مریم فریبی

Learning outcomes will highly increase if barriers are identified and removed appropriately. Since demotivating factors can affect the learning process negatively, regaining the lost interest of learners leads to higher levels of academic achievement. Demotivation has been referred to as low motivation instead of being an independent concept on its own on the one hand, and the demotivating factors related to PhD exam candidates have not been taken into consideration so far on the other hand. As a result, this research attempted to examine both the demotivating and remotivating factors in the Iranian milieu, for which 100 MA and 78 PhD exam candidates from various universities took part in our study. The participants filled out a validated demotivating questionnaire for data collection, and 15 MA and 20 PhD participants participated in a semi-structured interview, encompassing five open-ended questions. The multivariate analysis of ANOVA depicted a significant difference between the most demotivating factor (economic problems) and the least demotivating one (curriculum decisions). Moreover, the data provided by the participants were analyzed to reduce the effect of these factors. Identifying the demotivating factors and trying to neutralize their negative effects by considering the remotivating options enables the policymakers to help the students move towards academic satisfaction which in the long run leads to their psychological well-being.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine teachers’ perceptions towards research by first investigating teachers’ conceptions about research and second, by examining the extent to which teachers read and do research. Methodology: To this end, the participants of the present study were 98 English language teachers from language institutes and schools. Utilizing Borg’s (2009) questionnaire, at first, the questionnaire responses were analyzed to determine the teachers’ view of research; in this section, the teachers were asked to point out to what extent they felt the activities described in 10 scenarios were or were not research. Findings: The results indicated that three scenarios were considered to be “probably research” and scenarios 4, 5 and 6 were regarded as “definitely research” by the participants. On the other hand, two scenarios were recognized as “definitely research”. The results of the second research question showed that among 98 English teachers only 24 teachers “often or sometimes” read published research which is a very high index. Teachers’ reasons for the answers to the second research question were lack of time, knowledge, access to resources, and institutional support. The findings of this research indicate that teachers’ conceptions of research are very near to conventional scientific theories. Only 12.2% of the teachers mentioned that they “do research”. Conclusion: the findings of the present study may be useful for teachers who want to promote their English teaching as such findings are suggested to improve their level of engagement in research activities, and consequently the quality of their research.