STUDENT MOTIVATION

Student Motivation



Student Motivation

Summary

Motivation is the force behind behavior and provides an explanation for why people do things. Motivation influences what people do—meaning their choice of actions, as well as how they act; the intensity, persistence, and quality of their actions. Motivational theories help to explain people's achievements as well as their failure to achieve. They provide a way of understanding accomplishments and success, especially in the face of challenge and adversity. They also help to explain unexpected outcomes such as the lackluster performance of talented individuals or the triumph of an underdog who exceeds all expectations.

Motivation studies have focused on three aspects that are important for their educational implications: relevant variables for assessing motivation to attend school; motivational differences between students with different academic performance, and changes in motivation as they advance in school (Maslow 1970, 77). Considering these aspects, the present study was developed with these objectives: to develop, and to set up the validity and reliability of a psychometric instrument for investigating how people perceive different motivational variables regarding various school activities typical of the Mexican junior high school; and to find out whether there is a relationship between motivational variables and academic achievement, grade level and gender. The results indicated that academic performance is related to the way motivation is perceived, that students change their perception of motivation during their school life, and that boys and girls differ concerning this only in some respects (Theobald 2006, 45).

Keywords: student motivation, secondary education, academic performance.

Motivation and Academic Performance

The social and educational demands of school influence separately in each student. The main factor contributing to this situation is a rating system that ranks students according to academic motivation and promotes expression of well known teachers: a greater concern for the ratings so they can learn, share school activities based on the principle of least effort, perception of themselves as learners bit concerned, particularly in difficult subjects, little willingness to face challenges, decline in interest in certain subjects come up, even to hate; evaluation of academic activities - as doing homework or preparing for exams, only by the mean score.

Literature indicates that academic performance is related to the disposition of students towards the activities school. Those with high performance support their learning in more complexes cognitive strategies are more autonomous in their academic work, feel they are competent to succeed in school. Their goals are more focused on developing new knowledge, greater perceived control over learning situations and properly manage stress arising from the compulsory school attendance (Tileston 2004, 60).

In contrast, students with low academic performance based learning and knowledge strategies poorly developed, show a greater dependence on learning, less interest in developing new knowledge, a poor perception of themselves as learners, and are difficult to handle situations stress.

Hypothesis

Academic performance is dependent on perceived motivation.

Method

This is a cross-sectional study that used a correlation design transactional. Students from four secondary schools (two mornings and two afternoons) from southern Mexico City located in an ...