School-Prompted Interest in Science Learning at High School Level

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of students’ and teachers’ motivation on school-prompted interest in science learning at high school level. A total of 432 grade ten students participated in this study. The Students’ Own and Perceived Motivation towards Science Learning Questionnaire and Semi-structured Interviews were used to collect the required data from students. According to the survey data, the mean score of students’ mastery goals was highest in every science subject and the mean score of school-prompted interest was highest in biology. Independent sample t-test results revealed that female students were significantly higher than male students in school-prompted interest and mastery goals in all science subjects. Then school-prompted interest, mastery goals, self-efficacy, teachers’ autonomy support and teachers’ mastery goals were positively and significantly correlated with each other at p< 0.01 in all science subjects. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that students’ perceptions of teachers’ autonomy support predicted the significant amount of variance accounted for school-prompted interest above and beyond the influence of students’ mastery goals and self-efficacy in all science subjects. Whereas students’ perceptions of teachers’ mastery goals predicted the significant little amount of variance accounted for school-prompted interest above and beyond the influence of students’ mastery goals and self-efficacy in chemistry and physics, but were not a significant predictor in biology