| Summary: | Inquiry pedagogy encompasses many strategies and approaches (e.g., student-centered learning, a participatory role among students and teachers in constructing the curriculum, fostering autonomy) that have been identified to increase intrinsic motivation and mastery goal-oriented approaches to learning. However, little if any investigation has been conducted to investigate the motivation that is experienced among bright and average achieving students when engaged in this learning environment. Csikszentmihalyi's Flow theory is considered an optimal form of intrinsic motivation and has been linked to bright students because they appear to exhibit high motivation when engaged in challenging and interesting material. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether Flow was a good theoretical framework in which to explore the motivation that is experienced among high achieving and average achieving students in inquiry education and traditional settings. Participating students (N = 272, M age = 11.68) were from different instructional settings (i.e., traditional, occasional inquiry, and frequent inquiry classrooms) from upper elementary and early secondary school grades (grades five through eight). Data collection consisted of two administrations of questionnaires that targeted Flow experiences, one in a unit that students had recently completed in their particular instructional environment and the other, being more ideal, explored their experiences in their favorite subjects. Flow was measured using the Flow States Scale - 2; goal orientation and intrinsic motivation were used to further validate the Flow construct and were measured using the Goal Orientation Scale, and the Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom Scale. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with each teacher and eighteen randomly selected students. All students regardless of ability report higher Flow states in inquiry settings than students' experiences from traditional and occasional inquiry classrooms. Additionally, high ability students report the highest Flow states when engaged in their favorite subjects. The quantitative results were corroborated by the interview results.
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