Moderating the Relationship Between Student’s Gender and Science Motivation

Abstract

Researchers are interested in students’ motivation to learn science as it impacts other aspects of students’ learning. One aspect of this motivation is the gender issue, how it impacts student’s motivation and how it is mediated and moderated by other educational variables. The issue of gender impact on motivation has been studied for more than two decades, which makes the present research interested in studying how background variables as student’s ability, school level and teacher’s gender moderate the relationship between student’s gender and the different components of science motivation. The research design is that of moderation design through multiple regression. The sampling was a cluster sampling. The instrument used was the social-cognitive motivation questionnaire, and data analysis was done using regression and moderation analysis in SPSS 25 Statistical Package. Eight hundred, thirty-seven students, from the primary, middle and secondary schools participated in the research. The research results indicated that each of the three variables moderated between student’s gender and part of the components of science motivation. The research concludes that the science teaching methods need to be diverse to fit both male and female science students, which could assist the learning of science in the secondary school from the two genders. Moreover, utilizing different teaching methods would support all ability -level students. In addition, holding workshops for teachers that discuss the gender issue in science education can help address this issue.