Abstract:

Motivation plays an essential role in learning. It is important to keep students motivated in a subject until the end to increase their chances of passing it. Therefore, it is crucial that they actively participate in learning (Rueda et al, 2020). In higher education, lecturers can improve and motivate learning by using different dynamics (Iosup & Epema, 2014; Espinosa, 2016), avoiding the classic model of education that limits the interaction between students, teachers and content.

From the point of view of the student related to the teacher, it can be said that a motivating teacher allows questioning, dialogue, cooperation and distribution of the search for information, the socialization of the findings and the construction of knowledge itself (De Zubiría, 2013). On the other hand, Varela et al. (2012) suggest that a motivating teacher must be able to develop creative and challenging academic tasks that increase student commitment in their teaching-learning process, in appropriate educational settings that favour autonomy and motivation (Ten, Kusurkar & Williams, 2011). Additionally, a motivating teacher should demonstrate an attitude of optimism and confidence towards the student, being important characteristics being a good communicator, motivator, accessible, understandable, patient, tolerant, didactic, orderly, and clear (Bono, 2010; Marín & Teruel, 2004).

In general, when students talk about what motivates them on the part of the teacher, they do not refer to characteristics inherent to disciplinary knowledge, nor related to the pedagogical management of academics, both related to the competences of knowledge and know-how of teachers. This is probably because the concept of motivation is more linked to emotional intelligence and affective competencies (Goleman & Boyatzia, 2008; Bozu & Canto, 2009).

In this paper, we reflect on the motivation factors that influence the success of students in a course. First, we identify keywords about students’ motivation, motivation from teachers and motivation from the use of active methodologies or interaction with contents. Second, we develop a bibliometric analysis of the papers published about these topics appearing on the Web of Science in a period of twenty years by using VOSviewer and R Studio. Third, we show our results and highlight the gaps in the literature.

Keywords:

Higher Education, Motivation factor, Motivating teacher, Student.