Motivation of educational activity: basic concepts and problems

The requirements for the outcomes of professional education in federal state educational standards are high. However, we observe many students who have low motivation for study, as they do not want to master their majors and be good specialists in the future. The reality is that only 15 % of the total number of students are motivated to study. Therefore, the instructor should understand the factors that positively influence the students’ motivation. This article clarifies the definition of student’s motivation and its constituent components, analyzes various approaches, concepts, assesses the initial level of student’s motivation and highlights the main motivating factors. These factors can contribute to resolving the contradiction between the low student’s motivational-value attitude to learning and the modern requirements of regulatory documents for the training of professionals. To solve these problems the questionnaire, the retrospective analysis, tests developed by T.I. Iljina, and diagnostics created by A.A. Reana and V.A. Yakunin were used.