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their perceptions of factors that they believed significantly influenced their motivation to achieve NCEA Level 2 English. Their official results (supplied by NZQA) are listed in Table 5.15. A did not attempt category has been included, as students were not expected to attempt all the eight level 2 English standards.

Table 5.15: Students’ results (%) for NCEA level 2 English achievement standards (n = 107) Achievement standard Did not attempt Not

Achieved Achieved Merit Excellence 2.1 Creative writing 0.0 21.5 40.2 26.2 12.1 2.2 Formal writing 0.0 14.0 44.9 29.9 11.2 2.3 Extended written text 22.4 15.0 36.4 16.8 9.3 2.4 Short written texts 59.8 13.1 19.6 6.5 0.9 2.5 Visual or oral texts 17.8 24.3 35.5 15.0 7.5 2.6 Unfamiliar texts 12.1 16.8 55.1 14.0 1.9 2.7 Oral or visual presentation 31.8 14.0 31.8 12.1 10.3 2.8 Research 70.1 9.3 7.5 8.4 4.7

Mann-Whitney U tests revealed no significant gender differences in these NCEA results. The results for each of the achievement standards were as follows. For 2.1 girls’ (n = 71) Mdn = 1.0, boys’ (n = 36) Mdn = 1.0, U = 1246, z = -.22, ns, r = -.02: for 2.2 girls’ (n = 71) Mdn = 1.0, boys’ (n = 36) Mdn = 1.0, U = 1131, z = -1.03, ns, r = -.10: for 2.3 girls’ (n = 60) Mdn = 1.0, boys’ (n = 23) Mdn = 1.0, U = 641, z = -.53, ns, r = - .06: for 2.4 girls’ (n = 30) Mdn = 1.0, boys’ (n = 13) Mdn = 1.0, U = 162, z = -.93, ns, r = -.14: for 2.5 girls’ (n = 57) Mdn = 1.0, boys’ (n = 31) Mdn = 1.0, U = 846, z = -.34,

ns, r = -.04: for 2.6 girls’ (n = 64) Mdn = 1.0, boys’ (n = 30) Mdn = 1.0, U = 917, z = -.40, ns, r = -.04: for 2.7 girls’ (n = 47) Mdn = 1.0, boys’ (n = 26) Mdn = 1.0, U = 463,

z = -1.82, ns, r = -.00: and for 2.8 girls’ (n = 23) Mdn = 2.0, boys’ (n = 9) Mdn = 0.0, U = 64, z = -.09, ns, r = -.02.

Table 5.16 sets out how many level 2 English achievement standards were attempted by students and the number they actually achieved.

Table 5.16: Number of NCEA level 2 English achievement standards attempted and the number achieved by students (n = 107)

Number of students who achieved: Number of achievement standards attempted 1 standard 2 standards 3 standards 4 standards 5 standards 6 standards 7 standards 3 attempted 0 1 0 4 attempted 1 1 0 1 5 attempted 1 5 4 2 10 6 attempted 0 2 4 15 16 28 7 attempted 0 2 2 3 5 1 3 Total number of students 2 11 10 21 31 29 3

Results reveal that 59% of the 107 students achieved five, six, or seven of the

standards they attempted. However, 61% of the 107 students failed one or more of the English achievement standards they attempted. This is a marked increase on the 37% of the 106 students who failed one or more NCEA level 1 English achievement

standards.

To gauge students’ reactions to their NCEA level 2 English results, they were asked to rate how well they had done compared to their expectations (Final/1a). Their

evaluations listed in Table 5.17 reveal that 69.2% of students had done as well as they had expected to do, or better than they had expected to do.

Table 5.17: Students’ evaluations of their performance in NCEA English compared with their expectations (n = 107)

Expectations Frequency in

percentages

A lot worse than you expected 4.7

A little worse than you expected 26.2

About what you expected 45.7

Better than you expected 20.6

A lot better than you expected 2.8

Mann-Whitney U tests revealed no significant gender differences in students’

evaluations of the degree to which their performance met, exceeded or fell below their expectations (girls’ [n = 71] Mdn = 3.0, boys’ [n = 36] Mdn = 3.0, U = 1240, z = -.27, ns, r = -.03).

However, these evaluations only provide part of the information needed to ascertain students’ perceptions of their performance. For example, a student who indicated he/she did a little worse than expected, may have passed six achievement standards all with Merit, but had expected to achieve at least two Excellences. However, on reflection this student may have been happy with his/her results. To provide a fuller picture of students’ perceptions and emotional reactions to their academic results, students were also asked how happy they were with their results (Final/2a). The findings displayed in Table 5.18 reveal that 56.2% of the students were happy or very happy with their NCEA English results, while around 16% were unhappy or very unhappy with their results.

Table 5.18: Students’ evaluations of their degree of happiness with their NCEA level 2 English results (n = 105)

Happiness levels Frequency in

percentages

Very unhappy 3.8

Unhappy 11.4

Neither happy, nor unhappy 28.6

Happy 48.6

Very happy 7.6

Total 100.0

Mann-Whitney U tests revealed no significant gender differences in perceptions of happiness with their NCEA results (girls’ [n = 69] Mdn = 4.0, boys’ [n = 36] Mdn = 3.5,

U = 1172, z = -.51, ns, r = -.05).

The relationship between students’ self-reported expectations and their degree of happiness or unhappiness was investigated using the Spearman rho correlation

coefficient. There was a positive and moderately significant correlation between the two variables, r = .59, n = 105, p = .01, with those who achieved better than expected being more likely to be happy or very happy, while those who did worse than they expected were more likely to be unhappy or very unhappy.

However, the results in Table 5.18 are not necessarily a reflection of how many

achievement standards students actually achieved. Of the four students who were very unhappy, one achieved all seven achievement standards she attempted. She was only one of three students to achieve seven achievement standards. She was unhappy because she expected to get Merits rather than Achieved for her external

assessments. Three of these four students also indicated that they did a lot worse than they expected, including the student who achieved seven achievement standards.

On the other hand, some students indicated they were happy or very happy, but they passed very few achievement standards. For example, one student failed three out of five achievement standards he attempted, yet rated himself as being happy with his results. Another student failed three of the seven achievement standards she attempted, but was very happy as she had become disengaged during the year

because she found English very boring. These results suggest that some students may have had low expectations for passing and as a result were pleased to pass a small number of English achievement standards, rather than failing all of them.

In sum, around 60% of students achieved five, six, or seven English achievement standards, while a similar percentage of students had failed at least one achievement standard. In terms of the degree to which their English results had met, exceeded or failed to meet their expectations, nearly 70% of students’ expectations were met or exceeded. Lastly, around half of the students indicated they were happy or very happy with their NCEA English results, while 16% indicated they were unhappy or very unhappy with their results. Students’ achievement expectations and happiness levels were positively correlated.

5.3. Factors Significantly Influencing Students’ Motivation to