About this Research Topic

Background

Academic motivation is strongly tied to the quality of student’s experience at school. Previous research has shown that students with higher quality motivation have higher levels of well-being, persistence and achievement. Although motivation is a powerful tool for helping students thrive, enhancing the quality of motivation itself is not always an easy task. Conceptualizations of academic motivation have been refined through theoretical and empirical advancements in the last few decades, and research from various conceptual backgrounds has identified a host of predictors of student motivation. These include students’ dispositional characteristics such as conscientiousness, or situational characteristics such as self-efficacy or psychological need satisfaction. Contextual variables, including support and care from teachers and parents, have also been associated with high quality student motivation. These elements are among the various known opportunities that can be targeted when trying to implement motivational interventions in an educational curriculum.

Nevertheless, individual and cultural circumstances will affect the way motivation can be enhanced through interventions and programs. To help develop and implement the best policies for improving student motivation, it is adamant that the field stays on top of cutting-edge research that addresses this issue. With the Research Topic, we seek to give visibility to scholarly work that identifies original ways students’ motivation can be fostered, as well as original takes on known ways to enhance students’ motivation. This collection of work on students’ motivation will help the field of academic motivation move forward by highlighting practical ways to improve students’ motivation that can appeal to decision makers in education.

This Research Topic is thus seeking original work on predictors of student motivation, including interventions to enhance student motivation. The focus is broad, welcoming research from various theories of student motivation. Among the sought-after theoretical perspectives, we include, but are not limited to:

• Achievement goal theory
• Expectancy-value theory
• Self-determination theory
• Social-cognitive theory

Researchers should include the prediction of a motivational variable in students and clearly demonstrate the originality of their work. We also welcome research from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and adopt a lifelong perspective on learning. Research taking place anywhere from preschool to college and adult education is welcomed.

Keywords: student motivation, teacher behavior, educational context, student goals, student needs

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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