Problems of Learning Motivation in the Light of Crisis of Educational Purposes Igor Bijuklič
Summary: The article examines how the lost consensus on the purposes of education is reflected in the problems that learning motivation tries to address and what are the shortcomings of learning motivation itself in this respect. This issue is approached in two ways. First, we highlight some fundamental aspects in the conceptualisations of motivation and their reductionism such as the behavioural definition of man and the understanding of various human activities through the concept of satisfaction of needs. We will review their implications in the field of education with a focus on how they address the issue of good, community and, last but not least, how they address the goals and purposes of the activities they try to support. In the second step, we will inquire, with the help of ideas of the humanistic tradition, the consequences of instrumental insights that define education through external goals, how they change the understanding of this field and finally, where and how they potentially undermine the educational activities and its justification. The proposed article argues that the growing problems and needs for learning motivation proportionally reflect the crisis of purposes of institutional education, which destabilizes the conditions for successful coping with such a long and demanding activity as learning.