A comparative studyof achievement among senior secondary school students on the basis of academic motivation and gender

Academic Motivation has long been recognized as one of the primary factors in student's academic performance. Motivation is required not only for better scholastic performance but also for betterment of life as well. The present study was undertaken to find out the effect of academic motivation and gender on biology achievement of secondary school students. Descriptive survey method was adopted. Random sampling technique was used to select the sample of 326 students from 11th class studying in private senior secondary schools affiliated to CBSE of Rohtak district of Haryana state. Academic Achievement Motivation Test (AAMT) by Sharma (2005) and Biology Achievement Test developed by investigators themselves were used to assess academic motivation and achievement in biology among school students respectively. Two-way ANOVA with 3×2 factorial design was applied to analyze the data. Results of the study revealed that a significant difference was found in the mean scores of biology achievement among high, average and low academic motivated students. Further it was found that gender has no significant effect on the biology achievement of the students. However a significant interaction effect of academic motivation & gender on achievement of secondary school students was found. It can be concluded that academic motivation being an integral part, it can help students in building strong personality, improve decision making ability and problem solving which can help them in reaping all benefits of education in all the way.