Introduction to the special section on motivation and efficacy.

This special section comprises nine articles addressing the operation of motivation and efficacy in educational contexts. In this article, I will use motivation to refer to the process whereby goal-directed behavior is instigated and sustained, and efficacy to denote individuals' beliefs in their capabilities to exert control over aspects of their lives. The articles that follow differ in many ways, but they share the theme that educational achievement is a complex phenomenon involving interactions of social, instructional, and learner factors (Pintrich, Cross, Kozma, & McKeachie, 1986). Students can actively seek and process information through their attention, organization, rehearsal, and encoding. Their overt responses, in turn, can alter social and instructional factors within their environments.