The use of self-determination theory to investigate career aspiration, choice of major and academic achievement of tertiary science students

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the interrelationships among university entrance score, career aspiration, academic major, and academic achievement, of foundation year students, at an overall level and at completion of each year level of a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree. Self-determination theory (SDT) was used as the underlying model for this study, which comprised 157 students who had completed their degree over 2015–2017. Results were analysed in terms of students’ intrinsic motivations (career aspiration and academic major), extrinsic motivations (university entrance score and academic success) and an amotivational factor (gender). We propose a model to explain the observed change in importance between BSc students’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, as a function of time and their increasing autonomy. If our results reflect broader patterns among Australian students undertaking post-secondary education, the use of grounded SDT-based approaches during foundation year may allow students to make more informed choices of academic major, and through this enhance their academic achievement.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic major
• academic achievement
• career aspiration
• gender
• self-determination theory

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Yardenah Brickman and Mr. Chris Wilson for administering the survey, and the students who took part in this study. This work was not supported by funding from any agency.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).