Influence of the constructivist methodology on motivation in early childhood education

Abstract

Motivation plays an important role in Early Childhood Education. As far as motivation is concerned, it is a construct that is of vital importance in the child’s development. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to test the effect of two different teaching methodologies on the degree of motivation in Early Childhood Education. The methodology used in this research is framed within the quasi-experimental designs, of a quantitative nature, with a pre-test - post-test procedure with a non-equivalent control group. An ad hoc instrument was designed to assess the initial level of motivation of students and to analyze motivation at the end of an intervention. The instrument was applied to a sample of 73 students of 4 and 5 years of age from a public school in the Region of Murcia. The initial differences between the groups were studied and nonparametric statistics were applied, calculating the effect sizes to establish the differences between the two groups. The results show that the total motivation of the students who formed the experimental classrooms and worked with a constructivist methodology, increases considerably after the application of the activities, obtaining the most significant values in intrinsic motivation. The results show that students’ motivation is higher when they work with experimental, experiential and manipulative activities applied on the basis of a constructivist methodology.