The nature and development of student motivation

Aim. The aim of the present series of studies was to investigate what motiv ates undergraduate students and how their motivation changes during their d egree course. The present research investigated both subject specific and g eneric motivators by asking students what knowledge areas, skills and exper iences were important to them. Sample. Study 1: 336 prospective and current undergraduate psychology stude nts at a university in southern England. Study 2: 57 year one psychology st udents from a university in the north of England. Study 3:30 undergraduate psychology students from the university used in Study I. Method. The studies used a modified version of the Radford and Holdstock (1 993) scale to assess students' objectives in taking a degree programme, by rating the importance of knowledge areas, skills development and experience s. Study 1 used a cross-sectional design comparing responses of student by year of study. Study 2 compared responses of students in year one in Study I to students at a second university. Study 3 used a longitudinal design to investigate changes in values by year of study. Results. The findings suggest that there are two types of students: those w ho are motivated by the discipline itself and those who are motivated by th e acquisition of more general skills and experiences. The perceived importa nce of many aspects declines over the three years of the degree, and seems especially low in year two. However, some aspects, notably research methodo logy, and some skills and experiences show marked increases in the final ye ar. Conclusions. Current theories of educational motivation need to be extended to account for the difference between subject-related and generic motives.