Motivation

Wikipedia defines motivation as the "driving force which causes us to achieve goals." Within the context of learn, it is considered to be the drive or desire of the learner to learn new skills or information. Pintrich et. al. argue that motivation is an important component of learning theory. In //Beyond Cold Conceptual Change: The Role of Motivational Beliefs and Classroom Contextual Factors in the Process of Conceptual Change,// they say "in particular, cognition only models of student learning do not adequately explain why students who seem to have the requisite prior conceptual knowledge do not activate this knowledge for many school tasks, let alone out-of-school tasks." (p. 167)

Motivation is often characterized as having three behavioral characteristics: choice of task, level of engagement or activity in the task, and willingness to persist at that task. (Pintrich et. al.)

If students within the classroom are not motivated to learn a topic they will not learn that topic. We as teachers need to pull students interest into a task to help them see why it deserves their motivation. Motivation has 2 major parts “motivational beliefs about their reasons for choosing to do a task (value component that include goal orientation interest and importance) and their beliefs about their capability to perform a task (expectancy components that include self-efficacy, attributions, and control beliefs)” (Pintrich et al. pg 176)