STUDENTS’ MOTIVATIONAL PATTERNS TO LEARN

This paper presents empirical findings concerning the motivational structure of 415 elementary school students. The motivational structure, as conceived in the Integrative Model of Academic Motivation (Juriševič, 2006), comprises three constructs: motivational components, motivational orientations, and motivational patterns. For the purpose of the study, 415 students from Slovenian elementary schools answered the Questionnaire on Academic Motivation. On the basis of multivariate analysis, 21 academic motivation components were identified, which were integrated into three latent motivation orientations: helplessness and avoidance, external motivational orientation, and intrinsic motivational orientation. In terms of the combinations of their academic motivational orientations, the students were further classified into specific groups representing homogeneous motivational patterns to learn in school. The results justify the suitability of the research model and point to the possibilities of further development. They show that only when taking into account the concrete learning and wider social context in the interaction with students’ individual characteristics can we correctly establish what kind of specific combinations of latent motivational orientations combine into motivational patterns with a homogeneous structure for each individual student. In turn, these motivational patterns influence learning through students’ learning behaviour and thus indirectly contribute to their academic achievements.