Identification of Students’ Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Towards Mathematics

Abstract

As in any other field, motivation is a main factor in education. Motivation in courses that are present difficulty in comprehension to students, such as mathematics, should not be neglected. There have been many studies into the intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions of motivation. The results of these studies emphasize distinct ideas as to whether the increasing of extrinsic motivation in a course undermines intrinsic motivation. In this study, the relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of students were examined. The sample consists of 7th grade middle school students in Ankara. Data were collected by means of a motivation scale of 26 questions lasting 4 weeks which was applied to students before and after an experimental study. The results of the research show that the students expectations tend towards intrinsic inclinations rather than extrinsic ones in mathematics teaching. It is also determined that there was no decrease/increase in students’ intrinsic motivation towards mathematics as a result of increasing extrinsic motivation towards mathematics.