Assessment of academic motivation: a mixed methods study

This article uses a computer assisted mixed methods approach to investigate academic motivation in a large sample (N = 878) of young students. The purposes of the study were to explore the various aspects connected to motivation in primary and secondary school, using a mixed methodology (both inductive data-driven and deductive theory-driven) and to assess the findings by means of a powerful statistical inferential test. The results show that intrinsic motivation tends to decrease in the transition from primary to secondary school, but they also reveal a hitherto undemonstrated trend, which is the significant increase, during this phase, of identified motivation, a different, yet still highly self-determined, form of regulation, involving the conscious attribution of value to studying. On the whole the results suggest that the elements dictating student motivation at school are more complex than indicated by previous studies.