Abstract
The aim of the present two-stage study was two-fold: first, to identify motivational themes thought of byuniversity students themselves as to what causes their very high motivational learning states, and also their verylow motivational states; and second, to determine the underlying dimensions affecting both of these states.Undergraduate students studying at a major government university in Jordan were used in this study. All of thesubjects were from different colleges and were enrolled in an elective university course. 534 subjects were usedin stage one of the study, and 304 other students were used in stage two.A modified version of the Critical Incidents Technique was employed to elicit various themes considered byuniversity students as causes of states of very high and very low motivation to study. It was assumed that all thatuniversity students think of as learning-encouraging or learning-discouraging represents very high and very lowlearning motivational themes. Content analysis quantification was carried out in order to determine a universitystudents' motivational themes list.Using the Principal Component Analysis statistical technique to cluster-analyze the 14 very high motivationalstate themes resulted in four motivational dimensions. These dimensions are as follows: 1) self-determination, 2)positive academic attitudes, 3) need for social respect, 4) self-monitoring.Cluster analysis of the 10 very low motivational state themes produced three dimensions, which are as follows: 1)negative personal feelings and circumstances, 2) learned helplessness, 3) negative self-monitoring.
Highlights
The purpose of this study was to investigate what motivates university students in Jordan to study very hard or not to study hard at all, in their efforts to master those learning objectives specified by their university educational plan.Though psychologists have studied motivation in general intensively, Jacobs & Newstead (2000) stated that "little is known about what motivates university students: why they embark on their studies in the first place"
The 14 high motivational themes produced 4 main high motivational dimensions which accounted for 51.6% of the variance in the data, with eigen values of 1 or more
The second main high motivational dimension with loadings above 0.558 on themes H12, H5, and H6 accounted for 10.92% of the data variance
Summary
Though psychologists have studied motivation in general intensively, Jacobs & Newstead (2000) stated that "little is known about what motivates university students: why they embark on their studies in the first place". Lavery (1999) noticed that very little research focused on the academic motivation of students in a multicultural university setting. A major part of the present body of knowledge concerning university students' motivation dealt with this important issue in a fragmented way: researchers studied only certain aspects of this complex situation. Jacobs et al (2000) employed the concepts of knowledge, skills, and experience (developed by Radford and Holdstick, 1993) to study university students' motivational preferences. Entwistle and Entwistle (1991) showed that final year university students were more interested in reproducing motivation orientation rather than meaning orientation Their study found that there was a specific structure to the topics that motivate students, that their motivation was affected by their year of study at university, and that female students were more highly motivated than males. Biggs (1987) used different categories to portray students' motivational preferences: surface, deep, and achieving. Entwistle and Entwistle (1991) showed that final year university students were more interested in reproducing motivation orientation rather than meaning orientation
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