Motivation of educational and cognitive activity in the digital educational environment of students of different age groups

Mikhaylova Natalya Vladimirovna PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology and Teaching at Nizhny Novgorod Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation 603029, Russia, g. Nizhnii Novgorod, shosse Ankudinovskoe, 3 sorokanv@yandex.ru Other publications by this author     Fedoseeva Ol'ga Igorevna PhD in Psychology Associate Professor; Department of Age and Clinical Psychology; National Research Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N.I. Lobachevsky 603000, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Universitetskiy lane, 7 olfedoseeva_2011@mail.ru

Shutkina Zhanna Aleksandrovna PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor; Department of Age and Clinical Psychology; National Research Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N.I. Lobachevsky 603000, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Universitetskiy str., 7 zhannashutkina@mail.ru

Introduction

The pedagogical process in the digital educational environment is characterized by specific features, many of which are due to the mediation of models and forms of interaction between subjects of the educational process. These features determine the specifics of motivation and organization of educational activities in a digital environment, which requires detailed analysis and reflection when solving the tasks of ensuring the quality of training specialists using digital platforms. It should be noted that the theoretical and empirical basis for the study of the problems of the organization and implementation of the educational process in the digital environment is at the stage of formation. The development of the digital information society trend requires the intensification of research in the field of digital educational technologies in the unity of goals, objectives, methods, and means of the pedagogical process, and the organization of interaction between its participants. All the elements included in the system of the pedagogical process are interconnected and mutually determine each other. The motivation of learning activity sets its vector and is a mechanism that triggers, guides and supports the actions through which learning activities are carried out ^[1].

The purpose of the study is to determine the structure and specifics of motivation for learning activities in the digital educational environment of students enrolled in professional education programs.

Literature review

The higher education system today can no longer be imagined without a digital environment, for which many terms are used today: "interactive computer environment", "cyberspace", "artificial reality", "virtual reality", etc. (F. Brooks, A.E. Voiskunsky, A.G. Volov, W.O. Gibson, T.A. Kirik, M. Kruger, G.Ya. Menshikova, L.E. Motorina, Yu.A. Schrader), "virtual educational environment", "remote educational environment", "information educational environment", etc. (M.V. Bulgakov, Zh.N. Zaitseva, I.G. Zakharova, O.A. Ilchenko, A.E. Pushkin, V.I. Soldatkin, S.S. Fomin). The study of these terms allowed us to establish that they meaningfully define specially created conditions through programming languages, computer technology, digital information networks, channels, and content for the indirect interaction of participants in the educational process for their professional and personal development and self-development.

The digital educational environment has a number of specific characteristics:

1. Cross-borderness. The digital educational environment has no geographical anchoring, educational content exists outside of space and time. Participants in the educational process can interact from any geographical location, learn the content at any time, and return to it at any time.
2. Hypertext. To create a digital educational environment, information from various sources can be used, presented in various formats with a direct transition to the source platform. The transition from source to source can be carried out in different sequences.
3. Individualization. The opportunity to learn at your own pace along an individual trajectory, built in accordance with the level of preparedness and the needs of a particular individual.
4. Multi-instrumentality. The ability to use various services, tools, formats and sources of information to create an informational educational development space.
5. Mediation of interaction. The lack of direct interaction between participants in the educational process. The need for independent planning of educational and cognitive activities. Self-development, self-education, self-control, and the ability to plan your own time play an important role in the educational process.

Digital technologies make it possible to collect, store, and process huge streams of information in a short time, immerse students in virtual and augmented reality, simulating, for example, the professional space of a future specialist, simulate processes and situations of professional activity, and ensure communication and collaboration between students and teachers at any distance.

Competent planning, filling and realization of the possibilities of the digital educational space will ensure the development of not only legally established competencies, but also a number of new ones related to the organization and implementation of indirect interaction in the digital space, search skills, indirect communication skills, time management, critical thinking, emotional online intelligence.

Despite the statements of many skeptics, learning in cyberspace, like any activity, leads, according to A.N. Leontiev's theory, to human development, although different types of activities affect the development process differently ^{[2, P. 24]}. The mediation of educational and cognitive activity practically excludes the enrichment of one's own experience with the collective experience of joint direct activity, but it provides an opportunity to form skills of indirect interaction between subjects of educational activity. It should be emphasized that when the educational process is mirrored from the direct interaction mode (face-to-face) to an indirect one (including on-line), without taking into account the specifics of its course, the developing effect of interaction between the teacher and the student is significantly reduced.

Many scientific studies have been devoted to the problems of motivation, including educational motivation (V.G. Aseev, K. Alderfer, A. Bandura, B. Weiner, A.A. Verbitsky, V.K. Vilyunas, A.I. Gebos, O.S. Grebenyuk, E. Dersi, V.N. Druzhinin, B.V. Zeyarnik, I.A. Zimnoy, E.P. Ilyin, T.I. Ilyina, V.I. Kovalev, T.A. Kononova, V.N. Kruglova, A.N. Leontiev, T.I. Lyakh, D. McClelland, A.S. Makurina, A.K. Markova, A. Maslow, R.S. Nemov, E.Y. Patyaeva, R. Ryan, A.A. Rean, M. Seligman, B.F. Skinner, R. Sternberg, N.F. Talyzina, E.V. Shorokhova, P.M. Yakobson, V.A. Yakunina, etc.), but the issues of motivation of students in The system of the digital environment, including online, has been actively studied in the post-pandemic period, respectively, the scientific base in this area is at the stage of formation.

R. Sternberg notes in his works that the level of motivation is a better predictor of success than intelligence ^{[3, pp. 251-252]}. Without motivation, a person's existing baggage of abilities and competencies will not ensure their active use in their lives. Motivation explains the orientation and level of a person's efforts in carrying out any activity to achieve a significant goal for him, including educational.

In our understanding, the motivation of educational activity is a multifaceted dynamic system with a variety of interrelated and mutually influencing internal and external factors, the combination of which creates a unique motivational sphere of personality, which determines its activity and involvement in the educational process.

The motivator of educational activity is a system of motives that organically includes: cognitive needs, goals, interests, aspirations, value orientations that give it an active and directed character and determine its content and semantic features ^[4].

There are two main types of such motivators of educational activity – internal and external (E. Disi, M. Lepper, A.K. Markova, R. Ryan, H. Heckhausen, V.I. Chirkov). The source of internal motivators is the student himself, and the source of external ones is the desire to achieve for the sake of reward or avoiding punishment.

A.K. Markova identifies two groups of motives for learning activities: cognitive and social ^[5]. The first group includes the motives of educational and cognitive activity, which (T.O. Gordee, E. Deci, A.K. Markova, R. Ryan, De Charmes, etc.) are based on the needs for competence, cognition, striving for achievement, self-development, related to internal motives.

Social motives, which are inherently external, include motives that determine the content and nature of the interaction of participants in the educational process: duty, responsibility, leadership, recognition, the need for respect, communication, involvement in a common cause, belonging to a team, approval, autonomy, etc.

T.O. Gordeeva ^{[6, p. 8]} in her research summarized and analyzed many approaches to achievement motivation: faith in one's ability to perform a given job, or self-efficacy (A. Bandura ^[7]); locus of control (J. Rotter ^[8]) and causal attribution (B. Weiner ^[9]); the style of explaining successes and failures (M. Seligman ^[10]); the type of ideas about abilities (K. Dweck ^[11]); as well as perceived control (E. Skinner ^[12]), self-orientation or task orientation (D. Nicholls ^[12]), and others. He considers this type of motivation as one of the forces that motivate the subject to actively work to achieve a better result ^[14]. Despite the difference in approaches and constructs of achievement motivation, the authors of the presented theories assign a decisive role in the level and desire to achieve not so much intellectual abilities as the desire to achieve the best result (success).

Materials and research methods

In 2024, a study was conducted on the motivational sphere of students in professional educational programs implemented in a digital educational environment.

The study involved students (126 people) of two age groups: 19-20 years old and 30 years and older.

Within the framework of the study, various methods of motivation diagnosis were used: N.V. Elfimova's method of diagnosing educational motivation (adapted according to the age groups of students and the type of training), the method of diagnosing internal and external educational motivation "Academic Motivation Scale" (T.O. Gordeeva, O.A. Sychev, E.N. Osina), diagnostic methods motivation for achieving success and avoiding failures A.A. Rean.

Research results and discussion of the results

Based on the analysis of the experience of implementing the educational and cognitive process in the digital educational environment of higher education institutions, questionnaires and self-examination of students and teaching staff, we have identified a number of psychological and pedagogical determinants of effective organization of learning in a digital educational environment.

An analysis of the results of the diagnosis of educational motivation using N.V. Elfimova's modified methodology showed that educational, cognitive and social groups of motives have different meanings for the age groups studied, so in the group of 19-20 years (59% of respondents) social (external) motives prevail over educational and cognitive ones and vice versa (72% of respondents in the group of 30 years and older, cognitive (internal) motives prevail over social motives.

In relation to the learning system in the digital educational environment, many social motives, for example, the desire for leadership, gaining authority, recognition, belonging to a team, involvement in a common cause, etc., lose their usual format, and sometimes their meaning due to the lack of joint activities and direct communication in the educational team when learning without direct interaction with the group and However, as part of the feedback, recognition of the student's successes and achievements in personal and group interaction with the teacher is necessary to maintain the need for self-esteem (this need, as determined in a subsequent study, is of great importance for both age groups of respondents), although it has It has a short-term effect and requires regular reinforcement.

Based on a survey using the methodology of A.A. Rean "Motivation for achieving success and avoiding failures" It was found that students in the age group of 19-20 years in more cases – 61% of students in the digital environment are focused on avoiding failures, 39% on achieving success; in the age group of 30 years and older, 76% are motivated by success, 24% are motivated by avoiding failures.

A subsequent survey revealed that students in the age group of 30 and older are focused on acquiring competencies for personal and professional growth, while students aged 19-20 note the need to comply with formal minimum requirements in order to avoid negative consequences of non-compliance, such motivation is due (from the point of view of students) to the lack of direct supervision by the teacher and the lack of compliance with social norms of behavior that would cause disapproval from the teacher and the group.

The analysis of the results of motivation diagnostics according to the methodology of N.V. Elfimova and A.A. Rean suggests a hypothesis about the relationship between the types of motives: students with cognitive (internal) motives have motivation for success, and students with predominant social (external) motives have more pronounced motives for avoiding failures. The presented hypothesis will be investigated by us in the future using correlation analysis methods to establish statistical relationships between data groups.

The leading types of academic motivation for the studied age groups have been identified using the "Scale of Academic Motivation" methodology (T.O. Gordeeva, O.A. Sycheva, E.N. Osina). Thus, for students aged 19-20, the group of external motives is the most pronounced (65% of respondents), the next most pronounced are self-esteem motivation (59% of respondents) and cognitive motivation (41% of respondents), achievement motivation (47% of respondents) and self-development motivation (31% of respondents). In the group of 30 years and older, the group of self–development motives is in the first place in terms of severity (79% of respondents); cognitive motives are in second place (75% of respondents), followed by achievement motives (55% of respondents). Other types of motives are not pronounced. The diagnosis of educational motivation using the "Academic Motivation Scale" method confirms the earlier conclusion about the priority of cognitive motives (internal) among the older audience of students and social (external) motives among students in the age group of 19-20 years.

The obtained results of the study of the motivational sphere of students in the digital educational environment allowed us to conclude that there are differences in educational motivation among students of the represented age groups. For students aged 19-20, the priority is external motives (social, external, avoiding failures), for the group of 30 years and older, internal motives of educational activity (self-development, cognition, success) are prioritized, which should be taken into account when designing the pedagogical process and organizing interaction with students.

It should also be noted that according to the results of the survey of teachers and students in the digital educational environment, such monitoring tools as clickers and roll calls during the training session do not give a positive result, rather they negatively tune in students, distracting them from the educational process.

Conclusions and final provisions

According to the results of the study, the following results were obtained:

1. The concept of "digital educational environment" is clarified as specially created conditions through programming languages, computer technology, digital information networks, channels, and content for the indirect interaction of participants in the educational process for their professional and personal development and self-development.
2. A number of specific characteristics of the digital educational environment have been identified: cross-border, hypertext, individualization, multi-instrumentality, and mediation of interaction.
3. The leading motives of learning activities in the digital educational environment of students of various age categories are identified. In the group of 19-20 years old, the leading motives for learning activities are external motives (social, external), in the group of students aged 30 and older – internal (self-development, cognition). At the same time, the majority of students in the group of 19-20 years old are aimed at avoiding failures, in the group of 30 years and older at achieving success.
4. In relation to the learning system in the digital educational environment, many social motives (striving for leadership, gaining authority, recognition, belonging to a team, involvement in a common cause, etc.) lose their usual format, and sometimes their meaning due to the lack of joint activity, nevertheless, the presented motives, according to the diagnostic results, are significant for students the age group is 19-20 years old.
5. The directions of improving the pedagogical process in the digital educational environment are formulated, taking into account the identified motives of educational activity.

When designing the educational process in a digital educational environment, the results obtained during the research should be taken into account and the emphasis for the 19-20 year group should be on:

- ensuring the dynamism of the educational process when conducting lecture-type classes in an online format. An analysis of the experience of conducting classes in a distance format has shown that the level of students' involvement in the educational and cognitive process is unstable, dynamic, according to the results of a survey of students, this is facilitated by a number of factors: a relaxing home environment with many distractions, lack of external control and the need to comply with the social framework of behavior. M.G. Tarasyan, G.V. Vasilyeva note"When students enter the classroom, they subconsciously tune into learning activities. They find themselves in a familiar learning environment since school, where the environment itself helps them focus on the learning process. On the contrary, the home environment contains a lot of distractions, and you need to have strong internal motivation and sufficiently developed volitional processes in order to effectively engage in educational activities" ^{[15, p. 289]}.

Accordingly, it is necessary to include students in the lecture process: participation in online surveys using interactive services with graphical representation and subsequent discussion of its results, discussion of problematic issues and situations.;

- practice-oriented content that provides an idea of the implementation of theoretical provisions in practice;

- involving students in joint activities using specialized project platforms, web rooms, etc.;

- feedback: answers are here and now, when evaluating joint activities, focus on the student's personal contribution to achieving a common goal, identifying positive results and prospects for immediate development;

- creating the opportunity to choose the types of activities, methods and pace of solving problems.

For students aged 30 and over, you should:

- to identify the lines of immediate development and practical application in professional activities of the acquired competencies;

- refer to the personal experience of students;

- develop tasks for the implementation of acquired knowledge in practice, or based on real practice (case technology);

- to set difficult but solvable tasks that will ensure the satisfaction of the need for self-efficacy;

- provide timely feedback;

- provide a choice of pace and types of tasks from the available list;

Thus, the combination of internal and external factors creates a unique motivation and desire to achieve goals for each student. Understanding these factors can be used to increase personal effectiveness and achieve planned educational outcomes.