Stem Lecturers’ Motivation as Correlates of Tertiary Institutions Outputs and Research Innovations in North-Central Nigeria

This study examined the relationship between STEM lecturers' motivation, institutional outputs and research innovations in North-Central Nigeria. A correlational survey design was employed. The target population consisted of about 1,840 full-time STEM lecturers in public universities in North-Central Nigeria, from which 368 lecturers were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. Data were collected using the researcher-developed STEM Lecturers' Motivation, Institutional Outputs and Research Innovations Questionnaire (SLMOIRQ). The instrument was validated by experts in Measurement and Evaluation and STEM education and produced a reliability coefficient of 0.82 using Cronbach's Alpha test. Out of 368 distributed questionnaires, 342 were validly returned, giving a 92.9% response rate. Means and standard deviations were used to address the research questions, while Pearson Product-Moment Correlation was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significance level. The study found that intrinsic motivation was high (M=3.36, SD=0.64) and was positively related to institutional outputs of good quality (r=0.412, p=0.001). On the contrary, extrinsic motivation was low (M=1.97, SD=0.83) and had weak and insignificant relationship with research innovations (r=0.185, p=0.124). The study concluded that intrinsic motivation is an important correlate of institutional outputs, whereas the current extrinsic motivational conditions are inadequate to significantly stimulate research innovations.