Abstract
There is a growing demand for private secondary education in Nigeria. However, few researches have studied the teaching practices that enhance the academic motivation of secondary school students in Southwestern, private, urban Nigerian secondary schools. This dissertation is a qualitative study of the teaching practices within the classroom that teachers perceive to enhance the academic motivation of senior secondary school students in a Southwestern, Catholic, urban Nigerian secondary school. Eleven staff were interviewed and observed to understand their perceptions on academic motivational teaching practices, and their motivational teaching practices. The research uses phenomenology and a CAQDAS (MAXQDA) for its analysis. The research found that most of the strategies that teachers perceive to be effective in motivating students strive to build relationships with their students. The study recommended training of teachers in effective motivational practices, and further research in the academic motivation of secondary school students.|Keywords: Academic motivation, classroom, private secondary school, Southwestern Nigeria, teacher perceptions