Children’S Achievement Motivation in School

Motivation theorists are interested in the ‘whys’ of human behavior: what moves people to act (Wigfield et al. in press). Achievement motivation refers to motivation to accomplish activities that have standards of performance. Researchers studying school achievement motivation look at how students’ motivation influences their engagement in academic activities, the choices students make about which academic activities to do, their persistence at continuing the activities, and their degree of effort. Motivation researchers taking a social cognitive perspective focus on students’ self-beliefs, values and goals as important determinants (Eccles and Wigfield 2002; Maehr and Zusho 2009; Schunk and Pajares 2009; Wigfield et al. 2009). Many motivation researchers also are interested in how educational contexts influence these constructs (e.g. Nolen and Ward 2008).