Using PRODIGY to Increase School Motivation Among Malaysian Children: A Study in a Rural Primary School in Perak
 
Aslina Ahmad, Ab. Aziz Mohd Yatim, Amelia Mohd Noor, Ahmad Jazimin Jusoh, Mohd Noor Saper, Taquidin Mohd Mukhti, Chew Sim Chee
Sultan Idris Education University, Tg Malim, Perak, Malaysia
 
Abstract
This study evaluates the effect of a school programme called PRODIGY that uses counseling skills to motivate students in rural areas in Perak, Malaysia. A total of 78 students (N = 78), who were 12 years of age participated in this study. The effect of the programme was measured by comparing the difference between mean scores of the pretest and the posttest. The instruments used to measure school motivation were (a)  Elementary School Motivation Scale by Guay, Marsh, Dowson and Larose (2005) and (b) Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation by Harter (1981).  Descriptive analysis was used to find the difference in mean scores and the standard deviation of the data. Results show that the mean score among students from the treatment group was higher compared to the control group. Teachers commented that children in the treatment group were more confident and took the initiative to meet with teachers whenever they have difficulties in their studies.
 
Keywords: PRODIGY, motivation, rural children, pretest, posttest, Malaysia
 
 
INTRODUCTION
Education is considered an essential element that is important to obtain in one’s life.  With education, people gain adequate knowledge and sufficient skills to survive. Academic performance is the most common way to measure educational goals. Studies on students’ academic performance have received considerable interest in various interdisciplinary fields.

            A student’s success or failure often depends on psychological aspects, such as  motivation.  Motivation is an internal process that activates, guides and maintain behavior over time (Krause, Bochner, & Ducheesne, 2006).  Activatation will start a person off, while guidance determines what a person choose to do, and maintenance ensures a person will continue on the desired course. A motivation to learn is more subtle - it is a deep-seated pleasure in personal achievement, mental growth and competence (Selley, 1999). What makes a person really want to learn is the inner desire and satisfaction of obtaining the knowledge and skills that will enable his or her  advancement.  Therefore, motivation is something that drives a person to do something or the urgency to act which involves intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

            Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are potential aspects that will cause students to persist in their learning endeavors.  Intrinsic motivation is motivation arising from internal sources such as an individual’s feelings of curiosity, excitement and satisfaction, while  extrinsic motivation is motivation arising from the external factors such as rewards and or incentives (Krause et al.,  2006).  Studies reveal that intrinsic motivation lasts longer because one’s action are determined by oneself and not dependent on external factors. Thus, a person with high intrinsic motivation will continue to study, even if there are no external rewatds, often merely to   satisfy himself or herself.  However, extrinsic motivation is also used by educators to  stimulate learning and encourage students to perform well in schools.  As long as extrinsic motivation is given, at least intermittently, the desire action will continue to occur. Unfortunately, if teachers refrain from providing extrinsic motivation, then students may not continue to perform in the manner that is expected of them.   

            Other than motivation, there are three basic skills that are taught in primary education; they are reading, writing and arithmetic.  These three skills contribute to school motivation since they are key to any future success in education.  Without these 3 skills, students may lose motivation to learn because education will be more difficult for them; it will often be harder for them to comprehend text they read or solve arithmetic problems, and they will have greater  difficulty expressing themselves. According to Abdul Rasid Jamian (2011), mastery in reading and writing at the primary level is critical in order to continue to achieve in the coming years.  This is due to the fact that reading and writing are required in any advanced education, in career development, as well as in managing one’s life.  Competency in arithmetics is an area that should not be ignored.  Arithmetics is taught because it is a useful tool in meeting the demands of everyday living such as measurement, manipulating shapes, organizing space, handling money, recording, interpreting numerical and graphical data, as well as information processing and communications technology.

From the sociological perspectives, recent studies report that student with who do not show good academic progress are the most likely to have behavioral problems. Among the factors related to students’ behavioral problems are a lack of motivation and not knowing the value of education (Lepper, Corpus & Iyenger, 2005). Students who perform well are students who are motivated (Abuhamdeh & Csikszentmihalyi, 2012).  Education supports the goal of having responsible, and productive citizens.  Several studies revealed that academic performance differ from urban to rural areas.  It was found that students from the rural areas of China perform below their counterparts in urban areas.  Many students in the rural areas are dropping out before achieving the 9-year compulsory education (Yi et al., 2012).   

            To be educated, students need motivation to learn. For the past decade, there has been a lot of research focusing on this issue; however, most of it has been adolescents. Recently, there has been an interest in how we can motivate the younger generation.  Most scholars feel that motivation should be instilled earlier, such as when students are at the primary level. At younger age, it is easier to work with students and introduce positive behavior patterns than when students are older.  Therefore, this study investigated a program called PRODIGY to determine if it increased students’ motivation levels among 12-year-old rural children.
 
PRODIGY
PRODIGY is a programme created by Ab. Aziz Mohd Yatim, an experienced school counselor who is now a lecturer in Psychology and Counseling Department of Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia.  There are 13 modules in PRODIGY medesigned to help students to develop their potential.  One of the modules is 5 Domains of Learning, that aim to motivate students through challenging and meaningful activities in such a positive and therapeutic manner using counseling skills.  The programme uses the audio, visual, cognitive, affective, and psychomotor components as proposed in Gardners Intelligence Theories (Md Noor Saper & Ab. Aziz Mohd Yatim, 2007).  The PRODIGY programme uses music, shows sample of activities, discusses challenging questions to enhance thinking skills.  Students are also free to act and show their emotions at anytime and anywhere during the programme.   

            This programme requires a facilitator to use counseling skills such as being emphatic, open, and  genuine.  Research also indicates that counseling skills play an important role in helping students at school (Kindiki, 2009; Suradi Salim, 2001; Zuria Mahmud & Salleh Amat, 2007).  Shepard et al., (2012) also identified how relationships can transform troubled lives. A major advantage of this type of programme is that it is safe, convenient, and provides opportunities for students to realize self-potential.     
 
METHOD
Participant and setting.  A primary school in a rural area in Perak was involved in this study.  Perak  was chosen because it is one of the states with the highest number of rural primary schools in Malaysia. The participants in the study involved 78 students (41 girls and 37 boys).  The children were 12 years old.  All of them were Standard-six students who were low academic achievers (52.2%).  Their achievement is measured through their performance in their previous examinations which were performed by the Ministry of Education, that is for primary schools.

            The students were chosen and placed randomly in two groups.  These two groups were then randomly assigned to be a treatment group (n = 39) and a control group (n = 39).  The treatment group participated in the PRODIGY programme, while the control group participated in the normal procedures at school (without PRODIGY). 

Measures.  Motivation was measured using two instruments; they were (a) Elementary School Motivation Scale (Guay et al., 2005); and (b) the Intrinsic dan Extrinsic Motivation (Harter, 1981).  These two instruments are validated and both have a high score in reliability.  The data were collected before the implementation of the programme  (pretest) and after it was over (posttest).  Data were then analyzed by looking at the mean score and standard deviation of each variable.

Procedures.  Prior to the beginning of the study, a month was spent to obtain the permission from the authorities to carry out this study.  The two instruments were given to the participants and data were collected for the pretest stage.  Arrangements were made to conduct the programme outside the school compound.  The session was conducted for 2 days at the Agricultural Training Centre, 20 kilometres from the school.  Several procedures were used to assess implementation fidelity.  The session was videotaped, recorded and transcription were created to assess the procedures used. 

Participants were divided randomly into two groups.  The first group was appointed randomly as the control group, and the second as the treatment group that would receive the PRODIGY programme. After the PRODIGY programme was given to the treatment group, the same two assessments were given to all participants to constitute the posttest data. The data for the pretest (before intervention) and posttest were analyzed.  To compare between the control group and the treatment group, mean scores and standard deviation were used.  
 
RESULTS
Results are given in three divisions, they are (a) school motivation as a whole comprising Elementary School Motivation and Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation; (b) Elementary School Motivation; and (c) Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. The results of this study support the hypothesis that the PRODIGY programme would increase motivation in students.  This result was determined by comparing the academic performance shown by students in the pretest (Trial Exam of Standard Six) and the academic performance shown by students in the posttest (National Exam of Standard Six).  The students in the treatment group (those students who participated in the PRODIGY programme) performed better academically than the control group (those students who participated in the regular school curriculum).

School Motivation
Results showed a difference in school motivation between the control and the treatment group. Table 1 shows the difference between the 2 groups when comparing the mean average for each group, that is the mean average of the pretest scores and the mean average for each group, that is the mean average of the posttest scores. When comparing the mean averages against each other, there was an increase in motivation scores (M = 11.18) for the treatment group.  On the other hand, there was a decrease in the mean average score of the control (M = -4.35). In addition, the mean average for the treatment group (M = 11.18) were higher than the mean average scores of their counterparts in the control group (M = -4.35).  This indicates that PRODIGY programme increased the level of motivation among students in a rural area.
 
 
Elementary School Motivation
Elementary school motivation involves the motivation in literacy, writing, and arithmethic.  Table 2 shows the descriptive data based on the mean score of school motivation (comprises literacy, writing and arithmetic) in the pretest and posttest among students in the control and treatment group.  The mean score of posttest for the treatment group was 85.67 (SD = 7.60) with a difference of 4.95 when compared to the pretest 80.72 (SD = 7.60).  However, the control group showed a reduction of the mean score by 2.45.  This result reveals that the treatment group had a better mean score after participating in the PRODIGY programme. 
 
 
Intrinsic dan Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is a motivation to learn that is driven by ones’ needs and desires, while extrinsic motivation is derived from the effects of external motivators on the students. Table 3 shows the descriptive data based on mean and standard deviation of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation before and after the PRODIGY programme was conducted. There was a reductions of 1.9 in the posttest mean score for the control group as compared to an increase of 6.24 in the posttest mean score for the treatment group. This shows that there was an increase in  the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learn in the treatment group when compared to the control group.  To support the result, data for academic performance has been taken from the school authority.   Students in treatment group showed higher scores in motivation, than students on the control group.  The mean score for the treatment group increased to 71.4 percent (52.22 in the pretest).  Teachers were also interviewed regarding their students’ performance after the programme was conducted.  Among the comments given were that children in the treatment group were more confident and took the initiative to meet with teachers whenever they had difficulties with their studies.
 
 
Looking at the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation individually, the data in Table 4 shows that the difference in intrinsic mean score in the treatment group between prestest and post test was higher (3.31) compared to the extrinsic mean score (2.93).  However, the difference in the mean score between the posttest and pretest in the control group was higher for the extrinsic motivation (1.85) compared to intrinsic mean score (0.08). This shows that the PRODIGY programme helped students increase intrinsic motivation mean score.
 
 
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
To conclude, the PRODIGY programme was proven to help increase school motivation among students in rural areas. Students feel confidence with better skills in the areas of reading, writing and arithmetic.  The results received by students in National Exam of Standard Six supported the experimental results.  This shows that through the 5 Domain Learning Skills in PRODIGY programme helped to give students more self-confidence and, thus, contributing to a greater future potential. A study by Yi et al. (2012) states that reducing fees for rural elementary school students may be necessary; however, it is likely that reducing fees alone will not be sufficient. Baker and Gerler (2004) state that a programme should be suited to students’ characteristics and increase their well-being.

It was proven that the PRODIGY programme also increased the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among students.  Intrinsic motivation was increased as well as the extrinsic motivation in the treatment group.  Students who went through the PRODIGY programme performed well in their examination and was shown to increase motivation especially in intrinsic motivation. This translates to an increased inner desire to perform well on examination. However, study was not a long-term study, so it did not show whether the PRODIGY programme would maintain the effects of increased school motivation, but in the short-term, teachers stated that students did show better performance after they participate in the PRODIGY programme.  

Therefore, PRODIGY could be used as a tool for schools, specifically in the rural areas, to increase learning motivation among elementary students.  This programme may be used by guidance and counseling teachers when dealing with at-risk students to help build self-confidence as well as develop their potentials to be more productive members of their community.

In this study, it has proven that a more condusive environment was essential for students’ development. In order to be successful, Driscoll, Lambirth, and Roden  (2012) found that teachers needed a solid foundation in the subjects to be taught as well as the ability to be  fair, and empathetic. In addition, they needed to know the demands of teaching a single national curriculum to children in a culturally rich and diverse community.  Thus, teachers should have  counseling skills and apply them in classroom and during interaction with other school community including students, teachers, staffs, and parents.

This study, however, did not investigate the effect of the programme in different school environment, and did not look at a variety of levels of academic performance. Thus, further studies should be focus on the PRODIGY programme in different environment and possibly over a long-term intervention opposed to the short-term focus of this study.  
 
 
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