Student motivation refers to the student’s interest, desire, compulsion, and need to participate and succeed in the learning process. It is generally accepted that student motivation plays a key role in academic learning.
Highly motivated students participate more actively in the learning process than less motivated students. Motivated students have a positive impact on learning. They take advantage of a given opportunity and show intense effort and concentration in the implementation of the learning process. Furthermore, they reveal positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm, interest and optimism during learning.
On the other hand, it was found that the less motivated were less interested in participating in the learning process. Most of them were physically present in the classroom but mentally absent. They often failed to become actively involved in the learning tasks. Such students were more likely to stop learning. Less motivated students should be guided to develop a favorable attitude towards the learning process.
A teacher or instructor has an important role in guiding less motivated students. To restructure less motivated students, a technique called attribution retraining is used, which includes modeling, socialization, and hands-on exercises. Its goal is to help students focus on the learning task without fear of failure.
There are two types of student motivation such as extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is defined as the motivation to engage in an activity in order to obtain rewards or avoid punishment from an external source. Extrinsically motivated students undertake an activity for the sake of getting good grades or a teacher’s approval. Extrinsic motivation is again divided into two as social motivation and material motivation. Social motivations include approval from teachers, parents, and friends. Good grades, future education, or job security fall under material motivations.
Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity for its own sake, for the pleasure and enjoyment it provides. To be more precise, an intrinsically motivated student performs an action for the learning that it allows. Compared to extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation is more desirable as it is the motivation to engage in the learning process for the pleasure of learning without considering its consequences.