The correlation between study motivation and emotional attitude to learning in primary school age
The article explores the correlation between study motivation and emotional attitude to learning in primary school age - an issue relevant for the development of Russia’s education system. Before proceeding to the subject matter of the study, the article analyses various approaches to the definition of study motivation and emotional attitude to learning. An important component of the cognitive position of primary school students is an emotional attitude to learning. It is manifest in the subjective attitude of students to cognition. Essentially, emotions act as drivers of learning. They depend on cognitive activity and its structure. To explore study motivation and how it correlates with the emotional attitude to learning, an empirical study was conducted at General Education School No. 24. The school is located in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia. The study included 102 students (51 girls and 51 boys) from grades 3 to 4. The data was obtained using the “Assessment of the level of school motivation” questionnaire developed by N.G. Luskanova and “Motivation for teaching and emotional attitude to teaching” methodology modified by A. D. Andreeva. The empirical study shows that the majority of students in grades 3-4 have an average study motivation associated with a positive attitude to schooling with a slightly reduced cognitive activity. The study of emotional attitude to teaching reveals that the majority of younger schoolchildren have a positive and diffuse emotional attitude to teaching. Inter alia, the study explored the level of anxiety, anger and cognitive activity. To identify the correlation between study motivation and emotional attitude to learning, a correlation analysis was carried out. In this respect we used the Spearman’s rank correlation to establish a statistically significant direct positive interrelation between learning motivation and emotional attitude. The research has informed the guidelines for teachers to increase the level of students’ study motivation. It should be noted that an increase in study motivation in primary age schoolchildren is only possible with an effective teacher-students interaction in place.