A Path Analysis Study of Autonomous and Controlled Motivation and Final Course Grades

Paper presented at the Annual SoTL Commons: A Conference for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning A modified self-regulation questionnaire was used to investigate student motivation and its relationship to class attendance, time spent studying, class difficulty and final grades in human anatomy, principles of chemistry and organic chemistry courses. The survey was administered at the beginning and end of fall and spring semesters and targeted 1,236 students. The results indicated that autonomous and controlling motivation both influence final grade, with controlling motivation having an indirect influence on final grades through perception of class difficulty, time spent studying, and class attendance. Autonomous motivation positively influenced time spent studying, while negatively influencing perception of class difficulty