STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE STUDENT MOTIVATION - A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

The traditional view of academics is that student learning should go b eyond and even ignore assessment. The paper demonstrates that students are unlikely ever to have held this view and that academics have grad ually come to accept this. There follows an analysis of Herzberg's mot ivation at work theory and how this may be applied to student learning . This leads to an understanding of the relationship between motivatio n for learning and motivation for assessment and points to ways that a ssessment may be expected to enhance learning. Strategies are develope d for increasing the kind of learning motivation favoured by academics , but an argument is also made for the right of students to determine their own motivational priorities. Finally it is shown that the world of work may have something to learn from the world of learning. The co nclusions are reinforced through the use of catastrophe theory to mode l change.