Lifelong Learn. 2016, 6, 53-80
The Relationship of the Students to the Future
The paper deals with the relationship of students to the future, a relationship between time perspective and achievement motivation and the paper also implies a close connection of this issue with individual’s volition. The article focuses on the presentation of a research on how students relate to the future which was conducted in the years 2011-2014 (defended in 2014 as a doctoral thesis). On the theoretical level we deal with scientific basis of the time dimension in the human life, with a relation between time perspective and achievement motivation and the connection of these concepts to the theoretical approach to the topic of volition. The main emphasis is on cognitive-motivational and self-motivational concepts of time perspective (works of Gjesme, Nuttin, Lens, Zimbardo, from the Czech authors namely concept of perspective orientation by Pavelková) and on classical works on achievement motivation by Atkinson, Raynor and Heckhausen. Within the analysis of these theoretical concepts, we focused predominantly on the identification of overlaps, narrow ties and connections in described systems. In the field of volition research, we were inspired by the concept of self-control and self-regulatory aspects of volition by Kuhl and Fuhrmann. The main objective of the paper is to present a structured research of time perspective, achievement motivation and volition in students of primary and secondary schools. On the research we worked with data received from more than four hundred students of primary and secondary schools in the Czech Republic. The key objective is to obtain a basic description of the students’ relationship to future through individual research areas, further to empirically examine the relation between time perspective and achievement motivation of students and also to compare different approaches to time perspective (the concept of perspective orientation by Pavelková and Zimbardo’s theory of time perspective). Finally, through created students’ case reports we present inter-individually different authenticity of student’s relating to future. In the research, which was carried out on three levels, we benefited from combination of quantitative and qualitative research. In the conclusion, we suggest possible ways of further work with the findings within the career counselling at schools and which areas of career counselling we consider to be essential for improvement of self-regulatory skills of students.
