Plenty of teachers might be scoring an A for effort but a U for their strategy of motivating pupils ahead of important exams.
Teachers who use the fear of failure in a bid to get students to knuckle down and revise hard for exams may be having a negative effect on their success, according to a new study.
Students who were told that failing an exam would prevent them from finding a good job reported feeling less motivated and performed worse in exams than those given encouragement.
The study, led by Edge Hill University in Lancashire, looked at different styles of pre-exam persuasive messages used by teachers, the impact they can have on students’ motivation and ultimately, their academic performance.
‘Teachers are desperately keen to motivate their students in the best possible way but may not be aware of how messages they communicate to students around the importance of performing well in exams can be interpreted in different ways,’ said educational psychology expert, Professor David Putwain.
The study found that messages that used scare tactics, such as ‘if you fail the exam, you will never be able to get a good job or go to university,’ achieved fewer positive results than messages that focused on success, like ‘the exam is really important as most jobs that pay well require that you pass and if you want to go to college you will also need to pass the exam’.
Students who said they felt threatened by messages that frequently focused on failure reported feeling less motivated and performed worse in their tests than students who reported that their teacher used fewer fear tactics.
‘Both messages highlight to students the importance of effort and provide a reason for striving,’ Dr Putwain said.
‘Where these messages differ is some focus on the possibility of success while others stress the need to avoid failure’.
The results of the study which are published in the American Psychological Association’s School Psychology Quarterly, come at a time of stress for many students in the UK who are preparing for GCSEs and A Levels.
Researchers interviewed 347 students over an 18-month period leading up to their GCSEs and were asked questions such as: ‘How often do your teachers tell you that unless you work hard you will fail your exam?’ and ‘Do you feel worried when your teachers tell you that your exam is getting nearer?’
The questions were designed to measure how threatened the students felt and they were asked to rate each of them on a scale of one to five, where one was ‘never’ and five being ‘most of the time.
Their responses were compared to the students’ final grades after 18 months.
Dr Putwain said: ‘Teachers should plan what types of messages would be the most effective and how they could be incorporated into the lesson plans.’
