MOTIVATIONAL ORIENTATIONS IN PHYSICS LEARNING: A SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY APPROACH

The first objective of the present study was to test the factorial validity of the inventory designed to measure students’ motivation to study physics in school. Based on self-determination theory (SDT), it was hypothesised that the four factors of External Regulation, Introjected Regulation, Identi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Baltic science education Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 379 - 392
Main Authors Byman, Reijo, Lavonen, Jari, Juuti, Kalle, Meisalo, Veijo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Šiauliai Scientia Socialis, Ltd 01.01.2012
Scientia Socialis, UAB
Scientia Socialis Ltd
Subjects
Education
Motivation
Pedagogy
Physics
Validation studies
selfdetermination theory
motivational orientations
science learning
multilevel confirmatory factor analysis
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Summary:The first objective of the present study was to test the factorial validity of the inventory designed to measure students’ motivation to study physics in school. Based on self-determination theory (SDT), it was hypothesised that the four factors of External Regulation, Introjected Regulation, Identified Regulation and Intrinsic Motivation account for the covariances among the items of the inventory. It was also expected that gender moderates the factorial validity of the inventory. A sample of 3626 Finnish comprehensive school students was used. A multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MLCFA) was used to investigate the fit of the hypothesised four-factor model. The second objective of the present study was to investigate different educational correlates of the four motivation factors. Girls had a statistically higher mean score than did boys for all four factors. Otherwise only minor gender differences were found. Implications for physics teaching are discussed.
ISSN:1648-3898
2538-7138
DOI:10.33225/jbse/12.11.379