Motivation is the key to successful learning

Motivation plays a central role in learning – an aspect that psychologist Julia Dietrich examines in detail in her research on learning processes. Dietrich is the new Chair of the
Professorship of Empirical Educational Science at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Her scientific work focuses on investigating the psychological microprocesses of learning and development, as well as analyzing individual learning prerequisites and developmental trajectories in adolescents and young adults.

Learning doesn’t happen without motivation – a fact well known to students, teachers, and parents alike. Those who are motivated feel the desire to learn new things and to develop their skills. Motivation influences how intensely and persistently people engage with learning and how committed they are to the process. A positive mindset improves concentration and supports self-directed learning and self-confidence. “Motivation is the key to successful learning,” says psychologist Julia Dietrich, the new Chair of the Professorship of Empirical Educational Science at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. In her research and teaching, she explores the influence of motivation and emotions on learning.

Dietrich is particularly interested in how motivation changes over time – even over short periods – and how such fluctuations can be studied methodologically. After all, even if a student is generally highly motivated to pursue their degree, or a pupil enjoys going to school, motivation can vary significantly during a single lecture or class. Most studies on learning motivation, Dietrich explains, examine it at a general level – for example, when a student says, “I like math.” In contrast, research has less frequently focused on intraindividual variability – that is, the shifting motivation across different topics or over time. This is where Dietrich aims to take a closer look in her research.

“Our studies show that motivation can fluctuate within very short intervals – as little as 30 minutes during a single lecture,” explains psychologist Julia Dietrich. She aims to document people’s momentary experiences and behaviors using microprocess data, also known as intensive longitudinal data. This requires assessment tools capable of capturing situational experiences and behaviors in specific moments of everyday life. Dietrich has explored this, for example, using electronic diaries collecting data via a smartphone app. In this way, students were able to report on their current motivation at short intervals while they were actually attending a lecture. These self-report data were analyzed alongside video recordings of the lecture itself – because the behavior of the instructor in a given moment can also influence students’ motivation.

A follow-up project focuses on understanding how students’ learning motivation develops after they begin their studies. This ongoing project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and conducted in collaboration with researchers from the University of Leipzig. How quickly does motivation for a subject stabilize during the first year of university? How do students differ in the development of their motivation? How pronounced are motivational differences across various courses? These are some of the questions Julia Dietrich is exploring. To investigate them, first-year students were accompanied during their courses. Through repeated, brief surveys via smartphone or tablet, motivational and emotional experiences were captured precisely at the moments they occurred. “With this data, we can trace the individual developmental trajectories of motivation and emotions in high resolution,” explains Dietrich.

Julia Dietrich sees her academic work at the intersection of innovative basic research and practical application – always with the goal of improving our understanding of learning processes across different contexts. A particular focus of her work is on meso- and macro-level contexts, such as the influence of teachers, parents, and institutional structures on the learning process. Her research also focuses on emotional aspects, as learning is not solely a cognitive process but also depends on how emotionally charged a topic is. For example, Dietrich points to the field of education, where everyone has personal experience and therefore personal beliefs about how teaching and learning work best. “And then, as a student teacher, you suddenly realize that not all of your beliefs align with reality or with the findings of evidence-based research.” Dietrich also investigates how revising previous assumptions or having existing knowledge confirmed affects the learning process.

She is also engaged in exploring the use of digital technologies – for example, how recommendation algorithms known from online shopping (“Customers who bought this item also showed interest in...”) can be adapted for use on learning platforms. “In this way, progress within a learning program could be tailored more individually to the learner,” explains Julia Dietrich, who studied psychology and education at the University of Erfurt, where she also completed her PhD in 2010. Her doctoral dissertation focused on developmental psychology and examined how adolescents and their parents navigate the transition from school to higher education (“Adolescents’ and Parents’ Developmental Regulation During the Transition From School to Higher Education”). 

Afterwards, Dietrich worked as a research associate in the Department of Psychology in Erfurt before spending two years as a fellow at the University of Helsinki, where she participated in the postdoctoral program “Pathways to Adulthood.” Beginning in 2013, Dietrich worked as a research associate at the Institute of Education at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, where she successfully completed her habilitation in psychology in 2022. Her habilitation thesis, titled “Inter- and Intra-Individual Perspectives on Academic Motivation and Emotions,” now forms the basis of her ongoing teaching and research at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. She assumed the Professorship of Empirical Educational Science at the Faculty of Philosophy and Education there in April of this year.