Roma Among Students Endangered and Unendangered by School Failure: Czech Republic Study

Abstract

The research was focused on monitoring the differences between primary and lower secondary school pupils in the Czech Republic in terms of their needs “to be successful” or “to avoid failure”. Its aim was to analyse the motivation of pupils divided by teachers into two groups: students endangered and those not endangered by school failure. The research approach was based on the application of the standardized School Performance Motivation Questionnaire. Through its twelve indicators, the differences between the above-mentioned groups of students were analysed with a special respect to the students belonging to the Roma ethnic group. The research used indicators of descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean, mode). The process of comparation of the acquired data confirmed differences in motivation of the group of students endangered by school failure as compared to that of unendangered by school failure. Pupils at risk of school failure showed a lower need to be successful than their classmates from the group at risk. Students at risk of school failure showed a lower need to be successful than their classmates from the other group. Also within these groups were found differences between the motivation of Roma pupils and their classmates. The Roma preferred the need to avoid failure much more strongly. The findings are important for educational practice because the ratio of the two needs identified affects pupils' learning strategies and affects not only the effectiveness of their learning, but also their relationship to cognition and school in general. Keywords: performance motivation, endangered students, unendangered students, Roma students, non-Roma students, descriptive analysis, school motivation indicators.