Despite a long tradition of research on human motivation and the myriad
contributions which have been made to it from various perspectives over the course of
several centuries, it was only thirty years ago that this concept began to be systematically
investigated from psychological and educational viewpoints. Nevertheless, it is still a
complex area to approach/tackle. (cf. Brown, 1987 and Burstall, 1975).
The term motivation is usually defined by psychologists as the set of processes which
involve the arousal, direction, and sustaining of behaviour (conduct). It is employed to
indicate, for instance, a subject’s persistence and his/her pervasive work on certain tasks
and not on other activities.
When we employ the term “motivation”, we should be aware of its limitations and
problems (cf. Madrid, 1999)