This paper followed from an invited keynote address at a conference sponsored by the British Journal of Educational Psychology and features in a monograph arising from that conference. All published papers were subjected to an extensive review process by the highly distinguished editorial team (who did not accept all written versions of the conference papers for publication). The monograph concerns the application of psychological theory and research to the development of pedagogy across the stages of education. The present paper explores theoretical assessments of motivation drawing primarily upon cognitive social psychology and shows the strengths and weaknesses of these in developing pedagogical approaches relevant to the practice of teaching. The paper provides an important synthesis of current theoretical concerns in line with calls from other leading researchers for such integration. RAE_import_type : Chapter in book RAE_uoa_type : Education