ASSESSMENT AND STUDENT MOTIVATION: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY IN URBAN PAKISTANI SCHOOLS

Abstract

Background: Educational assessment is an important element of the learning process of students, and the question of how it affects their motivation lies at the focus. Urban schools in Pakistan are characterized by the several challenges affecting the school culture, including large classes, scarce material, and emphasis on high-stakes exams, therefore they should discover how the assessment practices may affect motivation among the students. Motivation can be either intrinsic or extrinsic but both kinds of motivation are highly influenced by assessment practices. Research purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine the impacts of formative and summative assessment on student motivation in the Pakistani urban schools. It examines the effects of different forms of assessment on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in an attempt of finding methods to increase student engagement as well as learning results. Procedure: An exploratory mixed-methods design was taken. The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data but these were in the form of survey which was administered to 500 students and semi structured interviews which were administered to 20 teachers in 10 urban schools. The study used SPSS and thematic analysis in quantitative analysis and qualitative observations, respectively. Results: The findings showed that formative assessments, which is dominated with regular feedbacks and low-stakes testing, were reported to be more motivating to the students, increasing levels to intrinsic motivation. Conversely, summative assessment aroused apprehension and lack of motivation among the students, and they even claimed to have more stress and were stressed on the grades and not the learning process. Conclusion: The study suggests an approach towards adoption of more formative assessment in Pakistani schools in the cities to improve the motivation and academic scores of the students. Also, educational changes should be done to seek assessments diversity in order to limit the stress on the summative exams.

Keywords: Student Motivation, Assessment Practices, Formative Assessment, Summative Assessment, Urban Schools, Pakistan, Educational Reform