This study describes the steps of constructing a motivation to learn scale for elementary school students and presents a preliminary analysis of its psychometric properties. It was carried out in two stages, employing 771 students from 2nd to 8th grade of elementary school level of public schools of Campinas, SP. The alpha of Cronbach was 0,80 indicating a good internal consistency of the scale. The exploratory factorial analysis identified two factors: intrinsic motivation (IM) and extrinsic motivation (EM) explaining respectively 17,68% and 12,71% of the total variance. Data is discussed in terms of the need of deepening our knowledge regarding the viability of using the scale for diagnosis, intervention and prevention of motivational problems in the school context.
Motivation to learn; intrinsic motivation; extrinsic motivation; construction of instruments; elementary education
