2018 Volume 57 Pages 155-170
Studies on learning motivation conducted during the past ten years in Japan are reviewed and directions for future research are suggested. As a theoretical framework, four factors (cognition, emotion, needs, and environment) are regarded as determinants of motivation, and three levels (trait, domain, and state levels) are regarded as categories related to the stability of motivation. The following issues are considered important for investigating complicated processes of learning and motivation in the future: (a) simultaneously examining different factors related to cognition and emotion, (b) conducting empirical and theoretical studies with a special focus on state-level motivation, (c) designing practical studies that include interventional and developmental research and implementing them in educational settings, (d) utilizing experimental and observational methods in addition to the questionnaire method, and (e) adopting a multi-method approach combining various research methods, among others. Moreover, it is important to renovate conventional perspectives of education that mainly aim to acquire knowledge and skills by setting up the class to instead aim to activate students' thinking and expressions based on learning motivation as the basis of studies on learning motivation.
