Students' Motivation to learn Science and their Achievement in Science: How much it matters?

There is a strong felt need for motivated high school students to enter the postsecondary science stream. Students' science motivation have been found to decline as they move from post secondary years to higher education. To enroll students to various science courses we must understand what motivates them. The purpose of the present study was to determine how secondary school students conceptualized their motivation to learn science using the Science Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ II) as a survey instrument. The students' achievement in science course was measured through their term end board results of class X. The sample of students comprised of 1134(532 boys and 602 girls) secondary school going children of Aizawl district of Mizoram, India. All students were studying in schools affiliated to the Mizoram Board of School Education (MBSE). The findings of the study revealed that students were found to have above moderate level of science motivation and the mean science score of highly motivated group was found to be maximum indicating a favourable trait of science motivation within the students. Career motivation and grade motivation were found to be the strong motivational constructs by most of the students whereas students were least motivated by self-determination construct. Through differential analysis it was revealed that there exists a significant difference in the science motivation level of the high and low science achievers on all its five constructs with high achievers being more science motivated. Also significant difference exists in science motivational level in relation to gender with boys being more science motivated, however girls had higher mean motivation level for grade motivation. Also, no significant difference exists within the high and low achieving groups with regard to gender. This suggests that science motivation within secondary students can positively contribute to the achievement in science both in present and for choice of future career in science.