Master in Educational Administration

There is no doubt that positive force of learning motivation can initiate and maintain learners’ behavior. But, the impact of the negative force it, called demotivation, can be remarkable and destroyable. Given this, it is worthy and meaningful to investigate the demotivation in general learning and the demotivated factors, so as to find solutions to reduce the negative effects of demotivation.

For such reasons, this thesis attempts to focus on the phenomenon of demotivation of low-achieving learners in a school. The research questions are: 1) What is the demotivation pattern for the low achieving students? 2) Are there any differences in gender and grade? 3) What are the demographic characteristics for the high-demotivated students? 4) What are the correlations among demotivation factors? To find this, a 54-item scale was conducted. Based on the data collected from the scale, the results are as following: First, of the 238 students. 30 students were identified as high-demotivated students, accounting 12.6% in total. Among the 14 factors, Negative Views about Tasks, Avoidance, Low Self Confidence, Negative Interests and Low Self Esteem are the Top 5 most serious ones. Second, there are significant gender differences and grade differences. Demotivation in male students is more serious than that in female ones. Demotivation in Grade 10 is the most serious, while that in Grade 11 is the best. Third, for the high-demotivated students, significant differences exist in gender in Negative Views about Future, Negative Views about Objectives and the Total Scale. There are no significant differences in grade. Fourth, among the 14 factors, Negative Interests, Avoidance, Direction, Negative Views about Effort, Ability and Objectives are highly correlated to demotivation. Negative Views about Objectives are highly correlated to Negative Interest and Avoidance.

According to the findings, some implications and suggestions are put forward for the concerned to take practical and doable actions to help students. Limitations and the future directions of the study are finally provided.