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Teacher motivation: reflections on the construct

This reflexive essay aims to discuss teachers´ motivation concept, description and research. It defends the need to understand motivation as a construct that although complex and multifaceted, demands conceptual and epistemological clarity besides the semantic and operational definition when applied in empirical research in the educational field. It proposes to offer aid to promote a fertile debate about what constitutes motivation as research object, especially in Education and teaching. The authors begin by characterizing the construct and its definitions. Then a debate about different ways to theoretically focus motivation and to analyze it in teaching and educational field is presented. Used to apply the term motivation as a “joker”, it is urgent to recover its scientific meaning by attributing constitutive and operational signs and limits.

Key words:
Construct; Motivation; Higher education.


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