The Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation on Test Performance in Secondary Schools.

Learning motivation is a key factor affecting academic performance. This study aims to explore the effects and relationship between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation of York secondary school students on their academic test’s performances. The results show that students’ academic motivation becomes positively correlated with English, math and science tests scores. Although extrinsic motivation can promote students’ short term academic performance to a certain extent. In long term, intrinsic motivation has a positive and significant impact on students continues learning or affect students’ academic performance. This study provides important implications for educators and emphasizes the importance of stimulating learning motivation to improve the academic performance of secondary school students. Thus, educators and parents should encourage students to find interest in learning and encourage students to have an intrinsic drive in learning. Learning motivation can determine students learning attitude and mastery degree and can help students stimulate interesting in learning new knowledge in academic.