What Drives Student Motivation?

Motivation is an innate concept that is both hard and simple to define. Simply, it is why we do what we do. Yet, what drives motivation and the reason behind the why are significantly more complex. Despite the singular name for motivation, it is not a singular entity; Motivation is highly varied between individuals. While some might value the praise and pride of academic achievement, others do not care about it. How are we, as educators, supposed to motivate our students to show up, do the work, and care? Like most things, the first step is to understand what it is determined by.

How isn’t motivation fixed?

For motivation, there tends to be four theories of motivation:

1. Behaviorist 
2. Humanist
3. Cognitive
4. Sociocultural 

While these four theories can be detailed at great length, their summary is as follows:

1. Motivation is driven by reinforcement and punishment.
2. Humans follow an innate, hierarchical motivation pattern.
3. Your expectancy of success and perceived task value determine motivation.
4. Culture determines motivation.

While these four theories provide a theoretical framework, they sometimes fail to explain the human traits that influence motivation. Furthermore, no theory presented makes sense isolated: value is often reinforced by consequences, but sometimes it isn’t; hierarchical motivation is usually culturally structured; expectancy of success is often determined by past feedback, etc.

Therefore, we will take an integrative approach and try to move away from these theories while tying them together in the application.

Motivation is both socially- and self-determined

Ryan and Deci (2000) researched motivation across fields based on fundamental psychological needs. They postulated that humans have an innate inclination toward activity, curiosity, and integration but are vulnerable to passivity. According to Ryan and Deci (2020), the social context becomes crucial, either enforcing the innate inclination or exploiting the vulnerability. Furthermore, Ryan and Deci (2000) outline that motivation generally falls into one of two categories, either external or internal, what they sometimes call authentic. External is as it sounds; we are motivated by external consequences. Internal motivation is intrinsic motivation, where the individual seeks out challenges and tasks only by virtue of their innate wants.

Despite being innate, intrinsic motivation is not steady across people. It is varied. Ryan and Deci (2020) explain this variability by referencing another article they wrote in 1985. In this article, they proposed Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) and underpin three innate psychological needs that influence intrinsic motivation: competence, relatedness, and autonomy. The following terms are discussed based on Ryan and Deci (2020).

Competence

Competence is the self-perceived ability and capacity to be efficacious in undertaking a specific task. In other cognitive theories, it is called the expectancy of success. If an individual is uncertain about their ability to perform a certain task, they will be less intrinsically motivated to do so. The individual needs to feel effective in their interaction with the environment and be able to express their capacities and capabilities.

Thus, competence is not about feeling highly skilled but about understanding and being able to properly manage challenges and express one’s own capabilities. In a situation where the application of a skill is unclear, one’s competence might feel low, even if the level of the demanded skill is high. Since the application, the expression of capacity is uncertain, then the competence becomes uncertain.

Competence is then rooted in self-perception and experiences, often behaviorally enforced. A person with a maladaptive self-perception will experience inflated or insufficient competence. Additionally, without sufficient experience, one’s intrinsic motivation becomes unclear and often apprehensive, leaving one wanting more experience to see if one can properly express one’s capacity, which explains why we are often left afraid of being the first to do something; we are waiting for a frame of reference to gauge our competence.

Despite competence being a fundamental component of our intrinsic motivation, according to Ryan and Deci (2020), it becomes ineffective without autonomy.

Autonomy

Autonomy is as it sounds. If the individual feels that their actions are self-regulated, voluntary, and personally endorsed, then motivation increases. Actions need also be ego-syntonic, where they feel aligned with one’s own intrapersonal environment. Furthermore, the methodology has the same requirements. If an individual felt that a specific task was voluntary and ego-syntonic, but the task method was controlled and set in an ego-dystonic way, the intrinsic motivation would be diminished.

Actions done under true autonomy are done for the inherent satisfaction that comes with them and, crucially, in a way that the individual determines. Thereby, choice and control become a clear factor in the flourishing of autonomic intrinsic motivation, while control becomes a detriment. An individual should not feel as if there is only one way to complete their task; rather, they need to feel in control and as if the action or methodology is choosable.

Relatedness

Ryan and Deci (2000) outline that in studies of infant motivation, there is a clear pattern that infants with a secure attachment bond with their parents enact more exploratory behavior, the observational consequence of infant motivation. Studies surrounding children have a similar tendency, being more intrinsically motivated in the presence of an affirming and kind stranger than a cold one. They then hypothesize that the same is true for the social contexts of adults: We crave a social connection and security, without which we feel unmotivated and afraid. Ryan and Deci (2000) call this relatedness.

Our social bonds and overarching social context create a feeling that secures our motivational foundation. Moreover, relatedness plays a key part in our internalization process. Ryan and Deci (2000) explain our ability to adopt externally regulated behaviors as our own, given they are ego-syntonic. Internalization allows individuals to take external values and motivations and turn them into intrinsic ones. Through internalization, some students turn the external motivation of academic status into an internally motivating value. The internalization process is facilitated through relatedness, secure social bonds, and context.

Therefore, the social context, not only the task itself, becomes vital to ensuring intrinsic motivation. Social connection does not mean that the students must feel like they are best friends with every student in the classroom; it just means that they relate to the class and the social context in which they find themselves.

Cultural considerations

From a sociocultural perspective, individual motivation is determined by the person’s culture. The culture’s values are instilled in the individual when they are growing up. The culture can range from the country’s overarching social culture to the family’s culture. All cultures an individual is brought up with will then impact their motivation. An individual from an academic-focused social culture will be more intrinsically motivated to pursue academia from a cultural perspective. However, no one has the same cultural mix as any other person. Understanding the impact culture has on a person becomes important to understand their motivations.

Where does this leave us?

Motivation is highly individualistic yet determined by similar traits. A student’s feeling of competence, autonomy, and relatedness for any task will impact how motivated they are to do it. To ensure motivation in students, external factors, such as social context and reward, must empower the traits required, not undermine them. Generally, this will require a focus on effort, good social bonds, an avoidance of control, a lack of reward-focused motivation, and a supportive environment. Yet, importantly, motivation will never look the same for everyone.