Motivational Science (Pintrich, 2003)

A picture of a farmer in China methodically tending to his/her crop.  The word science tends to bring up images of test-tubes and laboratories, yet much science has gone into creating this scene, I'm sure.

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Reference: Pintrich, P.R. (2003). A motivational science perspective on the role of student motivation in learning and teaching contexts.  Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 667-686. 

Paul Pintrich, the author of this article passed away in 2003, the same year the article was published. He was with the University of Michigan.

Pintrich highlighted three themes and seven questions for motivational research.

The three themes are as follows:

1. Motivational research should be approached from a scientific perspective. This does not mean motivation has to be studied only as random clinical trails but that the research needs to be conducted well and empirically. Studies can include experimental, correlational, field, ethnographic, and case studies (p. 668).
2. Multidisciplinary approaches are important to the process.  Many disciplines contribute to motivational science but psychology and education are particularly relevant to the motivation of learning and teaching.
3. Research should be use-inspired.  The goal should be to do research that enhances our scientific understanding as well as our applied practice. Pintrich suggests motivational science should be like that of Pasteur, or even Bohr, as opposed to Edison (p. 668-669). 

The seven questions for motivational science are as follows:

1. What do students want?
2. What motivates students in classrooms? (This section is self-declared longer than the others. Table 2 provides motivational generalizations and design principles. As Pintrich notes, like the design principles of architecture, these design principles can be adapted to create very different  learning environments. The motivational generalizations can be loosely categorized into five areas: competence, attribution and control beliefs, interest, value, and goals.  )
3. How do students get what they want?
4. Do students know what they want or what motivates them?
5. How does motivation lead to cognition and cognition to motivation?
6. How does motivation change and develop?
7. What is the role of context and culture?

 One recurring suggestion is to consider motivation and cognition simultaneously.

I think this article encourages researchers to step beyond developing activities and workshops that seem to motivate the students but to really consider using the scientific and empirical approach to understanding student motivation.

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