How do educational professionals motivate their students with specific educational support needs?

Abstract

Students’ academic motivation is considered to be one of the most relevant elements for their success and academic performance. It has been studied mainly from the internal perspective of the students themselves. However, this academic motivation is also influenced by the elements in their environment, among which the role of the teaching staff stands out. This motivational role will be particularly relevant in the case of students with specific educational support needs. Despite this, this line of research has been practically non-existent. A sample of 796 educational professionals, mainly teachers, who work with students with specific educational support needs from 3 to 16 years, was used. Descriptive, correlational and inferential analyses were carried out. The results obtained inform us about how professionals in the educational field use the different types of motivational behaviours with their students. Thus, we have obtained a greater use of the generation of expectations and positive reinforcement, while the least use is with the generation of ego self-frustration goals. In addition, significant differences were found with respect to gender, profession, location, age and experience. This study has helped us to shed some light on how different professionals in the educational field motivate their students, which has important implications for educational practice and more directly for the role that teachers should play in relation to their students.