a study on the academic motivation and its relation with individual state and academic achievement on basic medical students of urmia university of medical sciences

a study on the academic motivation and its relation with individual state and academic achievement on basic medical students of urmia university of medical sciences     roshan milan s [1] , aghaii monvar i [2] , kheradmand f [3] , saboory e [4] , mikaili p [5] , masudi s [6] , motazakker m [7] *     received: 29july, 2011 accepted: 28august, 2011     abstract   background & aims : the learning ability and talent of medical students are very similar, however substantial differences arise in their educational achievement during the study period that can be a reflection of differences in their academic motivation. the current study aimed to determine the level of academic motivation in students of urmia university of medical sciences and examine the relationship between individual and educational characteristics of students with their academic motivation.   materials & methods : in this study, the academic motivation scale (ams-c 28)- including intrinsic, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation components- was used on 137 basic sciences medical students. the raw data were analyzed using spss and running analytical tests including analysis of variance and chi-square test.   result : most students had an average of moderate to good motivation. external motivational components (48.2 ± 6.8) had a greater score than the internal motivation components (46.1 ± 7). the mean of total score of motivation and internal and external components were significantly higher in girls (112 ± 11.2) than boys (103 ± 16.3). there was also a significant correlation between academic motivation and overall grade point average.   conclusion : according to the results, although both internal and external factors affect student motivation and academic achievement, it is important to consider lower average scores to the internal motivational factors rather than external factors.   keywords: a cademic motivation, students, educational achievement     address: department of microbiology, faculty of medicine, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran, tel: +984412770698, 09141453586   email: motazakker @umsu.ac.ir   [1] assistant professor of physiology, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran  [2] medical student, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran  [3] assistant professor of biochemistry, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran  [4] associate professor of physiology, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran  [5] assistant professor of pharmacology, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran  [6] phd candidate of epidemiology, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran  [7] assistant professor of virology, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran (corresponding author)