What motivates students to learn?

Top 3 factors that predict academic motivation

Here are the top three ranked, according to this meta-analysis, from l’Université Laval, Monash University and Curtin University.

1 — 🪡 Competence (I can do this!)

Students experiencing competence are confident that their actions are impactful in shaping their academic experience.

2 — 🆎 Autonomy (I get to choose)

Students experiencing autonomy perceive that they are engaging in learning tasks freely and voluntarily, without perceived coercion.

3 — 🏠 Belonging (I am not alone)

Students experiencing relatedness feel connected with important others in their school (e.g., teachers, friends)

As reported here by Jill Barshay,

Bureau [Julien Bureau — the lead author] describes the three needs — competency, belonging and autonomy — as “kindling” for intrinsic or internal motivation. “If you start doing a task,” he said, “and it’s a new task, and you feel competent in it, and you feel connected with others, and you feel autonomous in doing the task, you’ve chosen to do it. You’ll have fun doing it. You’ll want to do it more. And you’ll be…