Motivation scolaire et adaptation psychosociale d'élèves du secondaire scolarisés en classe de prolongation de cycle

Since the implementation of the education reform, over ten years ago, school administrators are required to focus on other measures to help students with difficulties catch up rather than grade retention. It is with this intent that the prolongation class was set up in high schools. Students at the end of the 1st cycle, deemed unable to continue to the upper level, are grouped together in this class, for a year, and enjoy different support measures to achieve the level of competency expected (more specifically in Language arts and mathematics), in order to experience a successful transition to the 2nd cycle. Very little empirical research is available regarding the effectiveness of this modality. This study aims to estimate the impact of two different prolongation models (co-teaching and single teacher) on students’ motivation and psychosocial adjustment. Students in the            co-teaching model remain in a closed group and are accompanied by three teachers who share the responsibility for almost all components of the program. Students with a single teacher also remain in a closed group, they have a home room teacher who handles lessons in Language arts and mathematics while other subjects are taught by specialist teachers. One hundred and thirty four students, attending three French high schools, located in low SES (socioeconomic status) districts of Montreal, formed experimental and control groups. At the onset and at the end of their year of prolongation, participants completed a questionnaire that targeted their general academic motivation, their domain-specific motivation, their psychosocial adjustment, and some aspects of their relations with their peers, their teachers and their parents. Results of multivariate analysis of variance (repeated measures MANOVA) and subsequent univariate tests show that competency beliefs increased among students who experienced the co-teaching prolongation model. In addition, their performance-avoidance goals and social anxiety decreased. Among students experiencing prolongation with a single teacher, general and Language arts competency beliefs increased, however, they expressed themselves more negatively than their counterparts regarding their interest in schooling, their sense of belonging to their school and their relationships with their peers.These results indicate that this measure has a mixed effect on students’ motivation and psychosocial adjustment. Perceived gains may be due to being in a less competitive school environment. That being said, it is important to mention that teachers who tested the co-teaching model were using it for the first time. Their practices are likely to improve, in which case, more disparate results could potentially be observed between the two prolongation models. Since the sustainability of these gains is unknown, this study should continue in order to observe whether they are long lasting as well as, to measure and determine the full effectiveness of the co-teaching prolongation model.

Keyphrases: Motivation scolaire, Academic motivation, Psychosocial adjustment, School persistence program