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Browsing Psychology by Subject "Academic motivation"
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Item Open Access The relationship between self-efficacy, motivation, and academic performance among students from various gender and generational groups(University of the Free State, 2015-11) Mbatha, Silindele; Naudé, L.English: Many students find the first year of university challenging. In South Africa, this situation is complicated further by the transformation in higher education, such as the changing profile of the student population and new access and success policies. Many factors affecting academic performance have been highlighted in research. This particular research study aimed to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy, motivation, and academic performance among students from various gender and generational groups in the South African context. A non-experimental, quantitative approach with a correlational, criterion group design was used. Non-probability, convenience sampling was used to select 271 first-year students in the Faculty of the Humanities at the University of the Free State. Data were gathered by using a research survey consisting of a biographic questionnaire and two standardised questionnaires, namely the College Self-Efficacy Instrument (CSEI) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Academic performance was calculated by obtaining an average of students’ marks in core modules during the first year. Statistically significant differences were found in the academic performance and academic motivation between males and females. There was no significant statistical difference with regard to the different generational groups. Academic motivation and self-efficacy explained only 0.06 % of the variance in academic performance, which is not significant. There were, however, a significant correlation between academic motivation and self-efficacy.