Task based learning challenges in high schools: What makes students accept or reject tasks?
This paper takes an original approach to investigating why high school students in Japan may decide to undertake or reject tasks in task based learning (TBL) Issues with nonparticipation, noise, and a lack of involvement are common experiences for high school teachers using tasks where students are left alone to work in pairs or groups. Such problems can be attributed to low motivation and discovering what it is about tasks that students find most motivating is very fruitful for task design purposes. A post task motivation related survey was distributed to 196 junior and senior high school students twice after different tasks. Specifically, grabbing the attention of and creating a feeling of satisfaction for the students were found to be of the most significance for motivation to occur. Suggested directions for teachers of TBL with regards to motivational task design are offered in conclusion.