Edu 800 Annotation Week 9

Turner, J. C., & Patrick, H. (2008). How does motivation develop and why does it change? Reframing motivation research. Educational psychologist, 43(3), 119-131.

Motivation is one of the most mysterious aspects of education, and in this article, the authors make the assertion that motivation research needs an overhaul. They argue that in order to better understand motivation in all aspects of learning, the focus must shift from motivation theories to how motivation is developed and why it changes.  According to the researchers, understanding motivation requires an investigation of several different factors such as the context of the situations and the individuals. The authors believed that since these concepts are not typically taken into account, a clear knowledge of motivation is thereby impossible to assess. Therefore, the authors suggest that use of Rogoff’s three planes of learning analysis might provide a better metric of motivation.

The ideas put forth in this article are quite different from most on the concepts of motivation which are typically steeped in theories about what motivates humans. Its strength lies in the fact that the authors use specific examples about students in context and demonstrate that the classroom environment, the teacher, as well as how safe students feel when they have questions, as well as how supported they feel all have an impact on how motivated students are. The focus on Rogoff’s analysis, the authors explain that personal, interpersonal, and community planes made for an interesting take on how motivation could be viewed.

As an education researcher, one can never ignore the impact of motivation on achievement. Even with students that are classified as “gifted and talented,” the lack of motivation will impact how much they learn, retain, and grow. I believe that the most important takeaway from this article is that in order to truly know about motivation, we much change the lens somewhat. Because all people are different, experiencing life in different ways, it makes sense that a closer look at the theories of motivation which includes these aspects of human interaction is needed.