2.2.

The effects of motivation on students’ academic performance

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- A student who is intrinsically motivated undertakes an activity “for its own sake, for the
enjoyment it provides, the learning it permits, or the feelings of accomplishment it evokes”
(Lepper, 1988).

- An extrinsically motivated student performs “in order to obtain some reward or activity itself”,
such as grades, stickers or teacher approval (Lepper, 1988).

- J. Condry and J. Chambers (1978) found that when students were confronted with complex
intellectual tasks, those with an intrinsic orientation used more logical information-gathering
and decision-making strategies than did students who were extrinsically oriented.

- Students with an intrinsic orientation also tend to prefer tasks that are moderately challenging,
whereas extrinsically oriented students gravitate towards tasks that are low in degree or
difficulty. Extrinsically oriented students are inclined to put forth the minimal amount of effort
necessary to get the maximal reward (Lepper, 1988).

- A student is intrinsically motivated when he or she is motivated from within: intrinsically

motivated students keenly engage themselves in learning out of oddity, interest, or enjoyment,
or in order to achieve their own scholarly and personal goals (Afzal et al., 2010).

- Dev, (1997) viewed that extrinsically motivated students engage in leaning purely for attaining
a reward or for avoiding some punishment.

- Students with intrinsic motivation are more enthusiastic, self-driven, challenging and feel
pleasure in their studies with extrinsic motivation try to drag themselves with academic
assignments, feel compelled to learn, and always put minimal efforts to achieve maximum
appreciations. Intrinsically motivated, students tend to utilize strategies that require more effort
and that allow them to process information more intensely (Afzal et al., 2010).

- Brooks et al., (1998) states that to motivate students extrinsically, students should be publicly
recognized for their academic achievements; which may be done through giving out stickers,
candy, and other rewards; and taking away privileges, such as recess, on the basis of students’
poor academic performance.

- In the essay, “What factors influence the development of students’ motivation?”, Lumsden
and Linda S. discuss how children’s home environment shapes the initial constellation of
attitudes they develop toward learning. When parents nurture their children's natural curiosity
about the world by welcoming their questions, encouraging exploration, and introducing them
to resources that can expand their world, they send the message to their children that learning
is useful and often fun and rewarding. When children are raised in a home that fosters a sense
of self-esteem, competence, autonomy, and self-efficacy, they will be more willing to accept the
risks inherent in learning. In contrast, when children do not see themselves as fundamentally
competent and capable, their freedom to engage in challenging academic activities and their
ability to tolerate and cope with failure are significantly reduced.

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- Several studies have discovered that students exhibiting higher academic intrinsic or
autonomous motivation have a tendency to be more competent in school, have more positive
perceptions of their academic competency, lower level of perceived stress, show better learning
outcomes, and more persistence; as a result, they evidence a significantly greater academic
achievement (Gottfried et al., 2005; Baker, 2004; Lin, McKeachie, & Kim, 2003; Ratelle, Larose,
Guay, & Senecal, 2005; Vallerand & Bissonnette, 1992). These studies also showed that students
who lacked motivation experienced more psychological distress while studying and were more
likely to drop out of college.

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- Research has also revealed that students who are conscientious and open to new experiences
tend to be more intrinsically motivated while those students who are disagreeable tend to be
less motivated (Clark & Schroth, 2010; Komarraju, Karau, & Schmeck, 2009). Additionally,
college students who have higher self-efficacy (Hsieh & Schallert, 2008) or have more optimistic
academic expectancy (Solberg Nes, Evans, & Segerstrom, 2009) tend to be more highly
motivated while studying than are students with lower self-efficacy and more pessimistic
expectancy.
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- There are many researches on motivation in the literature. When the results of these studies
are examined, it was found that motivation has a significant impact on students’ educational
achievements (Lai, 2011; Sakač, 2008; Velki, 2011); extrinsic motivation factors do not have high
values for learning motivation and academic achievement (Benabou & Tirole ,2003; Velki, 2011);
there is a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and students’ learning
achievements and self-efficacy perceptions (Ames, 1992; Gotfried, 1990; Pokay & Blumenfeld,
1990); there is a positive and meaningful relationship between students and unsuccessful
students (Vanderstoep et al., 1996); students with extrinsic motivation only expect awards and
high grades (Lei, 2010); autonomous academic motivation positively determines good working
strategies and greater working effort (Kusurkar et al., 2013) and the results of the study also
showed that perceived academic competence and perceived academic self-determination
positively influenced autonomous academic motivation (Fortier et al., 1995).

- Factors such as a good relationship between teach and student, transmission of messages
clearly, group work, offering options, planning attractive and interesting learning activities,
providing important and valuable learnings for the students, support and encourage the
motivation and learning of the students (Saeed & Zyngier, 2012).

- Pintrich and Schunk (2002) also found that motivation influences learning and performance
and the students’ learning situations affect their motivations. Tella (2007) describes this as an
important aspect of effective learning for motivating students. He also emphasizes that a
satisfactory learning cannot occur in the absence of the sufficient motivation. As it is considered
that the motivational beliefs of the students and the learning strategies are related to the
participation in the learning, it can be said that the motivated students will participate more
effectively in the learning process.

- There are researches that supports the results that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is highly
positively related to academic motivation (Afzal et al., 2010; Peklaj & Levpušček, 2006).
Goldberg and Cornell (1998) and Mnyandu (2001) found a significant positive relationship
between intrinsic motivation and achievement and learner performance. Research results have
also been found in the literature that there is a positive relationship between academic
achievement and intrinsic motivation (Corpus et al., 2009; Law et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2010).
Higher successes of students with intrinsic motivation can be explained by having lower levels of
anxiety and having higher perceptions of competence. Considering that student motivation is a
prerequisite for academic performance (Masitsa, 2008), it can be said that this result is also
important for students’ academic performance. Ayub (2010) states that intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation affect the achievements and goals of the students. Bear et al. (2017) emphasize that
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation affect the performances of the students. Ning and Downing
(2010) and Afzal et al. (2010) found a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and
academic performance. Robbins et al. (2004) found a similar result. In the relevant study, it was
concluded that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were a significant predictor of GPA (grade point
average) of the students. Turner et al. (2009) concluded in another study that increase self-
efficacy and intrinsic motivation scores were positively associated with academic performance.

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- From these findings we conclude that students who are intrinsically motivated perform much
better academically than students who are extrinsically motivated. Extrinsically motivated
students might do a good job or perform well to achieve a certain reward, but it does not keep
them motivated for long-term and overall performance does not change or is consistent. They
might perform very well in one semester or quiz to achieve a certain reward or goal and then
next semester might show poor performance because the reward did not exist anymore. Their
performance does not remain constant as a result. Students who are intrinsically motivated take
up tasks or perform well academically for their own interest and for their own learning. These
kinds of students are truly interested in learning and in achieving high goals. This shows in their
overall consistent performance (Afzal et al., 2010)

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- Students motivated intrinsically performs much better and consistent. But extrinsically
students have no consistency, they might perform well sometime for a shorter period of time to
get some sort of reward or something but continually, they don’t perform well.

2.3. Strategies to improve student motivation

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- Results showed that although enrolling students into a major program of their own choice is
important for students’ initial intrinsic learning motivation, major choice alone cannot prevent
the decline in students’ autonomous learning motivation over the years of college. This finding
indicates that even if the initial major choice was made by the student, it may turn out to be a
poor decision for some students, which may then make it difficult for the students to maintain
interest in the subject area. Thus, we suggest that universities should provide students with
opportunities to reexamine and, if desired, change their major after one or two years of college
study in an effort to maintain students’ intrinsic learning motivation over the years in college
(Pan & Gauvain, 2012).

2.3. Strategies to improve student motivation

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- Results showed that although enrolling students into a major program of their own choice is
important for students’ initial autonomous learning motivation, major choice alone cannot
prevent the decline in students’ autonomous learning motivation over the years of college. This
finding indicates that even if the initial major choice was made by the student, it may turn out
to be a poor decision for some students, which may then make it difficult for the students to
maintain interest in the subject area. Thus, we suggest that universities in China should provide
students with opportunities to reexamine and, if desired, change their major after one or two
years of college study in an effort to maintain students’ intrinsic learning motivation over the
years in college (Pan & Gauvain, 2012).

Peer’s influence

- During adolescence, many students are particularly concerned with their peer relationships
(Ber