Why are you taking this class?
Take a few minutes and write down why you are taking this class.
- Consider:
- Would it have made any different if the question was: “Take a few minutes and write down why you choose this course.”?
- How might you have responded differently if the directions had been: “Take a few minutes and write down all the reasons you had for taking this class.”?
- How might you have responded differently if presented with a list of possible choices and told to choose all that apply?:
- It souned interesting.
- Required for my major.
- An elective for my major or university studies.
- The time of day/day of week fit my schedule.
- Heard Dr. H was an awesome teacher.
- My advisior recommended it.
- Useful for my career plan.
- May help me gain admission to graduate program/required for licensure.
- A friend/relative recommend it.
- Heard that House was an easy grader and need to boost my GPA.
- Need a class and everything else was closed.
- How might you have responded if asked to rank order your free responses or your choices from a list?
- Would it make a difference if we offered an “Other, please fill in the blank” option?
- How would be deal with “other” responses in our data analysis?
- How might you have responded if the question was: “What do your plan to get out of this couse?” or “How does this course fit into your plans?”
- Suppose you had been asked to consider what the costs were of taking this class?
- What did you forego, give up by taking this course, at this time, this semester?
- What might we conclude from these considerations?
- What assumptions are we making in seeking to learn about motivation by these (or any such) questions?
What might we conclude from these considerations?
- How we ask a question will influence the answer we receive
- There is no perfect way of asking a question
- If we ask for “an answer”, will this be the only, the most important reason?
- If we ask for “answers”, will this create a press to come up with more than one (even if there only was one answer)?
- If we offer choices, will this, in inself, influence the person?
- Different questions will have different advantages (and possible costs)
What assumptions are we making in seeking to learn about motivation by these (or any such) questions?
- That you can be aware of (all) the factors
- That you are aware of (all) the factors
- That you can verbalize (all) the factors
- That you will (are motivated to) answer honestly
- That the only factors influencing your responses are the ones we are interest in (your “true” motivation; versus impression management, wanting to please us, deliberate destortion, fatigue, etc.)