ABSTRACT
The current interest in motivation within learning and teaching is dominated by goal-directed performative discourses of standards and compliance. Increasingly neuroscience is being brought into the picture, as are humanist desires to focus on the value of relationships. Psychologically based perspectives on motivation tend to explore the effects of external, extrinsic factors including rewards, certificates and privileges. Extrinsic motivation comes from an outside source such as money, grades, praise or the status that achievements bring. Intrinsic motivation can be influenced by the activity itself because it gives an individual pleasure, helps develop a skill they value, or they consider it ethically and morally right. Any consideration of motivation must consider the unique learner and learning and teaching processes, which encourage self-determination and independence, if students are to be prepared for life-long learning and adult education. Individual motivation reflects, and is influenced by, wider socio-political contexts and discourses on prescribed goals, normative standards, performance and accountability.
