Motivation in Education Theory, Research and Application

The field of motivation has undergone many changes in recent years as psychological theories have increasingly incorporated cognitive concepts and variables. Explanations of behavior have moved away from stimuli and reinforcement contingencies and instead emphasize learners' constructive interpretations of events and the role that their beliefs, cognitions, affects, and values play in achievement situations. Even more recently, within the field of educational research, there has been an interest in social and cultural models of learning that stress the situated nature of learners' beliefs and cognitions. This situated perspective has led to an increasing emphasis on how the local classroom context and other contextual factors shape and influence student learning and motivation. These two developments that stress student cognitions and beliefs and the influence of the classroom context have led to much more important and relevant research on motivation in education. Motivation involves processes that occur as individuals instigate and sustain goal-directed actions. Although many professionals feel comfortable with this cognitive perspective, considerable disagreement exists about what processes are involved in motivation, how these processes operate, how motivation relates to learning and achievement, and how motivation can be enhanced and sustained at an optimal level. Moreover, it is important to understand how these processes operate in classroom and school contexts if we are to improve education. We believe that motivation is an important quality that pervades all aspects of teaching and learning. Motivated students display interest in activities, feel self-efficacious, expend effort to succeed, persist at tasks, and typically use effective task, cognitive, and self-regulatory strategies to learn. Motivated teachers feel that they can help students learn, put extra time into instructional planning, and work with students to help ensure their learning and mastery of knowledge and skills. When motivation declines, other educational outcomes also suffer. Teachers must not only impart knowledge and teach skills, but also establish a motivating environment for learning. The first edition of this text grew from a conversation the authors had at the 1991 American Educational Research Association (AERA) convention in Chicago. At that time, each of us had been active in the field of motivation for several years as researchers and specifically in the Motivation in Education Special Interest Group of AERA. In addition, both of us had been teaching graduate level courses on motivation in education and felt the need for a textbook that would be appropriate for our courses. We wanted to write a book that would provide students with a solid theoretical and empirical grounding in motivational research as well as illustrate how the principles and research findings might be applied to education. The first edition of this book was well received by our own students as well as other students and faculty members nationally and internationally. We have been quite gratified by the positive comments from colleagues and students about the first edition. Nevertheless, the field of motivation is developing, and it seemed to be an appropriate time to prepare a second edition that would update the text and reflect current theory and research in motivation. Objectives The primary objectives of this new edition are the same as those of the first edition: (a) to present the major motivational theories, principles, and research findings in enough detail to help students understand the complexity of motivational processes, and (b) to provide examples of motivational concepts and principles applied to educational settings in order to suggest ways to facilitate motivation in these settings. Although different perspectives on motivation are presented, the text places primary emphasis on the role of personal cognitions and beliPintrich, Paul R. is the author of 'Motivation in Education Theory, Research and Application', published 2001 under ISBN 9780130160096 and ISBN 0130160091.