Motivation and Emotions in CSCL
Motivation affects behaviours and learning of the students. It increases the amount of effort and
energy that learners expend in activities directly related to their needs and goals (Csikszentmihalyi &
Nakamura, 1989; Maehr, 1984; Pintrich et al., 1993) Motivation keeps the learner concerned to the
task and provides patience during the task. Also it affects what learners pay attention to and how
effectively they process it (Eccles & Wigfield, 1985; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Pugh & Bergin, 2006)(1).
In collaborative learning, the more learners want to be accepted and respected by peers, the more
they will value membership in the “in” group and be distressed by the ridicule of classmates(2).
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning or shortly CSCL, is the way of learning that people can
work together with support of computers. With this sense, Lipponen (2002) adds that; CSCL is how
collaboration and technology facilitate sharing and distributing of knowledge and expertise among
community members. The concern for a process-oriented account of collaboration underlines most
research on CSCL during the last decade (Dillenbourg, Baker et al., 1996; Stahl, 2002ab; Engeström et
al., 2002; Paavola et al., 2004), from individuals to dyades, to finally larger social contexts in which
groups interact with other groups to produce learning and create knowledge (Engeström, 2004).
As motivation and emotions are important terms for collaborative learning, as much as in CSCL. In
individual learning, the results are caused by motivation and emotion of the learner will reflect to
learner. But in collaborative work, emotional aspects are more effectible to group work and the
relations of group members.
Beside, we can consider that a group activity is mostly about verbal communication and the relation
between group members. In human face-to-face communication, social, motivational, and emotional
meanings are mediated by using different verbal and non-verbal communication acts. These kind of
motivational and emotional factors are difficult to implement to computer applications like
groupwares. One of the main challenges for the development of groupware and other technologies
for collaborative learning is to create tools which can meet the motivational demands and
particularly support the sharing of informal and tacit knowledge. (Lehtinen, 1999)
In CSCL, one of the aim of the teacher or the facilitator should be guiding students how to regulate
their motivations and emotions. In the process of the CSCL environment, the teacher should design
the environment close to face-to-face collaborative learning communication and they should play a
role as a bridge. The teacher provide technological tools to make students present their emotional
and motivational experiences visible in order to regulate group’s working process and improve their
learning skills.
(1) http://www.education.com/reference/article/motivation-affects-learning-behavior/
(2) http://www.education.com/reference/article/motivation-affects-learning-behavior/?page=2
Engeström, Y. (2004). New forms of learning in co-configuration work. Journal of Workplace Learning, 16(1/2), 11-21.
Lehtinen, E., Hakkarainen, K., Lipponen, L., Rahikainen, M., & Muukkonen, H. (1999). Computer supported collaborative
learning: A review. The JHGI Giesbers reports on education, 10.
Lipponen, L. (2002, January). Exploring foundations for computer-supported collaborative learning. In Proceedings of the
conference on computer support for collaborative learning: Foundations for a CSCL community (pp. 72-81). International
Society of the Learning Sciences.
Schiefele, U., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1995). Motivation and ability as factors in mathematics experience and
achievement. Journal for research in mathematics education, 163-181.