Page 15 - Mini-Module 12

Teachers’ perception of learning motivation and its influence on
teachers’ regard for students’ developmental stage when planning
instruction

Another issue of effective teaching and learning in an issue‐enquiry is
learning motivation. As discussed earlier in this module, the
issue‐enquiry approach starts with an issue or problem, with students
engaged in self‐directed learning and teachers being the facilitators in
the learning process. The prerequisite is that students are active
learners intrinsically moved by a desire to make meaning of the
complexities of a wide range of issues, and thus eager to engage
themselves in the cognitive processes. Dijkstra (1997) posits that the
way to promote student engagement in the knowledge construction
process is to “continuously presenting problems which require them to
make categorizations, interpret phenomena and design artifacts”
(p.12). Notwithstanding this, as for many teachers in a Chinese society
like Hong Kong, it has been a common belief that extrinsic motivation
strategies can effectively enhance student learning (Pratt, Kelly, &
Wong, 1999; Watkins, 2000). A common practice in teaching is to
emphasize the power of examinations and the eventual economic and
social status. Consequently, the tensions arising from the
extrinsic/intrinsic polarity in teacher beliefs may render it difficult for
Liberal Studies teachers to construct the knowledge in applying the
issue‐enquiry approach.

Currently in Hong Kong, catering for student diversity is also regarded
as a motivation strategy. However, while the study of individual
differences in the cognitive domain (Gustafsson & Undheim, 1996) has
occupied a centralvalue in the research activity, the conative and
affective domains (Snow, Corno, & Jackson, 1996) have been a missing
paradigm. Given that constructivist learning in an issue‐enquiry
requires students to be active learners, their feelings in the learning
process like sense of satisfaction, enjoyment, and self‐efficacy actually
serve to motivate them intrinsically. Because of this, teachers have to

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