Motivation, achievement, and advanced placement intent of high school students learning science

Abstract

Within the framework of social cognitive theory, we examined the motivation of students (14-16 years old) to learn science in their introductory science courses. The students responded to a questionnaire about their intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and self-determination. The students also wrote essays about their motivation, and individual interviews were conducted with a representative sample of students. We found that the students' intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, self-determination, and achievement were related. Consistent with social cognitive theory, self-efficacy was the motivation factor most related to achievement. The Advanced Placement Program (AP) aspirants were higher than nonaspirants in intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, self-determination, and achievement. Patterns in students' essays and interviews identified inspiring teachers, career interests, and collaborative-learning activities as strong motivators. The findings suggest that science teachers should use social modeling and collaborative-learning activities to foster students' motivation, achievement, AP intent, and interest in science careers.

The impact of physics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and motivation on students’ achievement and interest

“…The findings overall suggest that teachers' motivation determines their instructional behavior and hence students' outcomes (e.g., Butler & Shibaz, 2008;Schiefele & Schaffner, 2015). Among other influential factors, particularly teachers' motivation and their enthusiastic and inspiring teaching behaviors seem to affect students' motivational and affective outcomes Keller et al, 2014;, a fact for which there is tentative empirical evidence also in the science subjects (Bryan, Glynn, & Kittleson, 2011;Pickens & Eick, 2009; see also Potvin & Hasni, 2014).…”

Promoting Self-regulated Learning in Science: A Case Study of a Sri Lankan Secondary School Science Teacher

“…Using hands-on activities to trigger high school students' science interests has been found in other studies [17], [18].…”

Systemizing and the gender gap: examining academic achievement and perseverance in STEM

“…Thus, building on our hypotheses regarding systemizing cognitive style, we further expected learning anxiety to negatively predict self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation to positively predict self-efficacy. Additionally, self-efficacy beliefs concerning the ability to succeed at tasks in science and mathematics courses were expected to directly and positively relate to achievement (Bandura et al 2001;Bryan et al 2011). We also hypothesized that intrinsic motivation and achievement would be positively related to perseverance (Hardre and Reeve 2003;Lavigne et al 2007).…”

“…On the other hand, there is ample empirical evidence suggesting that negative emotions are associated with decreased self-efficacy (Akin and Kurbanoglu 2011;Nie et al 2011) and that intrinsic motivation is positively related to self-efficacy (Bryan et al 2011;Glynn et al 2011). Thus, building on our hypotheses regarding systemizing cognitive style, we further expected learning anxiety to negatively predict self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation to positively predict self-efficacy.…”