Chapter 16: Understanding Motivation Theories Using Project-Based Learning

Motivation deals with the influence of needs and preferences on our behavior. From the viewpoint of any teacher the question is always more specific, such as “Why do students not read the material?” The problem with motivation theories for teachers is the inability of one theory to capture enough of the richness of cases encountered in the classroom. Teachers look to a useful theory to have enough explanatory power that can be applied across many behavioral examples. A theory to researchers, however, may provide explanations of human behavior but without a clear set of principles for action. Even lacking a metatheory (see Marchand & Schraw, this volume) and given the complexity of human behavior, multiple theories provide different ways of looking at and understanding students. Teachers are likely to be more motivated to value motivational theories by first seeing their results.