중·고등학생의 학업동기 구조

Abstract

이 연구는 우리나라 중․고등학생의 학업동기 구조를 이해하기 위해 수행되었다. 학년별 균등 비율을 고려하여, 서울시내에 소재하는 중․고등학교의 남학생 179명․여학생 189명으로 총 368명을 연구대상으로 선발하여 ｢학업동기 유형검사｣를 실시하였다. 예비검사를 거쳐, 검사의 양호도를 확보하고, 요인분석, 변량분석, 기술통계치 등을 산출하여, 중․고등학생들의 학업동기를 분석하였다. 연구결과 중․고등학생들의 학업동기는 자율적동기, 사회적동기, 무동기의 세 요인으로 구성되어 있었으며, 연구대상 학생들에게 강하게 나타나는 학업동기는 사회적동기, 자율적동기, 무동기의 순이었다. 학년이 올라갈수록 자율적동기는 감소하고, 사회적동기와 무동기는 증가하는 경향이 있었으며, 여학생은 남학생보다 자율적동기는 강한데 비해 무동기는 약했다. 자율적 동기(.31**)와 사회적 동기(.13*)는 학업성취도와 정적 상관관계가 있었고, 무동기는 학업성취도와 부적인 상관관계가 있었다

The purpose of the present study was to explore the academic motivation of junior and senior high school students in Korea. To achieve this objective, the research set out to study if there is a distinct structure in academic motivation conceptualized in terms of autonomy. Fllowing Vallerand et al.(1992, 1993), academic motivation was operationally defined as the student's answers to the question of why they go to school (or why they study at all). In a series of study of these answers, Vallerand developed a notion of academic motivation, which consists of seven or eight factors related to motivation for school study. The questions that the present study addressed to answer were as follows: Are there distinct structures in student academic motivation conceptualized in terms of autonomy? The subjects of the study were 368 students, including 179 males and 189 females: 78 second graders of junior high school, 89 third graders of junior high school, 103 high school freshmen, and 98 high school sophomores. The students' level of academic motivation was measured by the academic motivation scale which was developed by the author on the basis of Vallerand scheme. The validity of the scales was ascertained through factor analysis on the pilot study responses. The reliability of the scales was examined by Cronbach α and split-half reliability. The descriptive analysis, factor analysis, ANOVA were used for data analyses. The results of the study were as follows: Students' academic motivation was found to consist of three factors instead of eight factors found in Vallerand's study. The first factor was named autonomous motivation, as it involved social compliance, motivation for self-competence, motivation for intellectual growth, motivation for intellectual satisfaction. The second factor was social motivation as it was essentially the motivation for social success. The third was named "amotivation" as it indicated "no motivation" toward school study and motivation to avoid failure in academic setting. The first problem of the study was to ascertain the existence of distinct structures in academic motivation, and, indeed, it was found that there are three such structures. The social motivation had the highest mean, autonomous motivation the second, and the amotivation the third. It was found that the higher the grade level, the lower the autonomous motivation, and social motivation and amotivation were becoming higher as the grade progressed. Together these findings seem to indicate that substantial number of high school students tend to study by social motivation. Overall, female students had higher autonomous motivation than male students, but amotivation was lower than males. The finding that the students tended to have stronger a social motivation than an autonomous motivation implied that, while both autonomous and social motivation are of "pushing" effects on academic pursuit, the fact that social motivation is stronger seems to reflect the current social atmosphere which tends to regard school education and learning as an instrument for upward social mobility and status elevation. It is noteworthy that the substantial number of students are reluctant to study or study merely in order to avoid failure, or to "save the face". There was a significant positive relationship between autonomous motivation and academic achievement, and social motivation and acdemic achievement, but a significant negative relationship between amotivation and acdemic achievement. The group that had strong amotivation showed the lowest academic performance than the other groups. This is consonant with the general expectation that the higher the academic motivation, the higher the academic performance.