Abstract

Motivation is the force that keeps you going and doing things, and that arouses your interest and desire for success. It is the drive that sustains your will to float not to drown even in the face of serious difficulties. Extrinsic motivation refers to action or behaviour performed in the hopes of receiving an external reward or outcome or due to external rewards. Motivation is very vital in enhancing the teaching and learning process.

This study investigated The Impact of Motivation on student’s academic achievement in the University of Buea. Specifically, the study sought to investigate the extent to which teaching learning process influence, learning resources, Role model and Peer acceptance influence academic achievement of students in the University of Buea. The study was guided by the Humanistic Theory of Motivation by Abraham Maslow’s (1941), Herzberg’s two factor theory of motivation and McClellan achievement theory of motivation. The study employed a case study research design.

Data was collected purposively, with the use of a questionnaire, from a sample population of 200 students from 4 selected department of Education schools. Data was descriptively analysed from the questionnaire by calculating frequencies and percentages and Spearman rank Correlation Biological statistics was also used for the data analysis. Findings revealed that motivation has an influence on student’s academic achievement in the University of Buea. The study has proven that the teaching learning process has an influence on student’s academic achievement in the University of Buea.

This is evident as students were motivated to learn due to their lecturers teaching strategy. It was equally revealed that learning resources used has an influence on student’s academic achievement in the University of Buea. As the use of handout motivate students to learnl. Furthermore, students agreed that they regularly attend tutorial classes and checked the school notice board..The study further revealed that the use of role models has an influence on student’s academic achievement of undergraduates Students at the University of Buea . This was proven by the fact that role models motivate students to work hard, students gain inspiration to study hard due to the people they admire.

The study recommended that seminars should be organized for talk on peer influences and role model and it consequences. This will encourage and students to stay focus on Educational activities thus improving student’s achievement. It also recommended that Teachers should always be in their best Christmas during Instructional activities. tschools and government should continue to award scholarships to deserving students. . It was further recommended that parents and teachers should provide enough motivation to students.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the introduction to the study, the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, hypotheses, scope of the study, significance of the study, , and the operational definition of terms.

Background of the Study    

Historically, the concept of motivation can be traced to ancient Greek; Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Plato believed I hierarchical organization such as dietary components, rational and emotional. Aristotle, for more than twenty years, Continued to affirm the hierarchy of spirituality. However, he used different reforms which were different from his original belief. He believed in those dietary and emotional components are relevant to the body and part of the concept of motivation. These two part together were based on irrational motivation force. And the ancient Greek presumes three components: the body’s desire, pleasure and pain in hierarchical arrangements for the first theoritical justification of the motivation activities. Also, the history of science of human motivation is Darwin’s (1872), speculation concerning emotional and motivation. To add Darwin’s argued that human have evolved emotional reaction that lead to or energized action that has been adaptive. Also, after the Renaissance, Rene Descartes distinguish between inactive and active aspect of motivation. Descartes believe that body is the inactive factor of motivation while the Will is the active factor of motivation.

In the modern era, Maslow’s (1954) developed the hierarchy of needs consisting of hierarchical classes. According to him, people are motivated by unsatisfied needs. Based on these needs the lower order needs must be met before the higher needs, they include; physiological needs, safety needs, Love and belonging, Esteem need and self actualization.

Conceptually. The word motivation comes from a latin word “Motus” meaning to move or stimulate some inner drives that can cause a person to act in some certain way. Its involving biological, social, emotional and cognitive activities behavior.

According to Spolsky motivation is the amount of time a learner prepared to spend on  learning tasks. Ortega- Martin explained that motivation is an individual disposition to learn task that can be modify both by him/herself and by help from the surrounding circumstances. According to Bhatia, motivation is the stimulus or action toward a particular goal where previously there were little or no attraction toward that goal.

According to Luma,motivation is the force that keeps you going and doing things, and that arouse your interest and desire for success. It is the drive that sustains your will to float not to drown even in the face of serious difficulties.

According to Tambo,  Motivation is the process of arousing, sustaining and regulating activity. It is the act of applying incentive and arousing interest for the purpose of causing a pupil perform in a desired way.Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as: Intensity of desire or need, Incentive or reward value of the goal, Expectations of the individual and of his or her peers.

In the light of the above view points, motivation acts as an incentive that arouses   students’ interest and desire for success. In the teaching-learning situation, motivation can be extrinsic or intrinsic that is to say two types of motivation exist.

Intrinsic motivation according to Psychology is known as the best type of motivation. The word “intrinsic” means something is inherent by nature. It is something refers to as inner. Intrinsic motivation is an inner drives that propel a person to pursue an activity, not for external reward but because the action itself is enjoyable. For instant a student studying maths because he enjoys doing it. This type of motivation is common in higher education and universities.

On the other hand,extrinsic motivation according to psyche study. Com (2018) refers to action or behaviour performed in the hopes of receiving an external reward or outcome. According to Psychestudy.com, extrinsic motivation could be used to motivate a whole group, thus increasing productivity in workplace or creating a better learning environment. Psychestudy.com also stated that, extrinsic motivation could lead to personal benefits. It (Psychestudy.com) added that, extrinsic motivation could lead to behaviour which could never have been possible otherwise. Psychestudy.com went further to explain its point by giving an example that; a student might never feel the intrinsic motivation to study, but extrinsic motivations like medals or other forms of prize might motivate the student to study harder. The explanation provided by Psychestudy.com indicates that, from personal academic benefits, extrinsic motivation has economic advantage as it has the potential of stimulating productivity in the workplace.

According to Tambo, (2012), extrinsic motivation comes as a result of pressure or forces outside the learner. A child who is extrinsically motivated learns because he/she is afraid of punishment by parents or teachers. A child may also learn because he/she wants to be rewarded with marks, praises, a pleasure trip and Christmas cloths from parents. Parents are in the habit of motivating their children extrinsically by promises of such rewards. Teachers and parents play a major role in motivation, which leads to students’ educational success. Students who have lost interest in learning need more extrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation is also seen as motivation which comes from outside the individual. The motivating factors are external or outside rewards such as money. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself may not necessarily enjoy an activity to perform well in order to receive some kind of reward or to avoid negative consequences (Aamdi, 2007).

Also, in the view of Meadows-Fernandez (2017), extrinsic motivation is reward driven behaviour. According to Meadows-Fernandez, extrinsic motivation, rewards or other incentives like praise, fame or money are used as motivation for specific activities. Meadows-Fernandez gave examples of extrinsic motivation which include competing in sports for trophies, completing work for money, customer loyalty discounts, buy one get one free sales, frequent flier rewards, helping people for praise from friends or family, doing work for attention, either positive or negative, doing task for public acclaim or fame, doing task to avoid judgment and completing coursework for grades. From the definition and examples of extrinsic motivation provided by Meadows-Fernandez, it is understandable that, extrinsic motivation is either material or psychological in form. Meadows-Fernandez went further to stress on the need to motivate students.

According to Meadows-Fernandez, motivation will increase students’ time on task and is also an important factor affecting their learning and achievement. The authority (Meadows-Fernandez) continued that, motivation enhances cognitive processing. However, both Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation Make up the underlying reasons, attitude and goals that gives rise to behavior, that is why we do what we do. With regard to this, more emphasizes will be on Intrinsic motivation because the population is make up of adult who are goal oriented and have prior knowledge. Also because they are likely to be successful, committed and creative.

Although it is still not very clear which of these two types of motivation is preferable with regards to learning, it may be much better for the teacher to try to understand both types of motivation and use them in a complementary manner. For example, the teacher can use marks or praises to extrinsically motivate the students.

At other times he may convince pupils about the need to be more knowledgeable in the subject (intrinsic motivation). It should be noted that teachers are in privileged positions to know the most appropriate form of motivation to be used because they have the opportunity to observe the students in various situations for many hours. This even explains why some teachers said some students in class are ‘’unmotivated ‘’ because they do not show sufficient interest in what they have to learn and therefore something has to be done to arouse their interest in learning.

More so, if learners are not motivated they will not have interest in learning for example and when they do not perform well it becomes a problem not only to the parents and teachers but to the environment and society as a whole. This is because when learners do not attain their academic goals, majority turn out to be bandits or cause societal miss-happs such as drug abuse, scam, robbery and other mal-practices that one can think of as a result of not been motivated either extrinsically or intrinsically.

On the other hand, we can say that if these learners were motivated able to attain their educational goals, they might have been better placed or better still be able to know what is wrong and what is right. This will enable one to know where and what he/she wants and where they are heading.

Achievement motivation by Murray (1938) is the need to accomplish something difficult that is to overcome obstacle and attain a high standard to rival and surpass others. To increase self-regard by successful exercise of talents. It is also to outperform others and to meet high standard of excellence. Above all, the need for achievement involves the desire to excel especially in competition with others. High achievement motivation correlate positively with measuresand career success and with upward social mobility among lower class men. Murray developed The Thematic Appreciation Test (T.A.T) to measure the need for achievement and other human motives.

A number of studies show that people who score high in the need for achievement differ notably from those in moderate or low need for achievement scores. One way to help instill a desire  to achieve is to encourage students to set reasonable goal and to provide ample reinforcement for their success. Reasonable goals are likely to achieved thus allowing children experience success.

Winterbotton (1958) found that children who demonstrate high achievement motivation usually had parents who expected them to master to their own environment and to show independent behavior well before their teenage years. Although every student has that enthusiasm to learn statistics have shown that some students needed to be motivated before effective learning can take place. This  researcher was extrinsically motivated at the high school by her parent and family members.

Presently, she has observed that intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation because with intrinsic motivation, One is driven to search for knowledge so as to increase one’s skill in learning. However, both forms of motivation are necessary for teaching learning process. For example, the teacher can use marks or praises to extrinsically motivate the students. At other times he may convince pupil about the need to be more knowledgeable in the subject (intrinsic motivation). It should be noted that teachers are in privilege position to know the most appropriate form of motivation to be used because they have opportunity to observe the students in varies situations for may hours. This even explain why some teachers said some students in class are ” unmotivated” because they do not show sufficient interest in what they have to learn and therefore something has to be done to arouse their interest in learning.

Contextually, in the University of Buea and Cameroon schools in general, it is known that most students achievement vary sharply due to motivation. There are some students in the University of Buea that study by using the availability learning resources like the library, hangout and by attending tutorial classes. Some of the students are motivated by the desire to be educated irrespective of their family background ( lower, middle or higher class). Also, teachers have been using praises, gifts and positive reinforcement. Moreso, to motivate students curriculum framework in the University of Buea and Cameroon in general had emphasizes lecturers/teachers to avoid using negative words such as ” good for nothing student, dull child , useless and unproductive Students” to Student when they performed poorly, rather piont out the aspect in which he/she was wrong and direct how it was supposed to be done when necessary.

Furthermore, orientation classes has been put in place by the leadership of the University Of Buea in order to direct and motivate learners toward academic fulfillment. These have great Impact on students academic achievement in the University Of Buea.

Theorically, the study make use of three (3) theories ; Maslow’s motivation theory, David McClellan achievement theory and Herzberg’s two facto theory.

Maslow’s description of motivation ranges from meeting basic lower order such  as those for safety and physiological needs through attainment increasingly higher order needs such as esteem and self-actualization. He asserted that man always have needs to satisfy, he calls this needs the Hierarchy of Needs and are catagorized into two: deficit and growth needs. This theory is relevant to the study in that, account to him motivation is constant and never ending, fluctuating and complex. The theory is related to o the study in that when Students satisfy their lower order needs such as food, they will be able to learns thus achievement higher order needs ,hence acting as motivation in the process of teaching learning process and it necessary in schools and homes

David McClellan pruposed the theory that people are motivated to fulfill three types of needs: Achievement, Power and Affiliation needs. According to him, regardless our gender, age and culture we all have three motivating drives and one of these will be our dominant motivating drives and influences a broad spectrum of behavior. This theory is related to the study because it help in identifying the dominant motivators of individuals or students to study. The information can be used to influence how questions or goals will be set and provide feedback, how to motivate and rewards participants. Also, it aid in explaining why certain Individuals are more motivated than others.

Herzberg’s two factor Model says that basic factor like safety and salary need to be met to prevent distraction at work but another set of motivating factor like autonomy and recognition are required to create actual happiness at work. Education or schooling is a form of work. The theory is related to this study in that safety, recognition and autonomy Wil motivate learners. Majority of learners who are recognize by teachers and peers regarding their level of intelligence turns to feel safe and secured and as a result they will perform more better as compared to some students who lack these factors.

Statement of the Problem

Motivation plays a major role in students’ academic achievement. It has been shown that some students need to be motivated before effective learning can take place. During my teaching practice and my schooling in the University of Buea, I observed that students who are motivated by indicators such as praises, gifts and public recognition turn to perform better and have high participation in class as well as ask questions to understand.

However, some students Students academic achievement is more higher in the University of Buea compared to the secondary school and higher education. In the University of Buea, poor academic achievement of students has been attributed to negative peers acceptance, lack of knowledge and use of learning resources, lack of passionate teachers and role model. It’s against this background that the study was conducted to investigate the impact of motivation on student’s academic achievement in the University of Buea.

 Research Objectives

 General Objective

The objective of this study is to find out the Impact of Motivation on student’s academic achievement in the University of Buea.

 Specific Objective

1. To investigate the extent to which the teaching-learning process used influences the academic achievement of students.
2. To examine the extent to which learning resources influence students’ academic achievement.
3. To find out the extent to which role models affect student’s academic achievement
4. To investigate the extent to which peer acceptance influences students’ academic achievement.

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