The relationships between academic motivation and academic performance of first-year chemical engineering students

Academic motivation is linked to benefits in terms of learning effectiveness. This study investigated motivation of pursuing an engineering degree among first year chemical process engineering students. Forty-six students (n=46) who were in their first week of study completed a self-administered online questionnaire, that is the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). The results showed that students had higher intrinsic motivation, higher extrinsic motivation and lower amotivation upon enrolling into the degree. Next, students’ academic performance in the first semester was collected. Correlations between motivation and academic performance were studied. The results indicate that extrinsic motivation is correlated significantly with academic performance. Recommendations were made to improve teaching and learning effectiveness, using the Self-Determination Theory perspective.