The direct and indirect effect of motivation for learning on adult students’ approaches to learning through the perceptions of workload and task complexity

The present study investigates the direct and indirect influence of motivation for learning, as understood by the self-determination theory, on adult students’ approaches to learning. Participants in this study were 128 students enrolled in a course on the theory of group work. After an introduction to theory, students were asked to undertake four assignments. The assignments were constructed in such a way that they would induce a specific (high or low) workload and task complexity condition. At the beginning of the course students filled in an adapted version of the Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) (Ryan & Connell, 1989), developed within the framework of the Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000). This questionnaire focuses on the reasons why people learn within a particular setting and why people engage in learning-related behaviours. After each assignment, the learning approach questionnaire was completed, together with the questionnaire on perceived workload and perceived task complexity. Concerning the direct influence of motivation, results show that autonomous motivation is positively related to a deep approach to learning and negatively to a surface approach. Motivation also has an indirect effect on adult students’ approaches to learning through the perceptions of workload and task complexity, in particular through the perception of a lack of information. The greater the extent to which students are autonomously motivated, the less they perceive that they have a lack of information and the less they are inclined to adopt a surface approach to learning.status: publishe