Motivation is considered as a potential to direct behaviour, and therefore, my focus is
on the orientation of motivation. According to the definition, students’ motivation
may be manifested in cognition, emotion and/or behaviour. For example, a student’s
motivation to get a good grade in mathematics may be manifested in happiness
(emotion) if he or she scores high on a test. It may also be manifested in studying for
a test (behaviour) and in new conceptual learning (cognition) when studying for the
test. Needs are specified instances of the potential to direct behaviour (Hannula,
2004). Psychological needs that are often emphasised in educational settings are
competence, relatedness (or social belonging) and autonomy (e.g. Boekaerts, 1999;
Ryan & Deci, 2000). I have chosen to define motivation as a potential to direct
behaviour and therefore the orientation of motivation becomes central. Thus it is
necessary to add a more fine grained conceptualization of motivation focusing on
needs and goals.