Paper Title
Early Adolescents Motivation And Engagement In Learning In Low Socio-Economic Districts In Sri Lanka (Based On Two-Way Manova And One-Way Anova Results)

Abstract
Even though, the Sri Lankan government provides a reasonable level of support for students at all levels of the school system, for example, free education, textbooks, school uniforms, subsidised public transportation, and school meals, low participation in learning among secondary students is an issue warranting investigation, particularly in low socio-economic districts. This study attempted to determine the levels of motivation and engagement amongst students in a number of schools in two low socio-economic districts of Sri Lanka. This study employed quantitative research design in an attempt to determine levels of motivation and engagement amongst Sri Lankan secondary school students. Motivation and Engagement Scale-Junior School was administered among 100 Sinhala-medium and 100 Tamil-medium eighth-grade students (50 students from each gender). The mean age of the students was 12.8 years. Schools were represented by type 2 government schools located in Monaragala and Nuwara Eliya districts in Sri Lanka. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to measure the construct validity of the scale. Since this did not provide a robust solution, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Four factors were identified; Failure Avoidance and Anxiety (FAA), Positive Motivation (PM), Uncertain Control (UC), and Positive Engagement (PE). A two-way MANOVA were employed to compare the interaction effect of gender and ethnicity. In this study one-way ANOVA tests were employed to compare the levels of motivation and engagement among schools based on ethnicity. No significant multivariate gender groups by ethnic groups’ interaction effect on the set of dependent variables were observed. There was a statistically significant difference between groups as determined by one-way ANOVA in both medium students. Keywords: Early adolescents, motivation and engagement, low socio-economic districts, two-way MANOVA, one-way ANOVA.