Fairness of Exams: Learning Motivation and Students' Assessment of Teachers' Actions

The paper provides some data illuminating the character of the relationship between learning motivation in students and their assessment of fairness of educational interaction. The research involved 895 first- and fourth-year students of four Moscow universities (54 % females M-age=19 SDage=1.64); the techniques used in the research were aimed at assessing the fairness of difficult exam and evaluating the students' learning motivation. The outcomes indicate that the higher the fairness, the lesser the amotivation, and the greater the inner motivation of learning in students. The most important role is thus attributed to the procedural components of the fairness; however, the importance of other components varies with the year of study and with the university, which proves that one 's understanding of the organizational fairness depends on the social context.