A Conceptualization of Academic Motivation and its Implications for Classroom Teachers

Abstract

Academic motivation is conceived here as an amalgam of personality dispositions, goals, and varying states of arousal. Some attention is given to the nature and development of each of these components, and their implications for classroom teachers are discussed. It is claimed that, when pupil motivation is low, intervention might take the form of strategies aimed at: ( a) increasing the strength of motivational dispositions; ( b) raising the value ascribed to academic achievement; and ( c) maximum arousal of intrinsic motivation and elimination of suppressor variables. Although classroom teachers may be able to effect some improvement in the strength of motivational dispositions and values, their main contribution to promoting motivation in their pupils probably lies in their ability to arouse the dispositions and values.