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David A Cook, Email: This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. A research agenda for motivation in education. Abstract Objective To succinctly summarise five contemporary theories about motivation to learn, articulate key intersections and distinctions among these theories, and identify important considerations for future research.
Motivation to learn: an overview of contemporary theories
Introduction The concept of motivation pervades our professional and personal lives. Table 1 Summary of contemporary motivation theories. After an event, learners create subconscious causal explanations attributions for the results. Attributions vary in terms of locus, stability and controllability. These influence emotions, which in turn drive motivation in future tasks. Human learning and performance result from reciprocal interactions among personal, behavioural and environmental factors. Intrinsic motivation leads people to act purely to satisfy their curiosity or desire for mastery.
All other actions are prompted by extrinsic motivation, which is driven by social values. Intrinsic and internalised motivations are promoted by feelings of competence, autonomy and relatedness. Key concepts Expectation of success is the degree to which individuals believe they will be successful if they try. Task value is the degree to which individuals perceive personal importance, value or intrinsic interest in doing the task. Locus refers to whether the cause is internal or external to the individual. Stability refers to whether the cause is fixed or likely to change.
Controllability refers to whether the cause is within or outside the individual's control. Outcome expectations refer to the belief that certain outcomes will result from given actions. Autonomy refers to the opportunity to control one's actions. Competence refers to the perceived ability to master and achieve.
Relatedness refers to a sense of affiliation with or belonging to others to whom they would like to feel connected. Comparison with other theories Concepts of expectancy of success and value recur in many other theories. Implicit attributions about the stability of ability are central to GOT. By contrast with AT, controllability beliefs vary by individual i. SDT places unique emphasis on autonomy, choice and human relationships.
Open in a separate window. Table 2 Similar concepts and terminology across several contemporary theories: Task value EVT Perceived importance, usefulness, enjoyment or benefit to the individual of successful task completion. Outcome expectations SCT; the belief that specific outcomes will result from given actions are conceptually similar to, but not synonymous with, task value.
In AT, task value is indirect, mediated by the learner's affective emotional response. Objective, aim and purpose Goal orientation a general attitude to learning that is influenced by underlying beliefs about the controllability and stability of learning capacity; see mastery goal and performance goal Goal content theories focus on what learners are trying to achieve.
Learning goal Task goal Goal setting: Goal orientations involve an attribution, but differ from AT in that controllability beliefs vary by individual i. Performance goal GOT General mindset for learning often subconscious that the chief concern is to look smart and avoid looking dumb. Ego goal Ability goal See mastery goal. Attribution theory Attribution theory Fig.
Implications and conclusions Other authors have identified practical applications of motivation theory, most often instructional changes that could enhance motivation. Contributors DAC and ARA jointly contributed to the conception of the work, drafted the initial manuscript, revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final version. Conflicts of interest the authors are not aware of any conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval as no human subjects were involved, ethical approval was not required. Click here for additional data file. Acknowledgments we thank Kelly Dore for her contributions during the conceptual stages of this review and Adam Sawatsky and Dario Torre for their critiques of manuscript drafts. Notes The copyright line for this article was changed on 6 October after original online publication. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire: Med Educ ; 45 Motivation as an independent and a dependent variable in medical education: Med Teach ; Motivation in medical education: Acad Med ; BMC Med Educ ; A motivated exploration of motivation terminology.
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Med Educ ; 48 8: Intrapersonal and interpersonal theories of motivation from an attributional perspective. Educ Psychol Rev ; 12 1: Support Center Support Center. Please review our privacy policy. Motivation is a function of the expectation of success and perceived value. Expectation of success is the degree to which individuals believe they will be successful if they try.
Concepts of expectancy of success and value recur in many other theories. Seminal contemporary writers and resources a. Eccles 21 Wigfield Weiner 22 , Bandura 25 Schunk 6 , 29 Zimmerman 28 , Dweck 31 , 32 Ames 33 Elliot 38 Harackiewicz Deci 43 Ryan Perceived capability to learn or perform at a certain level based in large part on past accomplishments.
Perceived importance, usefulness, enjoyment or benefit to the individual of successful task completion.
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In SDT, value can arise from intrinsic motivation e. Goal orientation a general attitude to learning that is influenced by underlying beliefs about the controllability and stability of learning capacity; see mastery goal and performance goal. Goal content theories focus on what learners are trying to achieve. General mindset for learning often subconscious that the chief concern is to get smarter by learning new knowledge or skills. In addition, the sensation pleasure of "liking" can occur when opioids are released by nucleus accumbens.
This helps someone evaluate the unfamiliar situation or environment and attach value to the novel object. These processes of both wanting and liking play a role in activating the reward system of the brain, and perhaps in the stimulation of curious or information-seeking tendencies as well.
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The caudate nucleus , is a region of the brain that is highly responsive to dopamine. The caudate nucleus is another component of the reward pathway. Research has suggested the role of the caudate nucleus anticipates the possibility of and is in anticipation of reward of exploratory behavior and gathered information, thus contributing to factors of curiosity. Regions of the anterior cortices correspond to both conflict and arousal and, as such, seem to reinforce certain exploratory models of curiosity.
Cortisol is a chemical known for its role in stress regulation. However, cortisol may also be associated with curious or exploratory behavior. Findings in recent studies suggesting the role of cortisol with curiosity support the idea of optimal arousal theory.
It is suggested the release of a small amount cortisol causing stress encourages curious behavior, while too much stress can initiate a "back away" response. Attention is important to the understanding of curiosity because it directly correlates with one's abilities to selectively focus and concentrate on particular stimuli in the surrounding environment.
As there are limited cognitive and sensory resources to understand and evaluate various stimuli, attention allows the brain to better focus on what it perceives to be the most important or relevant of these stimuli. Individuals tend to focus their energies on stimuli that are particularly stimulating or engaging. Indicating that the more attention a stimulus garners, the more frequent one's energy and focus will be directed towards that stimulus.
This idea suggests an individual will focus their attention on new or unfamiliar stimuli in an effort to better understand or make sense of the unknown over the more familiar or repetitive stimuli. Creating the idea that curiosity demands attention. The striatum , is a part of the brain which coordinates motivation with body movement. It would seem natural that the striatum plays a role in attention and reward anticipation, both of which are important in the provocation of curiosity.
The precuneus is a region of the brain that is involved in attention, episodic memory, and visuospatial processing. There has been a correlation found between the amount of grey matter in the precuneus and levels of curious and exploratory behaviors; suggesting that the precuneus density has an influence on levels of curiosity.
Memory plays an important role in the understanding of curiosity. If curiosity is the desire to seek out and understand unfamiliar or novel stimuli, one's memory is important in determining if the stimuli is indeed unfamiliar. Memory is the process by which the brain can store and access information. In order to determine if the stimulus is novel, an individual must remember if the stimulus has been encountered before.
Thus, memory plays an integral role in dictating the level of novelty or unfamiliarity, and the level of need for curiosity. It can also be suggested that curiosity can affect memory. As previously mentioned, stimuli that are novel tend to capture more of our attention. Additionally, novel stimuli usually have a reward value associated with them, the anticipated reward of what learning that new information may bring.
With stronger associations and more attention devoted to a stimulus, it is probable that the memory formed from that stimulus will be longer lasting and easier to recall, both of which facilitate better learning. The hippocampus is important in memory formation and recall and therefore instrumental in determining the novelty of various stimuli. The parahippocampal gyrus PHG , the area of grey matter surrounding the hippocampus, has recently been implicated in the process of curiosity.
This finding suggests that the PHG may be involved in the amplification of curiosity more so than the primary induction of curiosity. The amygdala , often is associated with emotional processing, particularly for the emotion of fear, as well as memory. It is suggested the amygdala is important in processing emotional reactions towards novel or unexpected stimuli and the induction of exploratory behavior. This implies a potential connection between curiosity levels and the amygdala. However, more research is needed on direct correlation. Piaget is considered to be the most influential child researcher.
He argued that babies and children are constantly trying to make sense of their reality and that it contributed to their intellectual development. According to Piaget, children develop hypotheses, conduct experiments and then reassess their hypotheses depending on what they observe. Piaget was the first to closely document children's actions and interpret them as consistent, calculated effort to test and learn about their environment. There is no universally accepted definition for curiosity in children. Most research on curiosity has been focused on adults and which typically used self-report measures are inappropriate and inapplicable for studying children.
Curiosity is mostly thought of as attributable to a mature person and is characterized in young children as a fledgling feature of their outlook on the world.
Exploratory behaviour is commonly observed in children and is associated with their curiosity development. Several studies look at children's curiosity by simply observing their interaction with novel and familiar toys. There has been evidence found of a relationship between the anxiety children might feel and their curiosity. One study found that object curiosity in year-olds was negatively related to psychological maladjusted so children who exhibit more anxiety in classroom settings engaged in less curious behaviour. It has also been suggested that certain aspects of classroom learning is dependent on curiosity which can be affected by students' anxiety.
Other measures of childhood curiosity have used exploratory behaviour as a basis but differing on how which parts of this behaviour is best to focus on. Researchers have also looked at the relationship between a child's reaction to surprise and curiosity. It has been suggested that children are further motivated to learn when dealing with uncertainty. It is argued that their reactions to not having their expectations met would fuel their curiosity more than the introduction of a novel or complex object would. There is a widely held belief that children's curiosity becomes discouraged throughout the process of formal education: From the first ball they send flying to the ant they watch carry a crumb, children use science's tools—enthusiasm, hypotheses, tests, conclusions—to uncover the world's mysteries.
- Motivation to learn: an overview of contemporary theories.
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But somehow students seem to lose what once came naturally. Different neurodegenerative diseases or other psychological disorders can affect various characteristics of curiosity, for instance Alzheimer's disease 's effects on memory or depression on motivation and reward. Alzheimer's disease AD is a neurodegenerative disease that directly affects the capability and capacity for memory. Depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by a lack of interest in one's environment and feelings of sadness or hopelessness. A lack of curiosity for novel stimuli might also be used as a potential predictor for these and other illnesses.
A morbid curiosity exemplifies an aspect of curiosity that can be seen as focused on objects of death , violence , or any other event that may cause harm physically or emotionally. The idea of morbid curiosity typically is described as having an addictive quality.
This addictive aspect of the need to understand or make sense of topics that surround harm, violence or death can be attributed to the idea of one's need to relate unusual and often difficult circumstances to a primary emotion or experience of their own, described as meta-emotions. Understanding these difficult circumstances dates back to Aristotle in his Poetics , stating "enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose sight is painful to us". There are two distinct classifications of types of curiosity: Both of these types determine whether curiosity comes from within or outside of a person.
State curiosity is external such as wondering why things happen for the sake of just curiousness, for example, wondering why most stores open at 8 a.
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This type of curiosity tends to be the most relatable for people on a day-to-day basis since state curiosity relates to high levels of reward. On the other hand, trait curiosity relates to people who are interested in learning. Generally, it could be trying out a new sport or food, or traveling to a new unknown place.
One can look at curiosity as the urge that draws people out of their comfort zones and fears as the agent that keeps them within those zones. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Curious disambiguation and Curiosity disambiguation. This article relies too much on references to primary sources.
Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources.