Academic motivation and performance in physics in a group of students from a Romanian high school
Abstract
The present study, quantitative and cross-sectional, aimed to determine whether the academic motivation dimensions are significant predictors of the physics grades of 96 high school students from a school in Romania specializing in mathematics and computing. The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS HS-28) was used to measure academic motivation, and school grade records were used to measure physics performance. For data analysis, multiple linear regression was used. The results showed that intrinsic motivation for knowledge is a positive predictor of physics grades (β = .476, p = .009), and that extrinsic motivation is a negative predictor (β = - .491, p = .001). It was also observed that there is a significant difference between the two sexes in the extrinsic induction motivation subscale (t = 2.559, p = .012), since the girls had a mean of 19.4 and the boys one of 15.8. It is concluded that intrinsic motivation has a positive relationship with academic performance in physics, so it is necessary for the teacher to cultivate intrinsic motivation resources while allowing the development of student autonomy.
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