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 \n“partecipation-identification” model and on Goal Theory. Studies highlight the importance of teacher-student relationship and \nachievement goals on students motivation. We want to analyze if there are significant differences between: regular students and \nstudent who have not passed their exams within the prescribed period of time; Psychology Degree Course’s students and Primary \nEducation Degree Course’s students; working students and students who don’t work. \nWe considered the following variables: personal goals dimension; university belonging feelings; perceived teacher-student \nrelationship; perceived school goals dimension \nThis is a descriptive study and it uses an inquiry method on a sample of 100 Italian university students, using Anova, by \nSPSS. \nIt was possible to highlight that students who are not regular have a less positive perception of teacher-student relationship and \nalso of task goal structure than regular students. There aren’t any significant difference between Psychology students and Primary \nEducation students and between students who have a job and students who haven’t. \nThe results have demonstrated that regular students have a significantly more positive perception of teacher-student relationship. \nThis means that the regular students feel better integrated in University than not regular students. For students who have not \npassed all their exams within the prescribed period of time, the perspective changes dramatically. \nIn order to better explain this situation, we want to start from the theory of self-worth, which assumes that school performance \nshould be understood in terms of students' attempts to maintain a positive self-image. To defend that image the students can \nimplement a variety of defensive and self-protective strategies. \nFrom the data obtained, it was found that regardless of the degree course the levels of motivation are the same. First of all we can \ninfer that they do not depend on length or facility of degree programs and neither on older age of Primary Education students \nthan Psychology students. They