This aligns with SDT theory, which suggests that providing optimal challenges can increase feelings of competence (Deci & Ryan, 1985b), since children tend to children’s seek to engage in challenges which in turn support their intrinsic need to be competent (Deci & Porac, 1978) and to have belief in their abilities to master those challenges and feel competent (Hardre & Reeve, 2003). The data showed that optimal challenges seemed to increase competence in reading. This is consistent with Turner and children’s Paris (1995) who found that challenging tasks motivate children to read more. When learners test their personal competence by facing an optimal challenge as part of the task experience they give the task their full attention and it maximises their cognitive ‘flow’, processes (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Flow is of peak enjoyment, energetic focus “a state and (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 231). creative concentration” There were numerous examples of this aspect of SDT. For example, providing optimal challenges in the story sacks activity supported the need for competence. The children’s data show that the teachers provided optimal challenges when they planned and designed the story sack activities, as was evident from this informal group discussion: Researcher: Why did you choose these five stories to make the story sacks? Teacher Lolo: We tried to choose some stories that are easy, some a bit more … difficult and one that is more advanced. Researcher: How did you determine how difficult the stories were? Teacher Samha: We looked at different things in the story to help us choose. The easy stories have more pictures, less text, the story events are basic, not complex. The more advanced story we chose has more text and the story is a bit more complex with more events. You can see [pointing to the stories on the disk] ‘The Five and Caterpillar are easy stories, Eid is Friends’ ‘The Khaddorh’ ‘The Gift’ more difficult, and Lion and the and are more ‘The Mouse’ ‘Squirrel’s Kite’ advanced. Teacher Sana: we tried to design the activities with a range of difficulty, “… taking into account individual differences between the children. For example, you
This aligns with SDT theory, which suggests that providing optimal challenges can increase children’s feelings of competence (Deci & Ryan, 1985b), since children tend to seek to engage in challenges which in turn support their intrinsic need to be competent (Deci & Porac, 1978) and to have belief in their abilities to master those challenges and feel competent (Hardre & Reeve, 2003). The data showed that optimal challenges seemed to increase children’s competence in reading. This is consistent with Turner and Paris (1995) who found that challenging tasks motivate children to read more. When learners test their personal competence by facing an optimal challenge as part of the task experience ‘flow’, they give the task their full attention and it maximises their cognitive processes (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Flow is “a state of peak enjoyment, energetic focus and creative concentration” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 231). There were numerous examples of this aspect of SDT. For example, providing optimal challenges in the story sacks activity supported the children’s need for competence. The data show that the teachers provided optimal challenges when they planned and designed the story sack activities, as was evident from this informal group discussion: Researcher: Why did you choose these five stories to make the story sacks? Teacher Lolo: … We tried to choose some stories that are easy, some a bit more difficult and one that is more advanced. Researcher: How did you determine how difficult the stories were? Teacher Samha: We looked at different things in the story to help us choose. The easy stories have more pictures, less text, the story events are basic, not complex. The more advanced story we chose has more text and the story is a bit more complex with more events. You can see [pointing to the stories on the disk] ‘The Five Friends’ and ‘The Caterpillar Khaddorh’ are easy stories, ‘The Eid Gift’ is more difficult, and ‘The Lion and the Mouse’ and ‘Squirrel’s Kite’ are more advanced. Teacher Sana: “… we tried to design the activities with a range of difficulty, taking into account individual differences between the children. For example, you
Promoting%20Reading%20for%20Pleasure%20with%20Kindergarten%20Children%20in%20Saudi%20Arabia.docx