Academic Motivation among Students of Russian Higher Education Establishments: Introspection

Herewith the authors set the purpose to integrate into Russian research practice a method of development of the hierarchical self-determination theory and the achievement goal orientation theory by demonstrating their explanatory potential based on the example of studying an academic motivation of students in two regional universities. The article presents in detail theoretical provisions on each approach and their application for academic motivation analysis is reviewed. Based on 37 half-structured interviews with students of two regional universities there is demonstrated the specifics and advantages of each of the theories. The self-determination theory in its expanded version turned out to be more efficient while studying the students’ motivation. It suggests a more detailed typology of motivation, provides more differentiated explanations of causes encouraging students for a more active involvement into the study process. Additionally, it suggests a system of internal motivation resources based on three identified needs: autonomy, competency and relatedness. The theory advantage is that it enables the explanation of the dynamics of various types of encouraging motives: situational, contextual and global. However, the reviewed theories are complementary in their essence, since they are focusing on various aspects of academic motivation: in the spotlight of the achievement goal orientation theory is a study of students’ aims for their involvement into the study process, whereas the hierarchal self-determination theory refers to the research of root causes of being involved into the study process.