Teaching and Learning

Teach ?ng and Learn ?ng through Motivation

Psycholog ?sts and educators have long cons ?dered the role of mot ?vat ?on ?n student ach ?evement and learn ?ng . Much of the early research on student ach ?evement and learn ?ng separated cogn ?t ?ve and mot ?vat ?onal factors and pursued very d ?st ?nct l ?nes of research that d ?d not ?ntegrate cogn ?t ?on and mot ?vat ?on . However , s ?nce at least the 1980s there has been a susta ?ned research focus on how mot ?vat ?onal and cogn

?t ?ve factors ?nteract and jo ?ntly ?nfluence student learn ?ng and ach ?evement ?n more colloqu ?al terms , there ?s recogn ?t ?on that students need both the cogn ?t ?ve sk ?ll and the mot ?vat ?onal w ?ll to do well ?n school (Cov ?ngton , 1998

The ?ntegrat ?on of mot ?vat ?onal and cogn ?t ?ve factors was fac ?l ?tated by the sh ?ft ?n mot ?vat ?onal theor ?es from trad ?t ?onal ach ?evement mot ?vat ?on models to soc ?al cogn ?t ?ve models of mot ?vat ?on . One of the most ?mportant assumpt ?ons of soc ?al cogn ?t ?ve models of mot ?vat ?on ?s that mot ?vat ?on ?s a dynam ?c , mult ?faceted phenomenon that contrasts w ?th the quant ?tat ?ve v ?ew taken by trad ?t ?onal models of mot ?vat ?on ?n other words , these newer soc ?al cogn ?t ?ve models do not assume that students are e ?ther "mot ?vated " or "not mot ?vated " or that student mot ?vat ?on can be character ?zed ?n some quant ?tat ?ve manner between two endpo ?nts on a s ?ngle cont ?nuum . Rather , soc ?al cogn ?t ?ve models stress that students can be mot ?vated ?n mult ?ple ways and the ?mportant ?ssue ?n understand ?ng how and why students are mot ?vated for school ach ?evement . Th ?s change ?n focus ?mpl ?es that teachers or school psycholog ?sts should not label students as "mot ?vated " or "not mot ?vated ?n some global fash ?on . Accord ?ngly ?n the d ?scuss ?on of mot ?vat ?on as an academ ?c enabler , many aspects of student mot ?vat ?on ?nclud ?ng self-eff ?cacy , attr ?but ?ons ?ntr ?ns ?c mot ?vat ?on , and goals are cons ?dered

A second ?mportant assumpt ?on of soc ?al cogn ?t ?ve models of mot ?vat ?on ?s that mot ?vat ?on ?s not a stable tra ?t of an ?nd ?v ?dual , but ?s more s ?tuated , contextual , and doma ?n-spec ?f ?c ?n other words , not only are students mot ?vated ?n mult ?ple ways , but the ?r mot ?vat ?on can vary depend ?ng on the s ?tuat ?on or context ?n the classroom or school Although th ?s assumpt ?on makes ?t more d ?ff ?cult for research and assessment efforts ?t means that student mot ?vat ?on ?s conce ?ved...