Mira Beranek, “From Intrinsic to Amotivation: The Validation of an Instrument to Better Understand Student Motivation in Chemistry”
Mentor: Kristen Murphy, Chemistry & Biochemistry
Poster #28

Exam scores and other quantitative measures provide insight into students’ performance in a course. However, affect is imperative to consider. Complex multilayered factors, such as student motivation in a course have been shown to impact academic performance. Whether it is an intrinsic interest or a required course for their major, students have motivations behind taking a class, and students could possess more than one aspect of motivation towards the course and to varying degrees. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, one instrument was utilized to measure student motivation in the context of general chemistry. In this poster, I will present the validation of the instrument via exploratory factor analyses and student interview responses. Further, I will discuss how the findings from confirmatory factor analyses led to the classification of student motivation, which highlight the aspects that most impact students.