WHAT AFFECT HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS' CHEMISTRY LEARNING?

Abstract

Students' motivation depends on their interest in the course, efficacy for performing in the course, their intrinsic or extrinsic goal orientations for the course; these kind various variables affect students' motivation to learn the course. Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), developed by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie (1991), aims to measure students' motivational orientations and their use of different learning strategies. In this study only motivation section, a 31-item, was used to measure students' goals, value beliefs, efficacy, and their test anxiety for chemistry course. The purpose of this study was to determine what motivational dimensions affect students' chemistry learning. In order to determine student motivation to learn chemistry MSLQ was administered to 115 high school students (53.9 % female and 46.1% male students). The students' chemistry grade was positive statistically significant correlated with merely three out of six dimensions, which are intrinsic goal orientation, task value and self-efficacy. Investigating the nature of student motivation can help teachers and instructors to understand student motivation within a given course since student motivation affect students learning strategies and their course grades.