INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN

SCIENCE: A CORRELATIONAL STUDY

A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED TO ZAMBOANGUITA SCIENCE HIGH

SCHOOL

by

Bandigas, Josh Harvey C.

Ellima, Jannah L.
Ellima, Kate
Peñaranda, Gwyneth K.
Saga, Georgie M.

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SUBJECT

RESEARCH 10

February, 2020

ZAMBOANGUITA SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL

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INTRODUCTION

There have been increasing problems regarding the academic performance of students

around the world. Various factors have been identified for poor academic achievement among

students and these include poor study habit, laziness, ineffective classroom instructions, and

inadequate provision of instructional material and lack of motivation (Akpan, 2000 as cited in

Unamba, 2018). All these factors are related to intrinsic motivation.

In psychology, intrinsic motivation distinguishes between internal and external rewards.

In other words, the motivation to engage in a behavior arises from within the individual because

it is naturally satisfying to you (verywellmind.com). It is also the inner force that affects the

motivation of the student to actively engage in tasks and activities.

It has been proven in Eugene Chukwuemeka Unamba’s study entitled “Influence of

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation on Pupils Academic Performance in Mathematics” that

intrinsically motivated students perform more effectively and independently and prefers to

accomplish challenging tasks.

But the question is, does high intrinsic motivation and activeness directly affect the

academic performance of the students?

Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various

academic subjects (ballotpedia.com). The most common problem of students these days is

maintaining their grades without knowing what factors really affect their academic performance.

Intrinsic motivation can either have a positive, negative or have no relation at all with

their grades. In other words, the researchers conducted this kind of study to further study about

the relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic performance.

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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study aims to determine the kind of relationship and its strength between intrinsic

motivation and academic performance in Science.

Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the strength of the relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic

performance?

2. How does intrinsic motivation affect the academic performance of a student?

3. Do students have high grades in Science when they are highly motivated intrinsically?

4. Do students have low grades in Science when they are not intrinsically motivated?

5. Is there a positive/negative relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic

performance?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is necessary to be conducted since it can provide helpful information to

people, specifically to the:

Students because it empowers the students with a feeling of conscious choice, can set a

greater goal, and beef up self-esteem.

Teachers because they develop their capabilities as a teacher by controlling and testing

their own experiences. It gives teachers a significant opportunity and produces many challenges.

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 Future researchers because they can still further enhance and add more knowledge, to

this existing study, specifically answering the question why intrinsic motivation has this this type

of correlation with the academic performance of students.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is based on the competent and self-determination that is needed by a

human in relation to the environment. Intrinsic motivation is innate. All humans are born with

the feeling of competence and self-determining that is basic and undifferentiated. Humans are

active organisms that needs to have a continual interaction with the environment,and the basic

intrinsic need provides much of the motivation for this interaction. As a child interacts with

his/her environment,the basic undifferentiated need for competence and self-determination

begins to differentiate into specific motives. Therefore, adults may be high-need achievers,or

self-actualizers,or intellectuals. These needs are all specific intrinsic motives which develop out

of the basic intrinsic need as a result of the person's interaction with his environment. According

to Piaget, intrinsically motivated organisms encounter activities which involves assimilation and

accomodation. An existing schema, can handle moderately discrepant input, but it necessitates

some adaptation to the organism. It is challenging. Piaget's findings indicate that when a child

has a moderate discrepancy from existing structures, a situation will be intrinsically interesting

for these child. Overly discrepant inputs are not assimilable; nondiscrepant inputs are completely

assimilable and therefore are not intrinsically interesting. Organisms are intrinsically motivated

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to seek situation which provide a challenge that is optimal for their abilities. They then set about

conquering that challenge (Deci, 2000).

Academic performance

Since research on academic achievement began to emerge as a field in the 1960s, it has

guided educational policies on admissions and to prevent dropout of the students. Although

much of the literature has focused on higher education, the knowledge that is gathered on

behavioral phenomena observed in colleges and universities can potentially help and guide

research on student behavior in primary and secondary schools. A number of behavioral patterns

have been connected to academic performance, such as time allocation , active social ties , sleep

duration and sleep quality , or participation in sport activity . Most of the existing studies,

however, suffer from biases and limitations often associated with surveys and self-reports ,

particularly when measuring social networks. Previous studies have documented the importance

of personality traits, class attendance, and social network structure. Because most of these

analyses were based on a single behavioral aspect and/or small sample sizes, there is currently no

quantification of the interplay of these factors. Only a few prior studies have investigated the

impact of social media activity on academic performance, despite the growing availability of

such data and undisputed presence of these media in our daily lives. The majority of existing

studies found a decrease in academic performance with increasing time spent on social media.

However, not all studies confirm this result. In some studies, time spent on social media was

found to be unrelated to academic performance or even a had positive effect on performance

(Kassarnig, 2018).

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Individual behavior

Through a variety of methods, a large number of studies have studied and investigated

the factors that affects and determine academic performance of the students. Vandamme et al.

analyzed a broad range of individual characteristics concerning personal history, behavior, and

perception. The StudentLife study used smartphones to study the individual behavior of the

students and to collect data on student activity, social behavior, personality, and mental health.

Both research groups observed correlations between performance and all feature categories,

building a case that factors influencing academic performance are not limited to a single aspect

of an individual’s life. Nghe et al.  reframed the problem as a prediction task: using data to

predict performance in a population of undergraduate and postgraduate students at two different

institutions. Using a wide range of features, they predicted GPA after third year with high

accuracy. One of the features included GPA after the second year; in this work they show that

even without the knowledge of past achievements it is possible to explain the students’

performance levels to a large extent. Furthermore, prior research has emphasized the positive

influence of attending classes. The study by Crede et al.  concludes that attendance is the most

accurate known predictor of academic performance. Cao et al. analyzed behavioral data from the

digital records of nearly 19,000 students’ smart cards, such as entering and leaving the library,

having a meal in the cafeteria, or taking a shower in the dormitory. They conclude that the

students’ orderness (regularity of daily activities) is a strong predictor of academic performance.

Their approach shares some similarities with, but the key difference is that they have

investigated not only individual behavior but also the students’ social environment (Kassarnig,

2018).

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Individual traits

A large body of research at the intersection of psychology and education investigated the

relationship between personality and performance, as pioneered by.There have been studies that

personality traits were found to be linked to academic success: Among the dimensions of the

well-studied Big-Five Inventory Conscientiousness (positive) and Neuroticism (negative)

displayed the strongest correlation with academic performance . The other three dimensions

showed only very weak or no correlation. Furthermore, the characteristics self esteem ,

satisfaction with life , and positive affect schedule were also found to be positively correlated,

while stress , depression , and locus of control  showed a negative effect on academic

achievements. There is a growing interest in the relationship between social interactions

(especially online social interactions) and academic performance. In the relevant literature there

exist two dominant approaches. The first approach focuses on the relation between own

performance and that of peers, based on a hypothesis of similarity in peer achievement. The

similarity between pairs of individuals connected via social ties are attributed to various aspects:

selection into friendships by similarity (i.e., homophily); influence by social peers (also know as

peer effect); and correlated shocks (e.g., being exposed to the same teacher). The issue of

separating these effects is inherently difficult. The second approach emphasizes the positive

influence of having a central position in the social network between students. The majority of

results in the existing research which measure social networks are, however, based on self-

reports and therefore subject to various biases  that are in many ways mitigated by using

smartphones to measure the social network (Kassarnig, 2018).

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SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This study is conducted with the primary objective of determining the correlation

between intrinsic motivation and the academic performance of the students specifically the grade

9 students of Zamboanguita Science High School.

The respondents of this study are 30 grade 9 students, wherein the researchers will

conduct a survey for them specifically the subject Science, to help them determine if intrinsic

motivation has any significant relationship with their academic performance. This study is

considered long term for it will take two to three months.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

For the purpose of understanding unfamiliar terms used in the study, it is very important

to read the following definitions:

“Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by internal rewards. In other words,

the motivation to engage in a behavior arises from within the individual because it is naturally

satisfying to you” (Cherry, 2019).

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 “Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various

academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using

classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests” (ballotpedia.org).

“Individual behavior can be defined as a mix of responses to external and internal stimuli.

It is the way a person reacts in different situations and the way someone expresses different

emotions like anger, happiness, love, etc” (tutorialspoint.com).

“Individual Trait Theory is often closely related to a person’s intelligence quotient.  This

part of trait theory focuses on the relationship between learning, intelligence, and personality” 

(Siegel, 2010).

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

Descriptive –survey method involve larger audiences and or often conducted on more

specific topics. This method is appropriate for this study because it seeks to describe the

characteristics or behavior of an audience and questionnaires will be used in gathering data.

Research Locale

The conduct of the study will be done in Zamboanguita Science High School, specifically

in buildings 4 and 6, room 2.

Sample or the Respondent

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 The respondents of this study are 30 randomly selected grade 9 students of Zamboanguita

Science High School.

Research Instrument

Survey questionnaires are the instruments that are used in the conduct of this study. The

researchers made survey questionnaires wherein 15 positive and 15 negative questions

determining the respondents’ intrinsic motivation in the subject Science will be answered. Five

columns were made; strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with

corresponding scores for data to be accurately collected. Another set of questions were also

incorporated in the questionnaires for the academic performance of the respondents in the 1st and

2nd quarters in the subject Science.

Data Collection Procedure

Thirty survey questionnaires will be equally distributed to be answered by 15 grade 9

students in each section and to be collected then analyzed after. All the scores are added

depending on what column the respondents put a check mark in. The scores are then computed

and are converted into percentage scores which are made as basis for the motivation level of the

students, the same procedure is done to the data collected on the academic performance of the

students.

Data Analysis Procedure

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 The statistical tool that will be used to analyze the data is Pearson r coefficient. This

statistical tool measures the statistical relationship, or association between two continuous

variables. After calculating for the value of r using Pearson’s formula, a correlation coefficient

interpretation guideline is then used for the basis of the strength of the relation of the two

variables.

FINDINGS

This chapter presents and analyzes data that answers the problems of the study. The

interpretation of the data will be shown below each table.

Table 1. Survey Results

Respondents Score Motivation Level (based on Grades Rating

the percentage score)

1 102 moderate motivation 95 and excellent

above

2 96 moderate motivation 80-84 average

3 99 moderate motivation 80-84 average

4 124 high motivation 85-89 above

average

5 120 high motivation 85-89 above

average

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 6 98 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

7 112 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

8 96 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

9 94 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

10 92 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

11 110 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

12 90 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

13 89 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

14 74 low motivation 85-89 above

average

15 106 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

16 101 moderate motivation 85-89 above

average

17 99 moderate motivation 85-89 above

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 average

18 129 high motivation 90-94 very high

19 139 high motivation 90-94 very high

20 117 high motivation 90-94 very high

21 141 high motivation 90-94 very high

22 115 high motivation 90-94 very high

23 111 moderate motivation 90-94 very high

24 106 moderate motivation 90-94 very high

25 99 moderate motivation 90-94 very high

26 122 high motivation 95 and excellent

above

27 97 moderate motivation 95 and excellent

above

28 116 high motivation 95 and excellent

above

29 110 moderate motivation 95 and excellent

above

30 110 moderate motivation 95 and excellent

above

Table 1 shows the score, motivation level, grades, and academic performance rating of

each student respondent. The data shown in this table will be interpreted and analyzed in the

following tables.

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Table 2. Intrinsic Motivation Level of Students in Science

Intrinsic Motivation (score) Number of students

High (114-150) 9

Moderate (77-113) 20

Low (39-76) 1

Total 30

Table 2 shows the intrinsic motivation level of 30 students in the subject Science. It shows

that out of the 30 student respondents, 30% were highly motivated, 67% were moderately

motivated and 3% of the respondents had low motivation. A total of 97% had a moderately high

motivation in the subject Science which is equivalent to 29 students. It shows that majority or

almost 100% of the respondent population is intrinsically motivated in the subject Science.

Table 3: Academic Performance of Students in Science

Grades Students

95 and above (excellent) 6

90 – 94 (very high) 8

85 – 89 (above average) 14

80 – 84 (average) 2

Below 80 (below average) 0

Total 30

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 Table 3 shows the academic performance of the 30 students in the subject Science.

According to the data, out of 30 student respondents, 20% had excellent grades (95 and above),

27% had very high grades (90-94), 47% had above average grades (85-89), 6% had average

grades (80-84) and no students had grades below 80. A total of 94% had above average grades

which is equivalent to 28 students out of 30.

Table 4. Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient

(x) (y) (x - x̅) (y - ȳ) (x -  x̅)(y -  ȳ) (x - x̅)² (y - ȳ)²

96 80 – 84 -11.13 -7.6 84.59 123.88 57.76
99 80 - 84 -8.13 -7.6 61.79 66.10 57.76
124 85 - 89 16.87 -2.6 -43.86 284.60 6.76
120 85 - 89 12.87 -2.6 -33.46 165.64 6.76
98 85 - 89 -9.13 -2.6 23.74 83.36 6.76
112 85 - 89 4.87 -2.6 -12.66 23.72 6.76
96 85 - 89 -11.13 -2.6 28.94 123.88 6.76
92 85 - 89 -15.13 -2.6 39.34 228.92 6.76
94 85 - 89 -13.13 -2.6 34.14 172.40 6.76
90 85 - 89 -17.13 -2.6 44.54 293.44 6.76
110 85 - 89 2.87 -2.6 -7.46 8.24 6.76
74 85 - 89 -33.13 -2.6 86.14 1,097.60 6.76
89 85 - 89 -18.13 -2.6 47.14 328.70 6.76
106 85 - 89 -1.13 -2.6 2.94 1.28 6.76
129 90 - 94 21.87 2.4 52.49 478.30 5.76
99 85 - 89 -8.13 -2.6 21.14 66.10 6.76
117 90 - 94 9.87 2.4 23.69 97.42 5.76
139 90 - 94 31.87 2.4 76.49 1,015.70 5.76
115 90 - 94 7.87 2.4 18.89 61.94 5.76
141 90 - 94 33.87 2.4 81.29 1,147.18 5.76
106 90 - 94 -1.13 2.4 -2.71 1.28 5.76
111 90 - 94 3.87 2.4 9.29 14.98 5.76
122 95 and above 14.87 5.4 80.30 221.12 29.16
99 90 - 94 -8.13 2.4 -19.51 66.10 5.76
116 95 and above 8.87 5.4 47.90 78.68 29.16
97 95 and above -10.13 5.4 -54.70 102.62 29.16
110 95 and above 2.87 5.4 15.50 8.24 29.16

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 101 85 - 89 -6.13 -2.6 15.94 37.58 6.76
110 95 and above 2.87 5.4 15.50 8.24 29.16
102 95 and above -5.13 5.4 -27.70 36.32 29.16
x̅= 107.13 ȳ= 89.6 Σ= 709.66 Σ= 6,433.56 Σ= 431.2

Table 4 shows all the values needed that are to be substituted to the formula to find r. The

first column contains all the values of x which shows all the motivation scores of each

respondent with the average score 107.13. The second column contains all the grades of each

student in the subjects Science with the average score 89.6. After substituting all the needed

values in the formula which is r = Σ (x-x̅) (y-ȳ)/ √Σ (x-x̅)²  √(y-ȳ)², it then results to 0.426. Since

the value of r is positive, so is the correlation between x and y.

Image 1. Correlation Coefficient Interpretation Guide

Image 1 shows the Interpretation Guide which will be used as a basis in determing the

strength of correlation between the motivation level (x) and the academic performance (y) of the

student respondents in the subject Science. Since r = 0.426, then the two variables have a

moderately strong correlation which can be found on the fourth bullet.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results show that out of 30 student respondents, 97% were motivated in the subject

Science and 94% of the respondents had above average grades. Harter (2000) explained that

intrinsic motivation is the true drive in human nature, which drives individuals to search for and

to face new challenges. This explains the increase of academic performance as motivation level

increases. From that data alone, it is clear that both variables are increasing at the same time, and

since this is a correlational study, a proper statistical tool used for finding the strength of the

relationship between the two variables is used by the researchers. The findings show a positive

value, r = 0.426 which also means there is a positive correlation between motivation level (x) and

academic performance (y). In other words, both variables increase at the same time. According

to the correlation coefficient interpretation guide, x and y has a moderately strong correlation

with each other.

But the question is, does high intrinsic motivation directly influence the academic

performance of the students? We can safely say that if a person is highly motivated intrinsically,

an individual who searches for and is interested in facing new challenges, then the academic

performance will be relatively high. Motivation has been shown to positively influence study

strategy, academic performance, adjustment and well-being in students in domains of education

(Vansteenkiste et al. 2005). A study by Goodman et al. 2011, also says that intrinsic motivation

is the strongest predictor of academic performance. This further proves that x is strongly

correlated to y. Therefore, the intrinsic motivation (x) influences and is positively correlated to

the academic performance (y) of the students.

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CONCLUSION

In this study, there is a positive and a moderately strong relationship between intrinsic

motivation and academic achievement. Both variables increase at the same time. Intrinsic

motivation does have a significant effect to the academic performance of students. Above all,

concerning the high grade of interest in task, it is safe to say that learners who believe that tasks

are worthy and valuable are more concerned with cognitive activities and use more cognitive and

monitoring strategies and have basically more academic achievement. Also, once learners

inherently value learning, this will have positive effect on self-discipline and self-efficacy.

RECOMMENDATION

The relationship of intrinsic motivation to the academic performance of students in other

subjects may also be studied to further know and to test if the subject can affect the relationship.

Further studies can also be done to find out if the other type of motivation, extrinsic motivation,

can also affect the academic performance of students.

It is recommended that planning strategies for increasing motivation and academic

achievement be placed at top priority along with continuing education, which can be addressed

by officials and educationalists.

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Importance of Motivation in Learning (657 Words). (2013, December 11). Retrieved from

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