The interplay between academic motivation and academic achievement of teacher trainees

The aim of this study was to research the interaction between academic motivation and academic achievement. In this regard, the Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand et al, 1992) and a student background questionnaire were administered to 195 Turkish teacher trainees of English at a foundation university in Ankara, Turkey. Descriptive results showed that prospective teachers were mainly extrinsically motivated, followed by intrinsic motivation. Moreover, they had quite low on amotivation scores. Significant gender differences were revealed in introjected regulation and intrinsic motivation for accomplishment with prospective female teachers reporting significantly higher levels on both. A negative correlation was found between GPA and amotivation and a positive one between GPA and intrinsic motivation for knowledge. Furthermore, the multiple regression analysis uncovered amotivation as the only predictor of GPA.