Exploring Factors That Affect Undergraduate Students' Motivation to Learn Chemistry and Physics

Abstract

The pivotal role of motivation in fostering science learning has long been recognized and it is a field of active research worldwide. This research aimed at examining the effect of three different factors (used as independent variables) on shaping the motivation of undergraduate students for chemistry and physics learning via multiple regression analysis. Motivation (dependent variable) was measured via the use of the chemistry and physics-specific versions of Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQ II). The participants were 281 full-time undergraduate students in three different academic departments of a Greek tertiary education institution. Students’ gender was shown to exert an effect of small size on their motivation for chemistry and physics learning, while a larger, however mostly small effect, was observed with regard to the students’ academic major. Students’ academic experience from the attendance of physics and chemistry courses was measured via an instrument which was developed specifically for this research, and it was shown to be the most influential factor affecting their respective learning motivations. In addition, strong evidence was provided that the academic experiences acquired during tertiary education have a significantly more intense effect in configuring students’ motivation to learn either chemistry or physics relative to the ones obtained in the immediate past referring to the previous educational grade (secondary education). Keywords: academic major, gender effect, quantitative research, science learning, students’ experiences

The Factors That Influence the Motivation to Learn Chemistry of Upper-Secondary School Students in Indonesia

“…Meanwhile, the predictor that always appears in the regression equation is gender difference (female). This finding contrasts the results of a study by Salta and Koulougliotis (2022) which said that gender was not included in the regression equation that was formed. It can be said that gender difference in this study is the predictor that has the highest predictive power of students' learning motivation to learn chemistry (with a value of b, 0.876 < b < 1.904).…”

“…The low coefficient value (-.013 < r < .131) implies that class differences did not significantly influence students' motivation to learn chemistry. In previous studies, it has been revealed that academic majors have low and moderate correlations (Salta & Koulougliotis, 2022). In line with this study, at the upper-secondary school level, class differences also did not significantly affect motivation to learn chemistry.…”

“…Correlation with a positive value implies that female students are more motivated to learn chemistry than male students. Gender predictors are statistically significantly different; the results of this study are the same as in previous studies (Salta & Koulougliotis, 2022;Zhang & Zhou, 2023).…”

“…Several studies state that the biggest motivation for students to learn chemistry is to get grades, and few students find the relevance of chemistry for their future careers (Austin et al, 2018). Other studies state that motivation to learn chemistry differs significantly by gender (Zhang & Zhou, 2023b) and students' learning experiences (Ardura & Pérez-Bitrián, 2018;Salta & Koulougliotis, 2022).…”

Effects of Metacognitive Skills on Physics Problem -Solving Skills Among Form Four Secondary School Students

“…The methodology employed in this study was that of a quantitative cross-sectional and correlational analysis. Quantitative or measurable data on multiple variables are collected and analyzed in a cross-sectional study to uncover correlations or other patterns (Salta & Koulougliotis, 2022). Additionally, since the aim of the current study was to provide an explanation for the correlation between variables, it is more accurately labelled as explanatory research (Creswell, 2002).…”