What Research Tells Us About Students With High Motivation Toward College

Let's look at the findings from research and the reports of students with high motivation toward college. What is known about the ways these students feel, think, and behave?

Highly-motivated students:

• understand how succeeding in college fits with their own personal, academic, social, and occupational goals.

• focus on goals to help them stay committed to putting forth the effort and doing what is necessary to benefit from college.

• are more likely to work hard at participating in their classes and at learning the material presented.

• are more likely to keep working in the face of difficulties when trying to understand a concept or complete a long, complex assignment.

• tend to see success as a function of their effort.

• understand that there are factors they can't control (e.g., the type of test or assignment given), and focus on the factors that are controllable (e.g., how much time, energy, and effort they can appy to the work).