Comparing the Academic Motivation among Ethnic Majority and Minority Malaysian Students and Its Relation to Academic Self-Efficacy

Abstract

The interest of this study is driven by literature on ethnic minorities’ issues on the occurrence of lower academic performance that have been reported in various educational sectors. Past research have shown that academic motivation is a component that is positively related to academic self-efficacy. In Malaysia, ethnic disparity and polarization are becoming an emerging phenomenon among its students Therefore, this study wishes to begin an investigative step to conduct a comparison of academic motivation between the ethnic majority and minority students, and its relationship to academic self-efficacy. This primary aim of this research is to identify the level, differences and relationship between academic motivation and academic self-efficacy of students from ethnic majority and minority in Malaysia. This study was conducted at a local public university located in Selangor, Malaysia involving a total of 133 respondents from various faculties. A self-administered questionnaire via Google Form was used as a medium for data collection process. Academic motivation subscale was derived from Academic Motivation Scale (AMS-C 28) and Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASE) to measure the academic motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and academic self-efficacy respectively. Data was analyzed using both univariate and bivariate analysis. The result showed that both groups reported to have higher level of academic motivation, intrinsic motivation and moderate level of extrinsic level. There is no significant difference between academic motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and academic self- efficacy among the two ethnics. However, there is significant relationship between academic motivation and academic self-efficacy. The research concluded that the first objective and third objective was achieved but not the second objective on the differences due to limited sample. Therefore, future recommendation includes expanding the sample size to a more wider and inclusive population across higher education institutions in Malaysia.