The Impact of Self-Determination on Academic Motivation of Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists in Continuing Higher Education in Germany

Abstract

This study aims to examine the academic motivation of students in two therapeutic health professions along with their individual attitudes toward professional training and continuing higher education in Germany. The self-determination theory was taken as a theoretical basis, and the intercultural validated German version of the original French “Échelle de Motivation Dans Les Études–Études Avancées” (EME) was used to show that occupational therapists and physiotherapists attending courses of continuing higher education are motivated by a specific complex of intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors. In the sense of self-determination theory, older students already in employment feature higher autonomous motivation than younger, not yet employed students. The education of occupational therapists and physiotherapists in North America is compared with the special features of the German setting as a stimulus for further research.