Short Portrait

Thomas Martens is Professor for Educational Psychology at the Medical School Hamburg.  The motivational researcher manages the projects Motdesign. He is Editor of Frontline Learning Research.

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Motivation to Study: 24 Tips for Teachers

Motivation to Study: 24 Tips for Higher Education The students in your lectures and seminars maybe bored, lethargic or have no motivation following your teaching? Do you experience this sometimes? You will find 24 tips for reflecting your academic teaching. These tips are derived from my recent research projects and…

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Systematic Reviews in Educational Research – Free Download

Systematic Reviews in Educational Research – an Open Acess Handbook This new and Open Access Handbook of Systematic Reviews in Educational Research covers different aspects of a systematic review: methodical considerations, reflections as well as practical examples and applications. For example in Chapter 2 section 4 a reflection on Transparent…

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Thinking in the Universe?

Thinking in the Universe – Are there Intelligent Species in the Galaxy? In his book “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” in chapter three, Stephen Hawking raised the question of whether there can be intelligent living beings in the universe. My answer would be “yes” – there must be intelligent…

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Neuroscience and Education – Presentations from the SIG 22 Meeting 2018

Presentations from the fifth biennial SIG22 Neuroscience and Education conference Monday 4th – Wednesday 6th June 2018 ​London, United Kingdom SIG 22 brings together researchers from the fields of educational science, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, genetics, and neuroscience as well as interdisciplinary people with training in each of these fields,…

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Motivated Learning

Motivated learning First of all, one might wonder if motivated learning is necessary at all. Is is not possible to learn without motivation? At least as far as short-term learning success is concerned, this question must be answered positively: it is possible to successfully learn without motivation. However, the empirical…

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Descartes’ Error – sentio, ergo sum

Descartes, with his sentence “cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am), has declared thinking as the basis of humanity like no other philosopher. Of course, it is easy to understand conscious thinking as the central process of being human. However, is this true? Let’s do a simple thought experiment:…

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Conditioning factors of test‑taking engagement in PIAAC

Conditioning factors of test‑taking engagement in PIAAC: an exploratory IRT modelling approach considering person and item characteristics Background A potential problem of low-stakes large-scale assessments such as the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is low test-taking engagement. The present study pursued two goals in order to…

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Free Download: Handbook of Learning Analytics 2017

This new and free Handbook of Learning Analytics covers a broad sprectrum of topics including Emotion (from Sidney D’Mello) and Self-Regulated Learning (from Philip Winne). This book is edited by Charles Lang, George Siemens, Alyssa Wise & Dragan Gašević The full book can be downloaded for free here (CC BY…

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Workshop: Fostering Learning at University

Thomas Martens conducted a workshop on 30 June 2016 at the TU Dresden with the title “Fostering Learning at University: the Heterogeneity of Motivational Processes”. This workshop showed different ways of learning motivation and how the individual learning processes of students can be promoted. As theoretical basis served the Integrated…

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Motivation and Educational Perspectives of Gifted Children

At the conference of “Bildung und Begabung” [Education & Giftedness] 31 May 2016 with the title “Perspektive Begabung: Diversität als Chance” [Future of Giftedness: Diversity as an Opportunity] Thomas Martens delivered a keynote entitled “Motivation and Educational Perspectives of Gifted Children”. While one child follows his interests and develops remarkable…

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Different Transitions towards Learning at University: Exploring the Heterogeneity of Motivational Processes

This chapter discusses transitions towards learning at university from a perspective of regulation processes. The Integrated Model of Learning and Action is used to identity different patterns of motivational regulation amongst first-year students at university by using mixed distribution models. Five subpopulations of motivational regulation could be identified: students with…

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Sensor Measures of Motivation for Adaptive Learning (SensoMot)

New research projekt started: Sensor Measures of Motivation for Adaptive Learning (SensoMot) Motivation is one major factor for facilitating deep learning processes. The goal of the research project „SensoMot“ is to predict critical motivational conditions using sensor measures. By deriving adaptive mechanisms, the learning process can subsequently be tailored to…

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Motivationsprozesse im Jugend- und Erwachsenenalter [Motivation Processes in Adolescence and Adulthood]

This article examines conditions for a successful motivation for education and training: Why can many teenagers and young adults easily motivate themselves for schools and education, while other show serious motivational difficulties? On the base of identified motivational processes measures are suggested that educational institutions can provide. [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0111-pedocs-109762] [pdf] (available…

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