The Influence of Intrinsic Motivations on Science Learning

Abstract

As is well known, "interest, will, and attitude," as important scholastic attainments described in the official Accumulated Guidance Records used in elementary and secondary schools in Japan, are regarded not as extrinsic but intrinsic motivations. In the present study, the authors aimed at arousing such intrinsic motivations for science learning in students through problem-solving activities which lead them to acquire an understanding of nature as a result of their own interest in the subject. The results obtained from the investigation are as follows: 1) The students' intrinsic motivations for science learning improved through the problemsolving activities. 2) The more improvement in intrinsic motivation they showed, the more they learned about nature, i.e., a "knowledge-understanding of natural things and phenomena" as described in the Accumulated Guidance Records. 3) This intrinsic motivation through science learning had a decisive effect upon building up intrinsically motivated learners.