Middle School Students’ Motivation for Learning Technology in South Korea

Abstract

This study aims to develop a feasible instrument for determining middle school students' motivation to learn technology in South Korea. The authors translated Glynn's motivational instrument and modified it to measure Korean middle school students' motivation to learn technology. The instrument was applied to 441 students of grade 8 and 9 from six different middle schools in metropolitan cities in South Korea. We conducted both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to validate the modified instrument. In addition, we investigated motivational differences by gender and career pursuit using an independent t-test and identified factors affecting preference for technology subject. In terms of the results, first, we identified five subfactors governing the motivation to learn technology. Second, we confirmed three factors that affect the preference for technology subjects, namely, intrinsic motivation, career motivation, and teacher preference. This study provides meaningful insights for technology educators into teaching and learning strategies to consider diverse motivational factors and students' gender and career pursuit.