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In this section, we will highlight three overlapping concepts that are currently used in both the motivation and emotion literatures: goals, agency and expectancy. We recognize that there are other potential overlapping constructs (e.g. interest); however, we focus on these three.

A vast and comprehensive body of research highlights the importance of motivation for academic outcomes. More recently, researchers and educators are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of motivation for social and emotional outcomes. In the current chapter, it is argued that motivation is a core component of social and emotional competence because such competence must be actively and willfully applied to have a positive impact on the individual and those around them. Motivation is essential for this application. In this chapter, three well-known motivation constructs are presented as playing a role in promoting positive social and emotional outcomes: social goals, growth mindsets, and autonomous motivation. Then, attention is narrowed down to an in-depth consideration of autonomous motivation and its role in a recently developed conceptual model that articulates the instructional, motivational, and behavioral factors and processes implicated in social and emotional development (Collie, 2020). The conceptual model highlights that instructional practices promote students' perceptions (of autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and, in turn, their autonomous motivation and enactment of socially and emotionally competent behaviors. The chapter concludes with implications for practice and research.

Empirical findings have repeatedly demonstrated that students’ motivation decreases over the course of secondary education. This decline in learning motivation is one of the top challenges nowadays and is relevant for policy, as well as research and practice. Taking this educational challenge into account, the chapter targets the following questions: (1) Is a multicomponent, two-year intervention (combined student/teacher versus student-only intervention group) effective regarding the self-determined motivation and academic self-concept in mathematics of at-risk students? (2) How effective is the intervention for students with and without a migration background? And more generally: (3) Does the motivation (including students’ academic self-concept as a motivational self-belief) differ between students with and without a migration background at three different time points (beginning of Grade 7, end of Grades 7 and 8)? The results indicate that the intrinsic motivation of the combined intervention group could be fostered in the first intervention year. No significant treatment effect could be detected for the student-only group. In line with prior research, students with a migration background demonstrated higher levels of autonomous and controlled forms of motivation. However, students with and without a migration background did not develop differently across the two years. Implications for intervention research addressing adolescents’ self-determined motivation are discussed.

We describe the development and various implementations of a reading comprehension instruction program called Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI). CORI was designed to enhance students’ reading motivation and reading comprehension, and has been implemented at both elementary and middle school, with a particular focus on science information text reading.

We overview Guthrie and Wigfield’s (2000) reading engagement model, which provides CORI’s theoretical framework. Then we present the major implementation of CORI at elementary school and middle school.

CORI teachers in elementary school focused on five teaching practices to foster motivation: (1) providing thematic content goals; (2) optimizing choice; (3) hands-on activities connected to reading; (4) providing interesting texts; and (5) fostering collaboration. Teachers also taught six reading strategies recommended by the National Reading Panel. Results of several studies showed that CORI students had higher reading motivation and better reading comprehension than students receiving only strategy instruction or traditional reading instruction. We next describe three implementations of CORI at middle school. The motivational instructional practices at this level included (1) thematic contact goals; (2) emphasizing the importance of reading; (3) showing how reading is relevant to student lives; (4) fostering collaboration; (5) optimizing choice; and (6) enabling success. Results of several studies again documented CORI’s success at boosting students’ motivation and comprehension.

The studies carried out show the success of CORI and the paper closes with suggestions about the next steps for the program.

Translating motivational research to classroom instruction may be so difficult because the two enterprises of psychological research and teaching are inherently different in goals and assumptions. Whereas psychological theory is meant to be broad and generalizable, educational practice must attend to individual and situational differences. For instance, a great deal of research suggests that mastery goal structures are related to desirable beliefs and behaviors. However, knowing that this is so does not help teachers know how to foster mastery goals in their classrooms and whether or how practices might vary given differences among students, developmental levels, and content areas. As Patrick (2004) noted, the theoretical notion of mastery goal structure as it is currently conceptualized was not developed in classrooms and does not address how a mastery goal structure is either manifested or communicated to students. Although it makes theoretical sense to provide “appropriate challenge” to students, how a teacher adapts that principle to students with a range of abilities and attitudes, from challenge seekers to avoiders, is not obvious. Research can provide only a general theoretical heuristic for understanding tendencies and does not necessarily explain individuals' behavior over time (Turner & Patrick, 2004). For motivational research to be meaningful and useful to educators, it needs to help them interpret student behavior as specific responses to specific sets of circumstances. Pajares (2007) expressed this well when he noted:Research findings … drawn from educational psychology broadly, and motivation theory and research in particular are bounded by a host of situated, cultural factors that must be attended to if the constructs themselves are to have any, as William James (1907/1975) termed it, practical, or cash, value. (p. 30)Therefore, in its present form, theory may not appear useful to teachers because of its seeming lack of specificity. These issues apply to all current theories of motivation.

This qualitative descriptive study seeks to understand how the reading motivation of three Chinese students from different reading achievement groups evolved as they moved from the fourth to the sixth grade. This study is informed both by Tierney's framework of global meaning making and Chinese relational epistemology. We recruited these students from a representative K-9 public school located in a metropolitan city in China and conducted two semistructured interviews, the first in fourth grade with a follow-up in sixth grade, during which we asked the same three students to share their stories about their reading experiences and what motivated them to read. Using the constant comparison method and thematic analysis, we analyzed the data and identified critical themes related to the factors that shaped the students' attitudes and motivation toward reading and literacy. This study uncovers several unique patterns of motivation development among Chinese early adolescent students in different achievement groups. Our findings also resulted in a new relational model of reading motivation development within the Chinese sociocultural context.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an important driver of student well-being, academic achievement, and future success. Despite decades of work on motivation theory and frameworks to promote student motivation and achievement outcomes, connections between motivation and recent frameworks and measures of SEL could be stronger. The purpose of our chapter is to help address this shortcoming. First, we begin by reviewing which theories of motivation currently appear in major SEL frameworks. Second, we introduce how a more comprehensive theory of motivation (based on an expectancy–value–cost framework) could be incorporated into SEL frameworks to advance their overall impact. Third, using examples from our ongoing research in STEM classrooms, we show how a broader knowledge of motivation can inform practitioners on how to promote key SEL competencies and subsequent achievement and engagement for students, especially to address inequities for historically marginalized and minoritized students. Finally, we close with recommendations for future directions for research and practice.

Purpose – This chapter describes a university-based reading clinic for struggling readers. Created over 40 years ago, this reading clinic continually evolves as it is founded on well-grounded theory and the most current research. The purpose of the chapter is to explain this foundation and how it has informed the structure and day-to-day operations of a successful clinic program.

Methodology/approach – The reading clinic described in this chapter is based largely on the theoretical premises of self-determination theory. This theory has been widely researched in a variety of fields and contexts, including educational settings. Self-determination theory research and reading research, conducted from a multitude of perspectives, provide support for appropriate practices designed to create a motivating classroom environment.

Practical implications – The ideas presented in this chapter show how research and theory can be successfully applied to classroom settings. The author describes various ways in which the theory and research have led to specific, practical decisions in the reading clinic setting. Broadening the use of these practices to regular classroom contexts is also discussed.

Social implications – Despite research that has established how teachers can create a meaningful, motivating classroom environment, unsound practices continue to be used in classrooms everywhere. If, as most educators claim, we want students to become independent thinkers who are able to contribute meaningfully to society, then we need to seriously examine the controlling, performance-oriented, competitive practices that are typical in many classrooms today. We must move toward creating classrooms where the focus is on learning and where children enjoy ownership of the learning process. This chapter describes a program for struggling readers that operates from this stance.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the causational effect of both internal and external motivation with learning outcomes at a peripheral university in the province of Aceh. It also aims to evaluate which of the two factors possess stronger impact on the other across different genders.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The model of research utilizes quantitative approach. Using the questionnaires as data gathering methodology, it is designed to understand aspects of both internal and external motivation which influences the results. Correlational information was then derived from the data using SPSS software. Then, data were elaborated for more detail and ease of reading for readers.

Findings – The results obtained from this research showed that there was no relationship between both internal and external motivation with students grades. Claiming to have relatively high motivation, still students failed to attain good grades. Observed individually, no apparent relationship was visible from each aspect. The finding also suggested that there was no difference impact was visible across different gender. Both genders, male and female, in this university did not show any significant correlation between motivation and grades.

Research Limitations/Implications – Unlike many findings on similar studies, the research found out that motivation cannot be utilized as predictor to predict grades in the peripheral university. New approaches should be developed to find out working predictors for students grades.

Practical Implications – To understand influencing aspects for students’ grades attainment, more and or other variables should be utilized. Both internal and external motivation factors failed to predict students’ grades.

Originality/Value – Research on students learning motivation specifically at peripheral university was much been studied.