Este artigo apresenta uma abordagem para a compreensão dos motivos relacionados à aprendizagem escolar em crianças do ensino fundamental a partir da abordagem histórico-cultural e da teoria da atividade aplicada ao ensino. Essa abordagem representa uma nova concepção para o estudo da motivação escolar, afastando-se da visão predominante que limita a motivação escolar aos aspectos afetivo-emocionais. Nessa abordagem, os motivos constituem a representação interna (mental) dos objetivos que abrangem as diferentes atividades do homem, incluindo a atividade escolar (VIGOTSKY, 1996a, TALIZINA, 1998). Leontiev (1993) desenvolveu a Teoria da Atividade a partir das ideias de Vygotsky sobre a natureza social da psique, que se manifesta e se desenvolve no atividade.
This article presents an approach for understanding the motives related to school learning in elementary school children from the historical-cultural approach and the theory of activity applied to teaching. This approach represents a new conception for the school motivation study, away from the predominant vision that limits school motivation to affective-emotional aspects. In this approach, the motives constitute the internal (mental) representation of the objectives that cover the different activities of man, including school activity (VIGOTSKY, 1996a, TALIZINA, 1998). Leontiev (1993) developed the General Activity Theory from Vygotsky's ideas about the social nature of the psyche, which manifests and develops in activity. The author pointed out that human activity in general and school activity in particular must be studied from the motivational aspect in order to understand the relationship between different needs and the objectives that satisfy them. In the activity theory it is pointed out that the effectiveness or failure in the teaching-learning process is directly related to the type of motives, which forms the meanings of school activity in children (BOZHOVICH, 1987; LEONTIEV, 1993; TALIZINA, 2009; VIGOTSKY, 1996a, 1996b).
