Learned helplessness in public middle schools: The effects of an intervention program based on motivational strategies

Abstract

In all educational settings, teachers are likely to encounter learners with different emotional and cognitive characteristics, particularly learners who are demotivated or disengaged and as a result misbehave in the classroom. Learned helplessness (LH) is associated with such emotional and motivational deficits in academic performance. This study investigated the feelings of LH experienced by secondary students in the public middle schools of Iran. To this end, we administered the Learned Helplessness Scale (LHS) and the Student Behavior Checklist (SBC) to 154 students in a public middle school in Tehran. We identified 58 students (aged 13–15 years) with school-related LH and randomly assigned them to the control and experimental groups. These students participated in a motivational intervention program based on Dörnyei’s motivational strategies (MSs) with social reinforcement integrated into the English language classroom to improve their academic performance and alleviate feelings of helplessness. The results revealed positive effects of the program on the participants’ academic achievement and experienced LH. The delayed posttests also showed acceptable durability effects of the program six months after the intervention. It was found that the teacher and his practices in the classroom could be an effective means of alleviating LH in public schools. Further implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Learned helplessness
• motivational strategies
• motivational teaching
• public middle schools
• systematic reinforcement

Disclosure statement

We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication, and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.

Ethics approval

We further confirm that any aspect of the work covered in this manuscript that has involved human patients has been conducted with the ethical approval of all relevant bodies and that such approvals are acknowledged within the manuscript.

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Written consent to conduct the study and publish potentially identifying information was obtained from the subjects and their legal guardians.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this work.

Notes on contributors

Farshad Ghasemi

Farshad Ghasemi, PhD, is a Researcher in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Urmia University, Urmia, Iran. E-mail: [email protected]

Mohammad Nabi Karimi

Mohammad Nabi Karimi, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: [email protected]