The intent of this research was to investigate if a relationship exists between the school performance and the motivational orientations from elementary students. Participants were 150 male and female elementary school children, aged between 9 and 12 years of two public schools from Sao Paulo State. The results indicated that in the third-grade there was a negative and significant correlation between extrinsic motivation and the school performance, that is, the lower the school performance the higher the extrinsic motivation. For the intrinsic motivation and school performance, variables showed no significant correlation and extrinsic motivation and in the fourth-grade, the results showed a significant and positive correlation. For the fourth-grade, there was a negative and significant correlation between extrinsic motivation and school performance, that is, the lower the school performance the higher the extrinsic motivation. For the intrinsic motivation and school performance, variables showed a positive and significant correlation, indicating that the higher the school performance the higher the intrinsic motivation.
school performance; intrinsic school motivation; extrinsic school motivation; school failure; elementary teaching
