ABSTRACT
Motivation to learn, and learning, are partners for academic achievement and educational success. Success in learning leads to motivation for further learning and future success. High-achieving learners set challenging goals and work with determination to achieve them. When these high-achieving students experience success, their success communicates to them that they have the requisite capabilities for learning; they become intrinsically motivated (Meece, 1991; Pintrich and Schunk, 2002). Motivation strongly influences learning for deeper understanding, often leading to academic interest in a subject and educational success (Entwhistle, 2005; Moeed, 2015). A balance between ability and level of challenge is considered crucial for intrinsic motivation for high-achieving students (Scager et al., 2014). Evidence suggests that student engagement is dependent upon a number of factors including: challenge offered by the task; work at a more advanced level; the nature and context of content; relevance and meaningfulness; and choice (Sak and Eristi, 2012).
