Self-Determination and its relationship with Intrinsic Motivation among Tenth-Grade Students in Karak, Jordan

Abstract: This study attempts to identify self-determination and intrinsic motivation amongst tenth-grade students in Karak. The study sample consisted of 724 students selected according to the stratified random sampling. In order to achieve the study objectives, the author used Self-Determination Scale (SDS) and the Intrinsic Motivation Scale (IMS) after verifying their validity and reliability. The results showed that the level of self-determination among tenth-grade students in Karak was medium with a mean of 3.33 and standard deviation of 0.71. The level of intrinsic academic motivation among tenth-grade students in Karak was medium with a mean of 3.66 and standard deviation of 0.59, and the dimension of Curiosity ranked the first with high degree, while Preference of Challenge ranked the last place. In addition, the results showed that there was a positive statistically significant relationship between the variable of intrinsic academic motivation with its dimensions and the variable of self-determination among tenth-grade students, where the correlation coefficient between the total intrinsic academic motivation and self-determination was 0.410. The correlation coefficients 0.238, 0.465, .0273 were among the dimensions of intrinsic motivation and Preference of Challenge, Curiosity, and the Desire for Independent Mastery, respectively. Additionally, there were no statistically significant differences for intrinsic academic motivation and self-determination based on gender among tenth-grade students in Karak. The study recommended the need of organizing training courses by the Directorates of Education for teachers in order to guide them on how to improve the challenge and the desire for independent mastery and also providing training programs for male and female students in order to improve their level of intrinsic academic motivation, which would be reflected on their personalities and their level of self-determination. Key Words: Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination