ABSTRACT
What motivates students to engage in literacy activities? Why are some children highly motivated to read and write, whereas others appear to be uninterested? The role of motivation in learning is receiving a great deal of attention in the current educational literature (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991; Ford, 1992; McCombs, 1989, 1991; Oldfather, 1993). One reason for this current interest is that educators recognize that motivation is at the heart of many of the pervasive problems we face in educating today’s youth. In a survey conducted in the 1980s, teachers ranked motivating students as one of their primary and overriding concerns (Veenman, 1984). In a recent national survey of classroom teachers, creating interest in reading was rated as the most important area for future reading research (O’Flahavan, Gambrell, Guthrie, Stahl, & Alvermann, 1992).
