An Investigation of Middle School Students’ Motivation Towards Science Learning

The main purpose of this study was to investigate middle schools students’ motivation towards science learning. Data collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interview. In this study, total number of 1006 Grade Eight and Grade Nine students (467 males and 539 females) from Yangon City Development Area was participated. The required sample was selected by using stratified random sampling technique. According to this study, it was found that Grade Eight students were statistically significant higher than Grade Nine students in science learning motivation. Moreover, based on the results of this study, female students had higher science learning motivation than male students. Then, ANOVA results indicated that significant differences among strata were found in science learning motivation. Moreover, in this study, significant differences were found in science learning motivation by students’ science achievement. Then, Pearson correlation revealed that all factors of science learning motivation were positively significantly correlated with students’ science achievement. Each of these factors was also positively correlated with each other, except performance goal factor. Next, regression analysis showed that self-efficacy and performance goal were the predictors of students’ science achievement. They are positively associated with students’ science achievement