Abstract
M. Ed. (Educational Psychology)
The last few decades have brought a significant increase
in the amount of research on the subject of motivation,
notably in the field of psychology. In connection with
education too, motivation in general and more specifically
learning and achievement motivation are of the greatest
importance. One reason for this is the fact that there
are indications that the problems of under-achievement,
early school leaving and the disquieting loss of manpower
which is the result, may be ascribed to inadequate learning
and achievement motivation.
This study forms part of the project "Learning Motivation",
an inter-disciplinary project undertaken with the aid of
the HSRC and involving various researchers. It attemps to
come to grips with the phenomenon of achievement motivation
from a pedagogical point of view, and is aimed in particular at designing reliable and valid tests for the assessment of achievement motivation, and at establishing how
tendencies in achievement motivation manifest themselves
at the secondary school level because in this phase particularly gnostic demands are made on the pupil and achievement motivation therefore plays a vital role.
Various theories on motivation and achievement motivation
were studied, as well as a number of existing tests. In
accordance with the results of these studies, a semi-projective test, the "Leistungsmotiv Gitter" (LM-GITTER),which was designed in West Germany and is used in the
assessment of general achievement motivation in the senior
primary phase, was adapted in an attempt to assess scholastic achievement motivation among pupils in std. 6, 8 and 10.
A second test, the Achievement Motivation Questionnaire,
was also designed. It consists mainly of 41 items related
to achievement, all of which are concerned with the characteristics of the achievement motivated person, as described...