Student Motivation

Student motivation involves multiple factors, including actions by teachers or other educational practitioners that result in students wanting to learn new material both inside and outside a formal course setting. These actions can take numerous forms including external rewards (extrinsic motivation), such as grades, recognition, or prizes, and emotional support (emotional motivation), such as praise, reinforcement, or positive feedback. Promoting intrinsic motivation includes actions that help students to become self-motivated, such as generating students’ interest in topics, promoting joy in the learning experience, or demonstrating the value of being self-motivated. Negative motivation can also be used to motivate students to learn; it involves consequences such as failure of a course, negative feedback for performance, and punishment. This entry provides an overview of student motivation, including ...