The Measurement of Motivation with Science Student

Abstract

Motivation is an inner force that activates and provides direction to our thought, feelings and actions. Two main characteristics of motivation are goal directed behavior and persistence. Motivated people persistently work for the goal until it is achieved. This paper explores the nature of motivation in the context of learning and seeks to relate it to self-efficacy, selfconcept, confidence and self-esteem. Motivation is presented as a 'second order' variable being very much dependent on attitudes as well as perceived goals, needs and value. Ways of assessing motivation are considered and the typical use of questionnaire approaches is criticized heavily. These can measure what a person perceives but the perceptions may or may not correspond to reality. Indeed, the entire mathematical basis of data handling with questionnaires is questioned. A typical questionnaire is then used with a large sample of 600 1 st and 2 nd year science intermediate students, drawn from the province of the Punjab in Pakistan and the data obtained examined statistically. Correlations between the responses patterns in all 30 Likert-type questions were examined using Kendall's tau-b while Principal Components Analysis, using varimax rotation, looked at the questionnaire overall as well as sub-groups of questions. Correlation values were found to be very low, suggesting no factor structure and, indeed, the factor analysis showed that there is no factor structure with the questionnaire used with this large population. Chi-Square, as a 'contingency test', was applied to compare the distributions of responses, gender separated. Gender differences were found only in a minority of questions It is argued that motivation is highly multi-variate and that no simple factor structure is to be expected. It is also argued that, with ordinal data, following no prescribed pattern of distribution, only non-parametric statistics are appropriate. The traditional approaches are statistically incorrect and, as a result, will often miss key insights.

Speaking up behavior and cognitive bias in hand hygiene: Competences of German-speaking medical students

“…Unfortunately, low adherence to hand hygiene protocols [6] and impaired commitment to educational lessons is challenging [7]. The causes for the reduced incentive motivation [8,9] to participate in trainings remain unclear.…”

Perception of Financial Variants of Multilevel Marketing Strategy And Growth of Network Marketing Companies in Nigeria

“…In Latin, the root word "motivation" means to "move" which basically indicates the study of action (Eccles and Wigfield, 2002). Motivation is a complex phenomenon and difficult to measure (Mubeen and Reid, 2006), a multidimensional construct (Peklaj and Levpuscek, 2006); second---order variable (Mubeen and Reid, 2006); cognitive element of attitude (Afzal and Ali, 2010); psychological process (Haider, Qureshi, Pirzada, and Shahzadi, 2015;Bittnerova, 2015). Motivation communicates factors or reasons underlying behaviour.…”

“…Motivation communicates factors or reasons underlying behaviour. It is termed an "inner force" (Mubeen and Reid, 2006;Reavis, 2014) influencing direction of thought, feeling and action towards a phenomenon (Miekina, 2012). The activities, energy exerted, action and behaviour of man strives on how motivated they are (Bittnerova, 2015).…”

“…The activities, energy exerted, action and behaviour of man strives on how motivated they are (Bittnerova, 2015). Motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic (Mubeen and Reid, 2006;Haider et al, 2015); monetary or non---monetary, positive or negative (Miekina, 2012). This study focuses more on external forces/incentives (extrinsic factors) that motivates consumers to purchase, sell, and be associated from/to/with MLM in Nigeria.…”

A Study on Students’ Motivation to Learn Chinese Culture Course: The Case of 2018 Northeast Normal University International Students

“…Measuring motivation in education is also a challenging practice. This challenge is partly because of the complexity to operationally define motivation (Mubeen and Reid, 2014). The key to measuring motivation must be to look for behaviors indicating high motivation and low motivation.…”