First point: I’m curious about why some people feel that the answer would differ depending on whether we are talking about learning in school or learning “in life”. Those who opted for motivation seem to have interpreted the question to refer strictly to school learning: this seems to suggest that motivation is important for school learning but not necessarily for “life learning”? Maybe, as educators, we need to bridge the gap between school and life …

Second point: Perhaps we need to clarify what we mean by “motivation” and also what we mean by “action” and how the two are related. Psychologists define motivation as an impulse that initiates and guides goal-oriented behavior (i.e. action). Action (or at least human action) is goal-oriented (or characterized by intentionality), and is therefore distinct from Skinner’s notion of behavior, which is passive and reactive. So if action is necessarily intentional, then couldn’t we say that it subsumes motivation?

Again, more questions than answers.

Domenico, I think its related to your purpose, I mean that what you want to learn, what is the task that you want to learn and in which way and who are your learners.

From Newell (1986) point of view, there are three constraints (namely: organismic, task and environmental) that affect understanding in coordination patterns during goal-directed behavior. Interacting these constraints and coupling perception-action can influence on learning design and environment, hitherto, skill acquisition and finally skilled is a result of learning that some constraints like cognition, intention and motivation may effect on learners.

Consequently, the most important factor of learning is learner`s self-organizing (in exploring learning approach) that learner took from learning environments,( and how perceptual-motor landscape shaped) that is a results of interacting learner-environment and some factors that coach/teacher could created in learners by creating effective environment and the kind of task and fitting learner-environment.

Also maybe Constraints-Led Approach and Nonlinear Pedagogy help you in your question.

Hope this help.

@Behzad Behzadnia

Would there be one main factor that would always work (whatever the task or whoever is the learner) and that would optimize the quality of learning or that would permit to reach levels of knowledge or consciousness and that couldn’t be reached otherwise?

As I have mentioned, learning is not a linear approach, learning affect by some constraint that learner and coach/teacher create these. So, I think, we can not measuring learning as static process. Using Constraints-Led Approach, learning is an ongoing dynamic process involving a search for and adaptation to variety of changing constraint. Hence learning is not typical process( I mean that its related to your skill, situation and what you want to learn) and we can say learning in specific situation that will be change by exposing some new experiences and development over time as well as the acquisition of new skills.

Consequently, I think, learner`s intrinsic dynamic, intrinsic motivation, task, environment and coach/teacher- student relationships are the most important factors of learning.

best wishes.

The most important factor of learning? Actitude + Apptitude

I would consider learner's attitude as the most important factor of learning. One who is really interested in learning, for whatever purpose and motivation, will always try to learn in all possible ways - through university courses, direct tutoring, online courses, MOOCs or any other way. Although, the learning time may vary across learners depending on the IQ, experience/prior knowledge level, etc. But learner's attitude and motivation will definitely drive him/her to complete the course taken.

We learn through the whole our live.We learn from each other.Many thinks I learn from my students.Also I learn from my children. I just finished Winter School in Clinical Epidemiology at the University for Health Science,Medical Information and Technology in Hall.Austrie.

Dear Professor Masciotra,

Motivation is the most important factor in this regard.

@Hemanta Baruah

Thanks for your answer. Why do you believe so?

@Madhavi Parchure

I agree. And attitude is to be developed by the learner. I don't thing we coud say that motivation develops, it just increases or decreases through time and situations ... It is the same for interests.

In case we are talking about students at school, I would recommend to read John Hattie's work from Sydney. In one sentence he argues that a lot of environmental factors and intrinsic attitudes & capabilities (IQ, ...) are influencing learning. However, the most prominent effects he found in the quality of the teachers. This somehow emphasizes the importance of the guidance and the mentoring for the motivation to learn and the learning itself.

Find more info at: http://visible-learning.org/

Actually Hattie's work shows that the single most important factor is prior success. Teaching factors are somewhat below that in importance. Students who have been successful are more likely to be successful in the future because they have the necessary skill set plus the belief that they can succeed.

I think the motivation is essential for better learning, unmotivated no need to learn or concentration in order to understand what is taught. Motivation affects the ability to learn, is the disposition to sustained effort to achieve a goal.

@Rolando Serra Toledo

Of course motivation is essential. Though I have a few questions:

What is first interest or motivation? Does one need to be interested before getting motivated? Or, does one need to be motivated to get interested?

Does one need to adopt opened attitude to be motivated? If yes, then is attitude more important motivation? To dispose oneself to act is it the same as being motivated or as self-motivating?

It is just to pursue the discussion.

Todo depende de las circunstancias. Si es un proceso obligatorio entonces la motivación se asocia generalmente a la calificación. Muchas pueden ser las causas de la motivación, no hay reglas. Lo ideal es que el estudiante acceda al proceso ya motivado y no que el profesor deba hacer derroche de su arte para motivarlo.

Dear Professor Masciotra,

I actually forgot to send my reply! You have asked why I 'believe' that motivation is the most important factor in this regard.

If a student is not motivated towards learning, then attitude, concentration and such other factors would be of no use.

Environment is not a factor at all. If one is motivated to learn, whatever be the environment, one can learn.

High IQ may be of help. But it cannot be that only people with high IQ can learn.

Dear Professor Masciotra, recent psychological studies put interest as a necessary precursor to intrinsic motivation but not necessary for the various forms of extrinsic motivation.

Dear Hemanta, to add to your comment I would share this anecdote, A student was put in my science class at the start of our grade 10 ( the final year of general education in Australia. Students are 15 years old.) Her first words were 'I can't do Science. I've never passed Science ever! ' By the end of The year she had (just) passed. She chose to study Biology and after 2 years of this stringent course she just passed. The point of the anecdote was that the ONLY difference was motivation. In the 1 year of my Science class, she couldn't have suddenly learned enough to make up for years of failure. She passed Biology because she believed she could and was motivated to learn.

Dear Mark,

In fact, if a student is motivated to learn, then concentration, attitude and such other factors mentioned in the question would follow anyway. Trying to concentrate in learning in the absence of motivation is hardly possible. Just attitude without motivation is meaningless as far as learning is concerned.

Just a few days back, results of High School Level (Class X) and of Higher Secondary School Level (Class XII) were declared in the State of Assam, India. Some students from very poor families, who studied in schools with scant facilities in current standards, have shown very good results. The only factor behind their showing good results was motivation to learn. Hence I said that environment is not a factor at all.

I suggest reflecting about this hypothesis: we are living organisms and as such we are active. So the first and main tool we have to learn anything is our activity or action. Action is oriented toward the world, i.e. it is driven by some intentionality.

The newborn is already active. And he is the one who might learn the most. It is not sure whether he has the sense or not of motivation. But my answer would be no. Motivation is something that might appear only at a certain level of development, i.e. you must be able to motivate yourself.

We learn by, through action, and by experiencing the world, that seems quite sure. Motivation can enhance our experiencing of the world or our learning, but cannot be the main factor of it.

By 'learning', I thought 'learning in school' was meant! That is why I voted for motivation. If we have to consider learning from day 1 after birth, then of course my answer is wrong.

In fact motivation is stll the key. Intrinsic motivation requires interest as a precursor ( Deci & Ryan). Young children engage with their environment because they are interested and hence intrinsically motivated to do so. Over time, this intrinsc motivation is focussed into fewer and fewer aspects of the environment because interest has been satisfied or in the case of school, actively stifled by poor teaching.

Dear Professor Masciotra,

Motivation can be a factor only at a particular level of development, according to you. If we have to start right after day 1, then it is 'instinct' that helps us to learn.

Not just motivation, the other factors mentioned in your question, such as attitude, concentration, IQ, etc. also cannot be factors on day 1. You have mentioned these factors in your question, and therefore I thought your question was about learning in class room.

@Hemanta K. Baruah

You are right about the content of the question. But to get to this content, don't we need to answer to the following question? Who does develop concentration, attitude, the capacity to motivate oneself, etc.? The only answer I can see is action or something like active experiencing of the world (and the Self). At any level, don't we need to be active, i.e. do do something, whatever it is, to motivate oneself? To concentrate oneself? To enact the right attitude? and so on. If we answer to these questions is yes, then can any of these factors be more important than being active.

Motivation brings one into action: it is engaging. OK. But how is motivation enacted? Could we passively motivate ourselves?

MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS HERE. Waiting for your opinion.

First point: I’m curious about why some people feel that the answer would differ depending on whether we are talking about learning in school or learning “in life”. Those who opted for motivation seem to have interpreted the question to refer strictly to school learning: this seems to suggest that motivation is important for school learning but not necessarily for “life learning”? Maybe, as educators, we need to bridge the gap between school and life …

Second point: Perhaps we need to clarify what we mean by “motivation” and also what we mean by “action” and how the two are related. Psychologists define motivation as an impulse that initiates and guides goal-oriented behavior (i.e. action). Action (or at least human action) is goal-oriented (or characterized by intentionality), and is therefore distinct from Skinner’s notion of behavior, which is passive and reactive. So if action is necessarily intentional, then couldn’t we say that it subsumes motivation?

Again, more questions than answers.

In my opinion, the most important factor of learning is attitudes toward learning content (e.g.. mathematics, languages, ... etc.) and we should consider the multidimensional definition of attitudes as it contains emotions (like and dislike), beliefs (e.g.. the importance of one branch like mathematics and why is important) and behaviours that reflect for example the level of motivation to participate in learning situation. So, if the students feel the importance of geometry in everyday life they will be motivated not only to learn it but also to enjoy and like it.

Motivation and an Growth Mindset (see the work of Carol Dweck)

If we talk about "learning" it's motivation, motivation, and motivation again. At a certain level of learning (adults, teenagers) self-motivation may become the leading factor.

For younger pupils and some of adults external motivation is the main engine!

Passion or even better . The key elements here are intuition, previous knowledge incl. genetic information, drive, interest, imagination incl. open mind, inspiration, spirit, perhaps 'common good'.

Emotions are a strong factor. At the micro-level, they are present in each of the elements mentioned above. I am particularly interested in and dependent on a personalised approach (good teacher or mentor) which is a strongly emotion-driven approach. In other words, emotions are important to the extent that they could motivate as well as demotivate learners no matter how knowledgeable, positive and hopeful they might have been initially. 

Being on the hunt for like-minded individuals in research (but at the same time people who are much more experienced than me), I have the intuition that I will find them in the periphery (either online, in industry or yet again at a conference) rather than in academia, and like so many times before, support will come most likely from Americans which is an aspect of their sensitive attitude to helping young people achieve their learning goals and realise their potential. I hope I am wrong and that the picture is more nuanced now, but the fact is that when experienced teachers and learners have embraced the culture of directly approaching promising students rather than the other way around (students and learners trying to find someone and begging for help), it is the advanced social model which makes learning possible and pleasurable. 

Overall, your question cannot have one answer only - personal interest/motivation/passion and other qualities are important but we can't ignore the socio-cultural context (sometimes people succeed/learn because they have ideal conditions, sometimes they do for exactly the opposite reason, i.e. these apparent opposites work in a similar fashion) and circumstances (luck, serendipity, randomness or logic invisible to us, complex links between events).    

The high and continuous concentration of the person shows best that the person may be interested, committed, motivated, passionate, with the attitude suited in the realization of a task, project, objective... A selfless or disinterested, demotivated person will have some difficulty concentrating. The high and continuous concentration allows not only to learn or even to learn better, it allows the person to have access to a world which cannot emerge otherwise.