation of self-efficacy. The exposure to the intellectual, artistic, moral

stimuli of the little students awakens in them the aspiration of knowing, solving, creating, loving

and admiring leading to self-esteem by self-knowledge. Higher feelings and values play a major

3
Wigfield, A., Eccles, J. S., Schiefele, U., Roeser, R. W., & Davis-Kean, P. (2006). Development of achievement
motivation. In N. Eisenberg, W. Damon, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and
personality development (pp. 933-1002). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. doi:10.1002/9780470147658.chpsy0315

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role in individual progress, through boosting, better understanding and collaboration,

knowledge4, by applying the information in practice. Obviously, between 6 and 10 years the

expression of emotion is closely connected with the school adaptation, their footprint in the

pupil's consciousness, but also in the attitude of others towards him.

In international research, there is a particular concern over the intrinsic link between self-

regulation and self-effectiveness as the main regulatory components of school adaptation. At the

same time, studies reveal the link between academic self-effectiveness and school performance.

Despite the fact that there are numerous researches in the literature investigating the influence of

academic self-effectiveness on school performance5, a gap is observed in the study of small-age

school adaptation, with the possibility of pursuing students throughout the pre-university school,

on the three levels, in Romania.

From the perspective of motivational beliefs, namely the purpose of learning and self-

effectiveness, acquired academic competence can be considered a student's well-being.

Achieving the objectives leads to increased self-esteem and self-effectiveness, especially in

students who have high aspirations and to avoid the goals for low-skilled pupils. The model of

achieving goals requires a thorough study of determinants and enablers6.

The problem arises as the pupil arrives to adapt to the new learning situations, starting

from the premise that man is an insatiable being, his needs being constantly changing,

transforming, evolving, to achieve school performance. The relations between achieving

objectives and self-effectiveness have been extensively studied in the last 40 years, but the

4
Gherasim, Ruxandra Loredana, Butnariu, Simona Performanța școlară. Determinanți individuali și contextuali în
adolescență
5
Honicke, Toni & Broadbent, Jaclyn. (2016). The Influence of Academic Self-Efficacy on Academic Performance: A
Systematic Review. Educational Research Review. 17. 63-84. 10.1016/j.edurev.2015.11.002.
6
Huang, C. (2016). Achievement goals and self-efficacy: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 19, 119-
137. doi.10.1016/j.edurev.2016.07.002

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results achieved have been varied7. Different variables influence the results: gender, age, school,

family environment, attainment of objectives, wellbeing school adaptation.

In the context of the current Romanian education research on students ' motivational

beliefs, the intent with which they attain their objectives is a priority, because there are variables

worthy to be taken into account. Do students learn to go beyond or exceed others, or not to be

exceeded? In an education that promotes collaboration and integrated learning does the pupil

achieve wellbeing as a personal comfort, group complacency or as a collective development? An

important role in the present research has the finding of the determinants of the student's

motivational beliefs and their degree of influence over his state of wellbeing. Talking about the

small school's well-being requires a multi factorial analysis including family, school

environment, entourage, affinities.

The preliminary research study investigates the group of pupils chosen for research under

the environment of provenance, previous educational opportunities discovery variables of

research.

Hypothesis 1: If the teacher knows the motivational beliefs of the pupil and the

environment of provenance he generates the necessary and sufficient conditions for obtaining the

student's wellbeing in order to achieve school adaptation.

The first study seeks an analysis of the collected data about the motivational beliefs of

pupils and their families. I will apply questionnaires to parents at the beginning of the school

year regarding the applied parenting methods, the motivational beliefs they had during the school

7
Liem, G. A. D., & Elliot, A. J. (2018). Sociocultural influences on achievement goal adoption and regulation: A goal
complex perspective. In Liem, G. A. D., & McInerney, D. M. (Eds.), Big theories revisited (pp. 41-67). Charlotte, NC:
Information Age Publishing.

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period, the level of readiness, the aspirations, achievement of the proposed objectives. By

interviewing at small classes that can` not read or write independently and questionnaires for

those of grades 2-4, I will collect data about students ' beliefs, needs and aspirations.

Hypothesis 2: The establishment of daily routines, codes and signals in the class leads to the

stability and efficiency of the didactic approach.

Through a cross-sectional analysis I will study pedagogical practices with the role of

potentiating the students ' wellbeing and school adaptation , applying questionnaires to teachers

from the classes involved in the study where I will pursue and highlight both the practices

recommended Curriculum for primary education and custom practices and their influence.

Hypothesis 3 Application of active presence techniques in class balances and potentiates

adaptive capacities and student wellbeing.

Study 3 seeks to demonstrate/disprove the working hypothesis 3 by applying to half the

number of classes included in the study of attention concentration techniques to obtain a real

active presence in the courses by comparing the obtained results cross sectional at the end of the

school year. This project will be carried out for a minimum of 6 months to observe visible

results, starting at the beginning of the school year. The comparison of results will follow the

effectiveness of class-level techniques, by age groups and gender and on environments of

provenance.