Abstract

SANTOS, Acácia Aparecida Angeli dos; MOGNON, Jocemara Ferrreira; ALCARA, Adriana Rosecler  and  LEMOS, Thalyta Hulsen. Motivation to learn: evidence of convergent validity between two measures. Aletheia [online]. 2011, n.35-36, pp. 36-50. ISSN 1413-0394.

This study aimed to look for evidence of convergent validity between the Motivation Scale for Learning of University Students (EMAPRE-U) and the Assessment Scale of Motivation to Learn of College Students (EMA-U), and also verify possible differences between the variables gender, age, area of knowledge and time of course. The participants were 302 students from two private universities in the countryside of Sao Paulo, aged between 17 and 48 years (M = 24.1 years) and 214 of them (70.86%) were females. The students attended different undergraduate courses between the 1st and 9th semesters. The application of the instruments was collective and occurred in the classroom. The results indicated significant positive correlations of the learning goal and the performance-avoidance goal with intrinsic motivation, as well as a negative correlation of the learning goal and the performance-avoidance goal with extrinsic motivation. Also, statistically significant differences were found for the variables gender, age and area of knowledge.

Keywords : Motivation to learn; Higher education; Scales.