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The Relationships Between Academic Motivation And Academic Success of

Physical Education Teacher Candidates

Article  in  Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology · December 2016

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 TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – December 2016,
Special Issue for INTE 2016

The Relationships Between Academic Motivation And Academic Success Of Physical

Education Teacher Candidates

Hüseyin ÜNLÜ
Aksaray University, College of Physical Education and Sports, Turkey
unlu68@gmail.com

M. Kayıhan ERBAŞ
Aksaray University, College of Physical Education and Sports, Turkey
kayihan.besyo@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to determine the academic motivation levels of physical education teacher candidates
and to reveal the relationships between academic motivation and academic success. The study is follows a
general scanning model in which the sample consists of 238 participants (147 male and 91 female). The
Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) was used as a data collection tool in the study. In order to analyze the data,
the researcher made use of the Pearson coefficient of correlation and multiple regression analysis as well as
descriptive statistics. The study results suggest a high level of academic motivation among physical education
teacher candidates. In addition, a significant relationship between academic motivation and academic success
was found. It was also observed that academic motivation is a meaningful predictor of academic success in
regression equations while there was found to be no meaningful predictor except the a-motivation dimension.
Key words: Physical education teacher candidate, motivation, academic motivation, regression
INTRDOCUTION
Recently, motivation has been a prominent issue in education, especially in teacher training (Arıoğul, 2009;
Güçlü, Recepoğlu & Kılınç, 2014; Karataş & Erden, 2012; Özder & Motorcan, 2013). Motivation is defined as
the total reflection of all variables affecting the level of willingness of an individual to participate in an activity
(Ünal-Karagüven, 2012), and it is originally based on the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Deci,
Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991). This theory focuses on the reasons to activate individuals and aims to
determine the factors which contribute to the healthy developments of individuals, groups and societies (Ryan &
Deci, 2000a). It also claims that different levels of motivation reflect various self-determination levels (Guay,
Mageau & Vallerand, 2003). In this context, three types of motivation are covered in this study: intrinsic
motivation, extrinsic motivation and a-motivational state (Deci & Ryan, 2000b; 2006).
Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity because it brings joy or inspires interest. External
motivation refers to engaging in an activity simply for the sake of the outcome (Deci & Ryan, 2000b). Intrinsic
motivation comes from inside an individual and encourages him to produce while extrinsic motivation is
influenced by factors related with rewards and job environments (Kılıç & Keklik 2012). The a-motivational state
is the absence of desire to act. That is, it is the absence of motivation. This state also reflects a feeling of
incompetency to complete an activity or benefit from it (Deci & Ryan, 2000b).
Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is of critical importance to reinforce students to participate in educational
activities, to increase their academic performance and to attain education goals (Ünal-Karagüven, 2012; Özdemir
Özkan, Akın and Durna, 2015). It is also stated that motivation is related to outputs such as curiosity, persistence
and performance (Deci & Ryan, 1985), encourages students to develop positive attitudes towards courses (Ajayi,
Lawani and Salomi, 2012), and that students with high levels of motivation tend to succeed (Green, Nelson,
Martin, & Marsh, 2006; Khalila, 2015; Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Similarly,
students with academic problems are found to have low levels of motivation (Henning, 2007).
Individual’s opinions about education, ambition to study, interest level, needs and desires are related to academic
motivation (Brown, 2009; Rusillo and Arias, 2004). Academic motivation has always taken educators’ attention,
and its effects on school performance and learning have become research subjects (Coetzee, 2011; Henning,
2007; Özder & Motorcan, 2013). Arıoğul (2009) pointed out the importance of academic motivation in

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 TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – December 2016,
Special Issue for INTE 2016

determining academic success. In general, the positive relationship between academic performance and
motivation is underlined (Kusurkar, Ten Cate, Vos, Westers, and Croiset, 2013; Komarraju, Karau & Schmeck,
2009).
The assessment of teacher candidates’ academic motivation is of importance in predicting their success in
education and professional lives. Although there have been various studies concerning the academic success of
teacher candidates (Gürşimşek, 2002; Arıoğul, 2009; Eymur-Geban, 2011; Eğmir, Ödemiş, Bayar, Bayar &
Kayır, 2013; Gömleksiz & Serhatlıoğlu, 2013), the number of studies about the academic success of physical
education teacher candidates’ academic motivation (Alemdağ, Öncü & Yılmaz, 2014) and the relationship
between academic success and motivation of these teacher candidates is quite limited (Eymür & Geban, 2011).
Academic success and motivation are accepted as having a substantial effect on physical education teacher
candidates’ ability to develop both in their personal and professional lives, to follow innovations, to search for
information and to produce new knowledge. In this sense, this study examines the relationship between academic
success and motivation among physical education teacher candidates.
METHOD
Sample
Designed with the general scanning model, the study sample consists of 238 participants coming from physical
education and sports departments from four different universities during the 2015-2016 academic year and 147
(61.8%) of whom are male and 91 (38.2%) of whom are female (Class=1-4, age=21,37±2.206; gpa=2.60± .430).
Data Collection Tools
The study made use of the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) which was developed by Vallerand et al. (1992)
and adapted into Turkish by Ünal-Karagüven (2012). There are seven sub-scales and 28 items in the scale, and
each sub scale has four items. These sub-scales include Intrinsic Motivation (IM; three sub scales), Extrinsic
Motivation (EM; three sub scales) and A-motivational State (AS; one subscale). It is a 1-to-7 Likert scale in
which 1 stands for definitely disagree while 7 stands for definitely agree. The scoring for every sub scale ranges
between the lowest point - 4 - and the highest point - 28 - for every sub scale. The items within the a-
motivational state sub scale were scored in reverse. The high scores from the scale represent a high level of
academic motivation whereas the low scores represent a low level. Cronbach's Alpha of Internal Reliability for
this scale was measured to be between .67 and .87.
Data Analysis and Assessments
Before data analysis was initiated, the researcher checked whether the data had a normal distribution curve or
not, what the normal distribution curves were, the coefficient of skew and kurtosis, and the Kolmogorov-
Smirnov test results in order to determine which statistical techniques to use. According to the Kolmogorov-
Smirnov (K-S) test results, which indicate whether scores of the dependent variable show a normal distribution
for every independent variable, the scores obtained from all sub-scales show a normal distribution. Since there
were not extreme deviations in the distribution curve and the coefficient of skew and kurtosis, the descriptive
statistics (mod-median-arithmetic average x) were found to be close to each other and the number of the
participants was high (n=230). Parametric statistics techniques were used for this study. The scores of students in
the academic motivation scale and its subscales were determined through the use of descriptive statistics (mod-
median-arithmetic mean). Additionally, with the aim of revealing the differences between dependent and
independent variables, independent samples t-test and the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient were
adopted to determine the relationship. The significance level of the study was 0.05. And lastly, SPSS 20 was
used for data analysis.
FINDINGS
This part of the study presents the findings concerning the academic motivation levels of physical education
teacher candidates, the relationship between academic success and motivation, and the predictive effect of
academic motivation on academic success.

Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 1100

 TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – December 2016,
Special Issue for INTE 2016

Academic Motivation Levels of Physical Education Teacher Candidates

The score averages and standard deviation values related to the academic motivation of physical
education teacher candidates are presented in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Motivation Levels of Physical Education Teacher Candidates

Academic Motivation N M Ss
Intrinsic Motivation-Knowledge (IMTK) 238 4.96 1.153
Intrinsic Motivation- Accomplish (IMTA) 238 4.73 1.146
Intrinsic Motivation to Experience Stimulation (IMES) 238 4.76 1.125
Extrinsic Motivation External Regulation (EMER) 238 4.96 1.176
Extrinsic Motivation Introjected Regulation (EMIN) 238 4.86 1.154
Extrinsic Motivation Identified Regulation (EMID) 238 4.66 1.217
Amotivation (AMOT) 238 4.66 1.217
Academic Motivation- Total Scale (AMS) 238 4.71 .940

In Table 1, the averages of physical education teacher candidates from the AMS and its sub-scales are presented.
As shown in the table, the participants scored M= 4.71±.940 average from the scale in general. In addition, the
highest average of the participants was scored in the IMTK M= 4.96±1.153 and EMER M= 4.96±1.176 sub-
scales while the lowest scores belong to the EMID M= 4.66±1.217 and AMOT M= 4.66±1.217 sub-scales.
The Relationship between Academic Motivation and Academic Success of Physical Education Teacher
Candidates
The study adopted the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient in order to measure the relationship
between academic motivation and academic success of physical education teacher candidates. The results are
shown in Table 2 below.
Table 2. The Relationship between the Academic Motivation and Academic Success of Physical Education
Teacher Candidates.

GPA IMTK IMTA IMES EMER EMIN EMID AMOT AMS

Pearson Corr. .228** .156* .230** .242** .139* .286** .286** .244**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .016 .000 .000 .032 .000 .000 .000
The findings suggest that there is a positive and meaningful correlation between academic motivation and
academic success of physical education teacher candidates (p< 0.05).
The Predictive Effect of Academic Motivation on Academic Success
With the aim of determining the predictive effect of academic motivation on academic success among physical
education teacher candidates, the researcher made use of multiple regression analysis and the results are
presented in Table 3 below.
Table 3. The Predictive Effect of Academic Motivation on Academic Success
Variables B Standard β t p Dual r Partial r
error
Constant 2.075 .137 _ 15.118 .000
IMTK .018 .047 .047 .370 .711 .024 .023
IMTA -.089 .047 -.237 -1.896 .059 -.124 -.118
IMES .032 .049 .085 .653 .514 .043 .041
EMER .016 .044 .044 .371 .711 .024 .023
EMIN -.060 .048 -.161 -1.261 .209 -.083 -.078
AMOT .097 .040 .276 2.456 .015 .160 .153
R=.336 R2 = .113 F= 4.168 P=. 000

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 TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – December 2016,
Special Issue for INTE 2016

Table 3 shows the predictive effect of academic motivation on academic success among physical education
teacher candidates. The predictive equation was determined as (R2=.11, F=4.168, p<.05). EMID was also seen to
be out of the model. The variables in the academic motivation sub scales explain 11% of the variance of the total
academic success. To the standardized regression coefficient (ß), the relative orders of importance of predictive
variables in score averages were as such: AMOT, IMTA, EMİN, IMES, IMTK and EMER. Upon examining the
t-test results concerning the level of significance of regression coefficients, the MS sub-scale was found to be a
meaningful predictor in score averages.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study shows that the participant teacher candidates have a high level of academic motivation. In their
studies, Arıoğul (2009) & Gömleksiz and Serhatlıoğlu (2013) also reached conclusions about high levels of
academic motivation among teacher candidates parallel to this study's. Similarly, Öncü, Alemdağ and Yılmaz
(2014) conducted their study with physical education teachers and Şahin and Çakar (2011) studied education
faculty students, both of which revealed that teacher candidates have above average levels of academic
motivation.
Another result of the study is that there is a positive and meaningful correlation between academic success and
academic motivation of physical education teacher candidates. In their study, Özder and Motorcan (2013)
mention a high level of correlation between academic success and academic motivation. In another related study,
Eymur and Geban (2011) point out the relationship between academic success and the knowledge and
stimulation sub-scales of the academic motivation scale.
The study also tested the predictive effect of academic motivation on academic success among physical
education teacher candidates. Although the model was measured and assessed as meaningful, there was found to
be no effect of the sub-scales of the academic motivation scale on academic success. Also, the effect of academic
motivation on academic success was measured as 11% which can be said to be a low rate. The study findings
also underscore the importance of increasing academic motivation among physical education teacher candidates.
In his study, Arıoğul (2009) revealed the positive relationship between academic motivation and the intrinsic
motivation sub-scale of the academic motivation scale while he found a negative correlation with the a-
motivational state sub-scale. It is a significant finding that the academic motivation and academic success levels
of participants are above average which affects the model. However, this does not reflect a predictive feature.
Future studies should examine the relationship between academic motivation and academic success among
physical education teacher candidates by determining the effective factors in the variables thoroughly, which
would in turn contribute to their academic motivation and success.
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