Introduction

The motivation is conceived, often as an impulse in the body, as an attraction that emanates from the object and acts on the individual. The psychologist regarded as the dynamic aspect of a subject's relationship with the world. Motivation concerns the active direction of behavior toward certain preferential categories of situations or objects. Young (1961) considered as the process to raise the action, sustain regular activity in progress and activity patterns (Cofer and Appley, 1990).

Intrinsically motivated behavior, far from being trivial and unimportant encourage the individual to seek new challenges and face and in so doing, fulfill important psychological needs. Intrinsic motivation pushes the individual to want to overcome the environmental challenges and achievements of domain acquisition makes the person more able to adapt to the challenges and curiosities of the environment (Reeve, 1994).

There are two ways to enjoy an activity, extrinsically and intrinsically. Extrinsically motivated people to get motivated act such as money, praise, or social recognition. Intrinsically motivated people are active for the sheer pleasure of conducting (Reeve, 1994).

Motivation is the force that moves us to do things. We are motivated when we are willing to do something and, well, we are able to persevere in the effort that something needed for the time necessary to achieve the goal we have set for ourselves.

If we move to the educational context and consider the intentional nature of human behavior, it seems quite clear that the attitudes, perceptions, expectations and performances by the student himself, the task at hand, and the goals achieved, are first-order factors that guide and direct the student's behavior. But to achieve a comprehensive and integrative motivation, we must not only take account of these personal and internal variables, but also any other external, from the context in which they develop students that are influencing and with whom they interact.

Traditionally there has been an almost complete separation between the cognitive and affective - motivational when it comes to study their influence on learning, at present, there is growing interest in studying both types of components in an integrated manner. "We can say that learning is characterized as a cognitive and motivational at the same time" therefore, is essential for learning "may" do so, which refers to the skills, knowledge, strategies, and skills ( cognitive components), but it is also necessary to "want" to do so, have the willingness, intention, and sufficient motivation (motivational component). Leading experts on this issue saying that to have good academic results, students need to possess both "will" and "ability", which leads to the need to integrate both aspects.

We will focus primarily on student motivation to analyze both personal and contextual perspective both composed of three main components: the expectation value and the affective component.

Personal variables of motivation

The expectation, which refers to the beliefs of students about themselves and against the conduct of a particular task. Here, the self, the result of a process of analysis, evaluation and integration of information derived from the experience and feedback from significant others (peers, parents, teachers) is the determining factor. The expectations can translate into the following question: Am I able to do this task?

The value that indicates the goals of students and their beliefs about the importance and interest for the task. The chosen learning goals lead to different ways of dealing with academic tasks and different motivational patterns. They can be placed between two poles ranging from extrinsic orientation to an intrinsic orientation. So while some students are moved by the desire to know, curiosity, preference for challenge, interest in learning, others are oriented towards achieving extrinsic goals such as obtaining notes, rewards, positive judgments, approval of parents and teachers avoidance of negative ratings. This factor could translate into the following question: why do this task?

The affective component, which reflects the emotional reactions of students to the task. This component could translate into the following question: How do I feel about this task? Emotions are an important part of the psychological life of the student and have a high influence on academic motivation and cognitive strategies (for the acquisition, storage, retrieval, etc..), And therefore in their learning and academic achievement.

Contextual variables of motivation

It is a fact that social interactions the student has with significant others (parents, teachers and peers) are important in the development of self-concept. This information determines it to develop, maintain and / or modify the image he has of himself, which inevitably affect their motivation and academic performance. We can say that both the teacher's performance as academic and social interactions of students play an important role in the development of self-concept.

The kind of goal that students are proposed (eg, learning or just pass) also depends on situational aspects. Among the situational variables that influence the goals pursued by students include a number of elements related to the organization of teaching and class structure as the attitude of the teacher, classroom organization, the type of tasks, evaluation system, etc..

The type of emotion experienced by the student on task performance is also determined primarily by the characteristics of the task and, in particular, for the content of it and the methodological strategy designed by the teacher for their realization.

In that sense, for the student to be motivated to learn about a significant content must be very careful in how you experience the learning situation, as attractive and interesting that might result in the utility evident that this have, and so on. All this to get the student to be actively involved in a process of constructing meanings that require effort, energy and persistence.

Goals, needs and beliefs to support the motivation

Goals and motivation. The goals increase motivation if they are specific, moderately difficult and likely to achieve in the near future. There is a difference between performance goals (intended to look intelligent or capable to others) and learning goals (intention to acquire knowledge and master the skills).

Students who are motivated to learn set learning goals and performance rather than worry about learning rather than to show a good result. In order for goal setting is effective in the classroom, students need accurate feedback about their progress toward goals.

Needs and motivation. The needs are also an important component in many theories of motivation. Maslow suggested that many people are motivated by a hierarchy of needs, starting with the basic requirements and move toward self-fulfillment needs. It must first meet the needs of lower level to higher level needs can influence motivation. The need for achievement is considered a personal characteristic that is nourished by the first experiences in the family and as a reaction to the recent experiences of success or failure, is balanced with the need to avoid failure and together they are powerful sources of motivation . Many theorists emphasize the role of decision and self-determination in motivation and the need for positive relationships with others.

Attributions, beliefs and motivation. The attribution theory of motivation suggests that the explanations that people give to the behaviors, particularly their own successes and failures, have a strong influence on their future plans and performance. One of the important characteristics of an internal attribution is whether and under the control of a person or if it is external and out of control.

Teachers can contribute to the allocation of powers by the way they respond to student work. For example, providing unsolicited help can communicate to students who lack the ability to do the job. When people think that ability is fixed tend to set performance targets and strive to protect themselves from failure. However, when people think that fitness is improved, tend to establish learning goals and handle failure constructively. Apparently, a low sense of self-interest is associated with strategies to avoid failure, reversing a lot of energy to protect themselves from its consequences. These strategies can help create the impression in the short term but are detrimental to the motivation and self esteem in the long run. The sense of self-efficacy, the belief that it will be efficient in a given situation, it exerts an influence on motivation. If an individual has a strong sense of self-efficacy tend to set challenging goals and persist even when encountering obstacles.

From the constructivist is assumed that all learning is in itself significant motivator, because the students enjoy doing the job or working these new content (as opposed to rote learning or memorization) he understands what they are learning and find meaning.

So teachers, if we get the students' motivation to learn, we should not expect them to bring it with you, but rather try to find or design academic activities meaningful and valuable as they try to derive from the academic benefits that are intended . This involves taking seriously the work of teachers and try to get the most out of it.

Teacher's performance and motivation for learning

This is not to motivate students, but rather to create an environment that allows them to motivate themselves. It makes much more sense to focus our interest in the environment or in the learning situation, to try to cause a direct change on students' personal components. You must select those activities or learning situations that provide challenges and reasonable challenges for its novelty, variety or diversity, it should assist students in making choices, to promote responsibility and independence and develop self-control skills.

Recognizes six areas in which teachers make decisions that can influence the motivation to learn from the students: the nature of the task that asks students to perform, the autonomy that allows students at work, how to recognize the achievements of students, group work, assessment procedures and scheduling of classroom time.

We can classify the academic tasks by their levels of risk and ambiguity: Some involve more or less risk than others, because failure is more or less likely. It is necessary to achieve some balance, because low-risk tasks can encourage immediate motivation, but reduce the development of motivation and persistence in the long run, the level of frustration they cause. Likewise, the risk of uncontrolled can paralyze students and make them feel failures before the first step toward the goal.

Any task is one of three types of value to students:

• The carrying value or the importance of doing homework.
• The intrinsic value or interest for the pleasure you get from the activity as such.
• The utility value, because the task helps us achieve a goal short or long term.

It is very difficult to separate the value of the task of personal and environmental influences. The task that we ask students to do is one aspect of their environment (that is external to the student), but the value of the task is linked to its internal needs, beliefs and individual goals.

An authentic task is a task that has any connection with the problems and real life situations that students face outside the classroom, now and in the future. If tasks are authentic, is more likely that students see the genuine value and usefulness of their work and find meaningful and interesting tasks.