Motivation to learn: a research on university students

Frequent cases of university drop-outs highlight various issues related to learning motivation. This work is based on Finn's "partecipation-identification" model and on Goal Theory. Studies highlight the importance of teacher-student relationship and achievement goals on students motivation. We want to analyze if there are significant differences between: regular students and student who have not passed their exams within the prescribed period of time; Psychology Degree Course's students and Primary Education Degree Course's students; working students and students who don't work. We considered the following variables: personal goals dimension; university belonging feelings; perceived teacher-student relationship; perceived school goals dimension This is a descriptive study and it uses an inquiry method on a sample of 100 Italian university students, using Anova, by SPSS. It was possible to highlight that students who are not regular have a less positive perception of teacher-student relationship and also of task goal structure than regular students. There aren't any significant difference between Psychology students and Primary Education students and between students who have a job and students who haven't. The results have demonstrated that regular students have a significantly more positive perception of teacher-student relationship. This means that the regular students feel better integrated in University than not regular students. For students who have not passed all their exams within the prescribed period of time, the perspective changes dramatically. In order to better explain this situation, we want to start from the theory of self-worth, which assumes that school performance should be understood in terms of students' attempts to maintain a positive self-image. To defend that image the students can implement a variety of defensive and self-protective strategies. From the data obtained, it was found that regardless of the degree course the levels of motivation are the same. First of all we can infer that they do not depend on length or facility of degree programs and neither on older age of Primary Education students than Psychology students. They depend on the other hand, probably, by the fact that the students have acquired an optimal level of self-regulation in learning. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Dr. Zafer Bekirogullari of Cognitive - Counselling, Research & Conference Services C-crcs.