Analysis of Motivational Orientations in Science Education

Pupils' motivation and interest are identified as important influences on learning. Motivational orientation is a construct that links motivation and epistemology. This study attempted to explore motivational orientation as it relates to science education and two different instructional approaches. A published instrument standardized with a population from the United Kingdom that purports to identify students' preferred motivation orientations as social, consciousness, effort, or curiosity was applied to two instructional contexts (traditional school program and field centre program) in primary schools in Slovakia. Results indicated that a very high percentage of the pupils could not be classified into one of the four categories, that the traditional classroom sample differed significantly from the United Kingdom population, and that the preferred motivational orientations expressed by the pupils in the field centre sample did not differ significantly from those expressed by the pupils in the traditional classroom sample.