Does future time perspective predict motivation to learn?

ABSTRACT

Outstanding high-school students in Israel are presented with the option of postponing their mandatory military service to pursue academic studies. The current paper focuses on female students aged 16–18 who are faced with this option, and compares those who are motivated to pursue academic studies to those who are more inclined to join the army immediately after high school. Through this comparison, we try to assess the impact of the students’ Future Time Perspective (FTP), as well as their demographic data, on their motivation to learn. The results demonstrated that FTP in the group of students who were motivated to learn was significantly higher compared to the group of students who were not interested in enrolling into academic studies before military service. These findings point to a positive relationship between FTP and motivation to learn immediately after high school, and perhaps even learning motivation in general.

KEYWORDS:

• Future time perspective
• motivation to learn
• achievement motivation
• academic studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hila Axelrad

Hila Axelrad is a senior researcher at the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC). Her research and teaching expertise is labor economics, with a particular focus on economic and policy aspects regarding discrimination, employment, unemployment, and retirement.

Rima Drizin

Rima Drizin Graduated with a Master’s in Management from Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Miki Malul

Miki Malul The Dean of Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Research interests: the labor market and the relation between incentives and productivity, behavioral factors in the labor market and public policy.

Mosi Rosenboim

Mosi Rosenboim is the chair management department and a faculty member in Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, BenGurion University of the Negev, Israel. Mosi's research interests are finance and behavioral finance with aspect of risks.