International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention ISSN (Online): 2319 – 7722, ISSN (Print): 2319 – 7714 www.ijhssi.org ||Volume 5 Issue 1 ||January. 2016 || PP.53-60 www.ijhssi.org 53 | P a g e Searching for the relationship between secondary schools students' motivation and science achievement Orhan Ercan 1 , Evrim Ural 2 and Bünyamin Kamalak 3 1 (Science Education Department, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Turkey) 2 (Science Education Department, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Turkey) 3 (Science Education Department, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Turkey) ABSTRACT : This study aims to search students' science learning motivation in relation with some variables (such as having a separate study room at home and a personal computer) and the effect of motivational factors on students' science achievement. In the study, descriptive corelational survey model has been used to examine students' motivation in relation with some variables and to search the relationship between students' science learning motivation and their TEOG exam scores. The sample of the study consisted of 232 8 th grade students attending 3 state secondary schools in Kahramanmaraş during 2013-2014 academic year. Students' motivation level has been determined by administering SMTSL. Students' average scores of the TEOG exam have been considered as their science achievement. The findings show that female students’ motivation level is higher than the male students. In addition, it has been observed that female students’ motivation is higher in sub -categories of active learning strategies, science learning value and achievement goal. There is a direct relationship between the students’ motivation and their TEOG scores. This shows that students with higher levels of motivation have higher success in TEOG. KEYWORDS - Science achievement, motivation, secondary school students I. Introduction The There are many factors effect students learning in science education. These factors are not just cognitive but also affective factors [1]. Motivation is one of these affective factors. Generally motivation can be determined as the personal interest to participate in an activity, to learn or study a subject [2] [3] [4]. The motivation level of a student can be determined by some academic behaviors such as doing the assignments, continuing the lectures regularly [5]. Motivation isn't a concept with a single dimension, it has many sub-dimensions. Although the dimensions of motivation collect under different names in various studies, there are some sub-dimensions generally accepted in the literature. One of them is self efficacy. Individual's beliefs about the capability of themselves to cope with particular situations can be defined as self -efficacy [6] [2] [7]. According to Pajares (2003), students' perceptions relating to themselves holds an important place in academic success or failure [8]. Also, students' previous success or failure affects their self-efficacy. Self-Efficacy effects student's willingness to participate in an academic task, effort spent in fulfilling the task and it also affects the level of anxiety in the academic activities. Self-confident students have less anxiety during an academic assignment. Niemczyk and Savanye (2001) state that, when compared with students low self-efficacy, students with high self efficacy beliefs don't give up when faced with difficulties and even work patiently longer [7]. According to Linnenbrink and Pintrich (2002), students' self-efficacy beliefs effect their academic achievement [2]. According to Tuan, Chin, Tsai and Chen (2005), students construct new information on their previous learning by using their own learning strategies and these learning strategies have connections with their motivation towards learning [9]. Science learning value is one of the motivational factors. Howey (1999) identifies science learning value as the level of students' evaluation of an academic achievement as interesting and important [10]. When the science learning value is greater, the participation of students in the learning task is greater. Individual's goals towards learning tasks can be defined as performance goal and achievement goal [9]. In the literature, the concept of intrinsic motivation can be used instead of the concept of performance goal. Intrinsic motivation can be defined as participating in a learning activity for learning more about a subject or just for curiosity [11] [4] [12] [3]. Students with high intrinsic motivation have higher academic achievement. The studies [13] [14] [15] [16] display that intrinsic motivation effects academic achievement positively. The other name of achievement goal is extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation can be defined as participating in a learning assignment to to be more successful than others, demonstrate the others his/her ability, to get a reward [11] [17] [3] [18].When the studies relating to the motivation and its' sub-dimensions investigated, it is seen that students perform better when they are motivated [11].