Bibliometric study of motivation factors in Higher Education

Abstract

[EN] Motivation plays a crucial role in the teaching-learning process. Motivated students become active students who construct their own knowledge, a key element to achieving deep learning. For this reason, teachers are concerned about how can increase the motivation of their students. This topic has received increasing attention in academia. However, the majority of these works present a case study applied in a concrete context. In this paper, we reflect on how are, in general, the motivational factors that influence students¿ learning in higher education. To this end, we develop a bibliometric analysis and carry out a co-occurrence analysis of terms. Firstly, we specify our search by formulating the research question and defining our search. After applying the search criteria, 146 articles are analyzed. The main results of this study show that there is an interest in this topic, especially in technological and technic studies. The co-occurrence analysis identifies the most relevant terms and their relationships. In this analysis, 49 terms are identified and grouped in 4 clusters. With the aim to determine which of these terms can be considered motivational factors that influence students learning, a new co-occurrence analysis is developed. The result presents 45 motivational factors that are related to: (i) skills and attitude of lecturers, (ii) students¿ active role in their learning process, (iii) intrinsic characteristics of the students, and (iv) environmental elements.