Abstract
An important aspect of metacognition, one potentially affecting much of students’ academic efforts, was tapped in this study. College students’ beliefs about their academic motivation were elicited systematically using ethnographic interviewing. We reasoned that students are very conscious of their decisionmaking regarding academics, and thus, they would be able to report on many of the factors affecting their academic motivation. In general, the students reported that many factors affect their academic motivation, specifically, many more factors than have been considered in previous theoretical analyses of academic motivation, with students perceiving that interactions between motivational factors often are critically determinative of academic efforts and achievement.
Résumé
Cette étude porte sur un aspect important de la métacognition susceptible de jouer un grand rôle dans la mobilisation des élèves dans leurs études; il s’agit des croyances de ces derniers concernant leurs motivations scolaires. Les croyances ont été dégagées avec des entretiens de type ethnographique. Selon nous, les étudiants sont parfaitement conscients des décisions qu’ils prennent dans leurs études et par conséquent doivent être capables de s’exprimer sur les facteurs qui affectent leur motivation scolaire. En général les étudiants citent plusieurs de ces facteurs, bien plus nombreux que ceux habituellement mentionnés dans les théories de la motivation aux études; ils perçoivent également que l’interaction entre ces facteurs détermine souvent de façon radicale l’investissement et la réussite.
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van Etten, S., Pressley, M., Freebern, G. et al. An interview study of college freshmens’ beliefs about their academic motivation. Eur J Psychol Educ 13, 105–130 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172816
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172816