Student Motivation And Academic Performance

The motivation of students is one of the important issues in higher education, particularly owing to importance of academic performance in their professional life and also it focused on identifying the factors that will help educational thinkers to know students’ attitudes towards learning, what hinders and what facilitates learning in the process of learning. This will assist education community to predict student academic performance and identifying the students before their grades begin to fall (Kamauru, 2000). Lumsden (1994) has investigated which passion to learn seems to shrink as children grow. Learning sometimes becomes compulsion than happiness, that’s why large number of students leaves education before graduation. Due to unpleasant attitude of students towards education very few are actually mentally present in the classroom.

Student motivation is the element that leads students’ attitude towards learning process. Number of studies has been conducted to probe the role of student motivation toward academic performance and different definitions of students’ motivation have been used by various researches.

Student motivation is often separated into two types: Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation: A student is intrinsically motivated when he/she is motivated from surrounded by: Intrinsically motivated students enthusiastically engage themselves in learning out of peculiarity, attention, happiness or in order to achieve their own scholarly and personal aims.

Therefore students with intrinsic motivation are more enthusiastic, self driven, challenging and feel pleasure in their studies and students with extrinsic motivation try to drag themselves with academic coursework, feel compelled to learn, and always put minimum efforts to attain maximum appreciations. Intrinsically motivated, students tend to use strategies that require more effort and that allow them to process information more strongly.

In intrinsic and extrinsic motivation we have found the following sources of motivation which has also been confirmed by the students during data collection.

And also each of these items has defined in following table which has been used in design a questionnaire for intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

At this time, I am going to talk about research methodology:

2. Research Methodology:

2.1 Sample

The sample involved of 342 university students of dissimilar programs in various universities of Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan. The students were asked about how motivated they are about their university experience and what really motivated them to study. The questionnaire was distributed among both female and male students.

It involved 82% male and 18% female students in the survey with an average age of 20 years. The following technical card contains the concise information regarding research methodology:

• Purpose of study Exploration

• Types of investigation Correlations

• Extent of researchers interference Minimal

• Study setting Non-contrived

• Measurement Scaling

• Unit of examination Individuals

• Sampling design Simple random sampling

• Sample size n = 250

• Time horizon one shot

• Data collection method Questionnaire

• Data analysis of Variance

The above given self descriptive table describes different parts of research methodology in brief. For statistical purpose analysis of variance has been conducted using SPSS 17 version.

2.2 Instrumentation and Measurement:

The above mentioned self-explanatory table contains the key of the items mentioned in the survey questionnaire.

This shows that each source in given due consideration in the survey and items were mixed in the survey regarding the source of student motivation.

2.3 Procedure:

The questionnaires were distributed randomly among the students of different programs of different semesters and their responses were collected. Data was analyzed using SPSS for Windows (version 17.0) for precise analysis and results. Analysis included regression analysis, and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

3. Result:

The following report begins with the results of the respondents’ information on segments like languages and Gender. This study, conducted on the student motivation and its Impact on student performance, shown that 82.4% respondents are male while 17.6% female, who participated in this study. Female segment of the sample is reasonably insignificant in the study. This study reveals percentages of languages: of these, 34.5% respondents belong to Punjabi language, 8.6% respondents belong to Sindhi language, 10.8% respondents belong to Pashto language, 6.5% respondents belong to Saraiki language, 33.5% respondents belong to Urdu language, 0.7% respondents belong to Hindco language and 5.4% respondents belong to Baluchi language. Different languages are spoken in various parts of the country. However, in one university students come from different parts of the country and speak different languages. Four major provincial languages and three other languages, commonly spoken in some of the provinces, were also included in the study. Languages reflect cultural values of their own provinces. Now we have a clear picture of the respondents’ answers regarding student motivation and student performance.

4. Discussion:

Rejection of alternative options, career and qualifications and social pressure instil the academic performance.

In the same way, intrinsic motivation achieved through respect of altruism, and self-exploration. This study investigates student motivation and its impact on student academic performance. Student performance will increase between 23 percent and 34 percent due to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. T-value of both tables shows relevant Importance of elements of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for academic performance. On the whole, model is Significant.

This study reveals R-square is 80 percent which show strong relationship of students’ motivation with their Performance. Academics performance will increase 34 percent due to extrinsic motivation where as academics Performance will increase 23 percent due to intrinsic motivation.

Every student has diversified experience of knowledge, abilities, talents and aspirations and come from different Social, regional and political backgrounds that may affect their motivation to learn. Some student having great quantity of skill due to best schooling and other are vice versa. However, student motivation is a prerequisite of academic performance (Masitsa, 2008). Helpful learning in the classroom depends on the teacher’s capability that creates interest related to subject matter. Student performance depends upon the forces which are affecting during the studies (Erickson, 1978). There is no paranormal formula for accessing accurate level of students’ Motivation other then extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation questionnaire.

5. Conclusion and Recommendations:

The study examined the influence of student motivation on academic performance. The study found positive and mutually causal relationship between student’s motivation and student’s academic performance. This relationship is mutual, meaning students who are more motivated do better and student who perform better become more motivated.

In this study, R-square is 80 percent; this shows very strong relationship of students’ motivation with academics performance. T-value also shows relevant significance of students’ motivation toward the student academics performance. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations increase their academic performance between ranges of 23 percent and 34 percent. When we checked on individual element of extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation, we found that Academics performance will increase 17 percent due to rejection alternative option. Academics performance will enhance 9 percent due to occupation qualification.

Academics performance will put in to 7 percent because of social pleasure. Academics performance will increase 4 percent due to common pressure. Academics performance will increase 10 percent due to self exploration. Academics performance will increase 12 percent due to altruism. Blank (1997); Dev (1997); Kushman (2000) and Woods (1995) also associated high motivation and commitment in learning as consisted link to reduce dropout rates and increase levels of student performance.

From these findings we conclude that students who are intrinsically motivated perform much better academically than students who are extrinsically motivated. Extrinsically motivated students might do a good job or perform well to achieve a certain reward, but it does not keep them motivated for long-term and overall performance does not change or is consistent.

They might carry out very well in one semester or quiz to achieve a certain reward or goal and then next semester might show poor performance because the reward did not exist anymore.

Their performance does not remain constant as a result. Students’ who are intrinsically motivated take up tasks or perform well academically for their own interest and for their own learning. These kinds of students are truly interested in learning and in achieving high goals. This shows in their overall consistent performance.

From these results and Analysis, this study concludes that academic performance is positively influenced by intrinsic motivation and negatively affected by extrinsic motivation. Additional research is required to address the question that ‘How students’ intrinsic motivation can be increased?’

Critique In regard to research methodology:

At the first I guess it’s better to describe the motivation which it didn’t indicate clearly and also designate different type of performance in this case academic learning and learn how to assess the motivation while it didn’t indicate in original paper base of literature review:

Motivation:

It is incentive, enthusiasm, or interest that causes a specific action or certain behaviour. There are two main kinds of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is internal. It occurs when people are compelled to do something out of enjoyment, significance, or desire. Extrinsic motivation occurs when external factors compel the person to do something. A common place that we see the need to apply motivation is in the work place. In the work force, we can see motivation play a key role in leadership and management success. A person unable to grasp motivation and apply it will not become or stay a leader. It is crucial that anyone seeking to lead or motivate understand “How let to Hierarchy of Work Motivators.”

What all process theories have in common is an emphasis on the cognitive processes in determining his or her level of motivation. Equity theory assumes that one important cognitive process involves people looking around and observing what effort other people are putting into their work and what rewards follow them. This social comparison process is driven by our concern for justice and equity. Research by Adams (1965) and others confirms equity theory as one of the most useful frameworks for understanding work motivation.

The motivational force of a job can so be calculated if the expectancy, instrumentality and are known. The individual’s abilities, characters, role perceptions and opportunities reduce the motivational force.

In this project just focus is on motivation and wanted to know about the relationship between academic performance and motivation and just talk about Extrinsic and Intrinsic factor while the other mediator and moderator factor maybe totally devastate the relationship between the even those student although have a intrinsic motivation as in this paper in result part you see as a significant factor but due to such a factor it can’t go well and don’t change the performance as it was expected. I just want to review some of these articles about the other factors that can be helpful.

In cognitive-motivational process model (Vollmeyer, R. & Rheinberg, F. (1998). Motivationally Einflu¨sse auf Erwerb and Anwendung von Wissen in einem computersimulierten System. [Motivational influences on the acquisition and application of knowledge in a simulated system.] Zeitschrift fu¨r Pa¨dagogische Psychologie, 12, 11-23.) Motivational factors imagine that have an effect on performance via mediators.

Such a potential mediator is persistence. Also in this paper the researcher did research on fifty-one students learnt a complex dynamic system. They measured their initial motivation (mastery confidence, incompetence fear, interest and challenge), then a set of mediating variables during learning. Performance measures were knowledge acquisition and knowledge application.

In this paper it was shown a path-analysis showed that initial motivation influenced persistence and it have direct effect on performance and should take in consideration that sometimes highly persistent learners did not have higher mean final performance, despite acquiring more knowledge over trials. So performance is one of the possible mediator that in (Regina Vollmeyer *, Falko Rheinberg (2000) this paper it has discussed.

Also in another study we can see that (Bandura, 1991) combines motivation and cognition into a cognitive-motivational perspective. He defined motivation as a “multidimensional phenomenon indexed in terms of selection of pursuits from competing alternatives, intensity of effort, and persistence of exertion” (p. 158). For learning this means that motivation not only affects what people learn, but also the intensity and the duration of the learning activities. So as you can see in this study although motivation has considered as a multidimensional phenomenon, but the indexes is not according to this paper.

In another study, (Rheinberg, 1997, p. 14) defined motivation as something that “provides an impetus towards a goal for all current processes”. In doing so, motivation influences the way people learn. Vollmeyer and Rheinberg (1998) proposed a cognitive-motivational process model. The interaction between motivation and cognition is described in more detail by Schiefele and Rheinberg (1997). They argued that motivation can affect three aspects of learning:

(1) Persistence and frequency of learning activities.

(2) Mode of performed learning activities.

(3) Motivational and functional states of the learner during learning. These three aspects define the framework, within which we looked for variables that may mediate the effect initial motivation has on performance.

Also different type of learning is one of the issues that didn’t indicate in the main paper but in Schiefele and Rheinberg (1997) has completely indicated.

In confirming the relationship between motivation and performance but in different type in work place we can see :The motivational model holds that more opportunities to participate in decision making provide subordinates with greater intrinsic rewards from work (Conger & Kanungo, 1988; Thomas & Velthouse, 1990) and higher levels of psychological empowerment (Spreitzer, 1995), which may result in improved work performance.

In addition to, the other mediator factor between motivation and performance as a result of a meta-analysis conducted by Eby, Freeman, Rush, and Lance (1999) revealed that intrinsic motivation mediates the link between the participative management behaviour of supervisors and the organizational commitment of employees and their work performance.

(XU HUANG1, ET al.2010)

Furthermore there is some other papers that confirm the some other factors for increasing the motivation For instance Lumsden, (1994) analyzed students ‘involvement towards education and sources of their motivation. Marshal (1987) viewed students’ motivation as a force beneficial to the learner. Ames (1990) stated that motivation to learning is dependent on long-term, quality attachment in learning and pledge to the process of learning. Most motivation philosopher believes that motivation is involved in the performance of all learned responses and leaned behaviour will not occur unless it is energized.Bomia et al. (1997) has suggested student motivation as student keenness, need, desire and obligation to participate and be booming in the learning process.

Some other Critical Theory in Motivation and performance:

Effect of content theories of motivation:

There are some other theories in motivation and academic performance which is more related to organizational behaviour such as Maslow and ERG theory that in this part we want to elaborate more in terms of different needs of employee to get satisfy and increase their academic performance.

Seeing that we can see in order to motivate student in case of maximize their academic performance to attain higher grading we need to meet their basic needs at first due to Maslow and Alderfer ERG theories which belong to content theories of motivation as it is illustrated above.

Pygmalion effect on motivation and performance:

It is worth mentioning that student performance increases only if we can motivate them. Also another factor should be highlighted in this regard and that is theory of fulfilling forecast. This theory talks about Pygmalion effect. The Pygmalion consequence enables student to excel in response to the parent and their lecturer’s message that they are capable of success and expected to succeed. The Pygmalion effect can also undermine student performance when the subtle communication from the manager tells them the converse.

Supposing if a student is inexpert, he leaves scars on the careers, cuts deeply into their self-esteem and distorts their image of himself/herself as human being. But if he/she is expert and has high expectations of his/her subordinates, their self-assurance will grow, their capabilities will develop and their efficiency will be high.

If the lecturer actually believes that every student has the ability to make a positive contribution at his/her studies, the telegraphing of that message, either consciously or automatically, will positively have an effect on academic performance.

In regard to discussion part:

While in the discussion part all the alternative except the intrinsic factors reject we review the literature about Motivational factors and academic learning:

When a learner approaches a learning task, the literature suggests that several motivational factors are relevant and can be measured: (Regina Vollmeyer *, Falko Rheinberg, 2000).

1. Learners can vary in their certainty that they will succeed in understanding the task. This factor we will call mastery confidence (similar concepts have been proposed: e.g., subjective probability of success and self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977).

2. Learners can differ in their anxiety about failing in the task. This factor we will call incompetence fear (a similar concept is Atkinson’s fear of failure, however, for him this concept is measured as a trait whereas we assess a person’s actual state); (Regina Vollmeyer *, Falko Rheinberg, 2000).

3. Learners may vary in the degree to which they perceive this task as a challenge. Perceiving the task as a challenge requires a personal achievement standard for this task against which to test task performance.

4. The task may or may not evoke the learner’s interest. All these motivational factors are said to affect learning; however, it has not been clearly shown how. In accordance with our cognitive-motivational process model (Vollmeyer & Rheinberg, 1998), we investigated the assumption that these four motivational factors influence learning via the following three mediators:

The motivational state during learning,

The systematicity of learners’ strategies

The number of learning rounds the learners deliberately chooses to spend improving their knowledge (persistence). (Regina Vollmeyer *, Falko Rheinberg, 2000).

In regard to conclusion and recommendation

SUMMERY:

The aim of this assignment was to review a peer reviewed journal article that is research based, and is representative of one of the research methodologies we discussed in class (distribute the questionnaire for assessing the just two concept motivation and academic performance. The format of the article has the appearance of a dissertation because it has many of the same components. It starts with an abstract that discusses the main points of the research and the results. After reading the article, I found that the abstract failed to mention the other reasons that affect the performance except motivation of student that the research was based on.

The research methodology used in this study was surveys analyzed in a quantitative design. More particularly, only one survey instruments was introduced in the article, and only it was used. It was a questionnaire which was designed and developed by Neil (2004) measure student’s motivation and it was called “The University Student Motivation and Satisfaction Questionnaire version 2” (TUSMSQ2).It was an instrument contains 30-items. The questions measure both Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation of students and one the problem is that variable which was analysed in this paper just focus on internal and external feature of motivation.