ABSTRACT
The perceived importance of student motivation has increased steadily, matching the higher participation rate in Further and Higher Education. When only a small fraction of the population entered Higher Education, it could more or less be taken for granted that students had a strong source of motivation, and would mostly succeed. Now, both drop-out and failure rates give cause for concern. It is argued in this chapter that one of the key causes of this is that an increased proportion of students do not have an autonomous ‘want’ to learn (or intrinsic motivation), and that we are not always able to substitute for this a strong enough perceived ‘need’ to learn (or extrinsic motivation). The chapter explores some of the ways in which Higher Education teachers can address both the ‘want’ and the ‘need’ to learn in their everyday work activities concerning teaching, learning and assessment. The author argues that the campaign to address and increase students’ motivation levels may best be effected by paying attention both to the ‘need’ and the ‘want’ to learn continuously through all aspects of large group teaching, small group teaching, resource-based learning, and student support processes.
