Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation to Learn as Factors of Resilience in Students' Pedagogical Disciplines - Pilot Study

Abstract

Motivation determines the dynamics of behaviour and helps in overcoming obstacles. A related concept is resilience, which also relates to overcoming stressful situations and speaks to an individual’s ability to adapt to challenging circumstances in life. The aim of this paper was to investigate the relationship between resilience and motivation to learn in students studying in the field of education. One hundred and thirty students participated in the research (100 bachelor students and 30 master students). The research instrument used to measure resilience was The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10) and to detemine motivation The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS-C 28) tool was used. The Mann-Whitney test found no significant difference between the two groups of students in each of the variables measured. The results show a significant association between resilience and types of intrinsic motivation in particular, but the strongest relationship was found between resilience and the lack of motivation. Students with low resilience scored higher on amotivation. For students at university, motivation to learn based on intrinsic drives is assumed to be self-evident. However, the ability to overcome obstacles is also necessary for the attainment of learning goals. Its degree can also be developed through educational intervention, which provides an opportunity for university teachers to expand their area of operation.

Full text

17 Central European Journal of Educational Research 5(1) 2023. 17–23.
Thematic Article
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation to Learn as Factors
of Resilience in Students’ Pedagogical Disciplines –
Pilot Study
Tatiana Dubayová1, Hedviga Hačová2
Recommended citation:
Dubayová, T., & Hačová, H. (2023). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation to Learn as Factors of Resilience in Students’
Pedagogical Disciplines – Pilot Study. Central European Journal of Educational Research, 5(1), 17–23. https://doi.
org/10.37441/cejer/2023/5/1/12298
Abstract
Motivation determines the dynamics of behaviour and helps in overcoming obstacles. A related concept is
resilience, which also relates to overcoming stressful situations and speaks to an individual’s ability to adapt to
challenging circumstances in life. The aim of this paper was to investigate the relationship between resilience
and motivation to learn in students studying in the eld of education. One hundred and thirty students participated
in the research (100 bachelor students and 30 master students). The research instrument used to measure
resilience was The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10) and to detemine motivation The Academic
Motivation Scale (AMS-C 28) tool was used. The Mann-Whitney test found no signicant dierence between
the two groups of students in each of the variables measured. The results show a signicant association between
resilience and types of intrinsic motivation in particular, but the strongest relationship was found between
resilience and the lack of motivation. Students with low resilience scored higher on amotivation. For students
at university, motivation to learn based on intrinsic drives is assumed to be self-evident. However, the ability to
overcome obstacles is also necessary for the attainment of learning goals. Its degree can also be developed
through educational intervention, which provides an opportunity for university teachers to expand their area of
operation.
Keywords: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, motivation to learn, resilience, university student,
pedagogical eld of study
Introduction
As many denitions state, motivation is the process that activates human behaviour. Intrinsic (e.g., enjoyment
of teaching), extrinsic (e.g., job security, social status), and altruistic (e.g., interest in helping children) motives
are mentioned by several authors as important for the choice of a teaching profession (Brookhart & Freeman,
1992; Heinz, 2015). Based on the results of his research, Tomšik (2017) found a signicant association between
altruistic motives and students’ interest in learning, indicating that decreased interest in the profession was also
related to decreased prosocial behavior in working with children and adolescents. In a research that surveyed
students’ interest in studying the eld of primary education teacher, more than one-third of students (38.23%)
showed high interest in studying, but 16.67% reported only moderate interest (Izdenczyová, 2019). Teachers
with high intrinsic motivation are more likely to try to arouse students’ intrinsic motivation for learning
(Fokkens-Bruinsma & Canrinus, 2014).
Kuruc (2021) states that during the course of study, the motivational setting of pre-primary and primary
education students may change. In doing so, it draws on Deci and Ryan’s (1985) Self-Determination Theory
(SDT), which refers to the fulllment of a student’s needs for autonomy, competence, and connectedness during
1 Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of Prešov in Prešov, Slovak Republic; tatiana.
dubayova@unipo.sk
2 Department of Natural Sciences and Technical Disciplines, Faculty of Education, University of Prešov in Prešov, Slovak
Republic

18 Dubayová, T. et al.
the learning process (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Deci Ryan, 2000). In his research, the author in comparing bachelor’s
and master’s degree students nds the domination of extrinsic motivation in bachelor’s degree students and the
domination of intrinsic motivation in master’s degree students. In relation to academic achievement, motivation
plays a signicant role and is reected in the choice of tasks, the time and eort students devote to them, and
the management of obstacles encountered in the learning process (Tomšík, 2017). Some studies have found that
students’ lower motivation to study at university may also be due to incorrect choice of university or study
program, which may also lead to dropping out (Kovács, 2018; Bocsi et al., 2019).
However, studying at university is also accompanied by complications, such as failing an exam, study
pressure, stress, and negative teacher evaluations, which can signicantly interfere with the desire to work. In
case of lack of resilience, demotivation and disruption of academic achievement may occur (Martin, 2002).
Thorová (2015), Masten et al. (2014), Dubayová et al. (2021) as well as other authors emphasize that resilience
is developed through an individual’s interaction with the environment. It is the result of:
– personality factors – e.g. exibility, self-perception, self-esteem, attitude to life, etc;
– emotional and motivational factors – the ability to work with negative but also positive emotions, self-
control;
– cognitive factors – the ability to identify problems and work on their solution;
– relational factors – e.g. the strength and quantity of satisfying social contacts and the fullment of the
need to form a relational bond;
– community factors – e.g. support, understanding, value setting of the wider social environment;
– educational factors – e.g. access to and quality of education, opportunity for self-development through
quality leisure activities, etc. (Thorová, 2015).
Resilience is also related to the onset of mental health problems, where it has been conrmed that trauma
survivors with low levels of resilience are more likely to experience symptoms of mental illness than trauma
survivors with higher levels of resilience (Cambell-Sills & Stein, 2007). Despite the similarities in content, a
distinction needs to be made between resilience and motivation. The essence of resilience is related to the
internal disposition in times of adversity, but motivation is related to the desire to act in a certain way to achieve
a certain goal. However, both phenomena are interrelated because a person who is resilient must be motivated;
therefore, the characteristics of motivated and resilient individuals are similar (Resnick, 2018).
The aim of this paper is to clarify the relationship between the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of
educational study program students to study and their resilience. Changes in extrinsic motivation, intrinsic
motivation and amotivation were detected using a cross-sectional assessment of motivation in dierent year
groups of students. Due to the disproportionate representation of boys and girls in pedagogical studies, gender
dierences were not detected. Based on the information presented in the theoretical part, the following
hypotheses were tested:
H1: Master’s students will have signicantly higher intrinsic motivation than bachelor’s students.
H2: Students with higher intrinsic motivation scores (of all types) will also score higher in resilience than
students with lower intrinsic motivation scores.
Research Design and Methods
The data collection was conducted in May 2022 electronically from among full-time students of educational
science majors. Two main research instruments were administered: The Academic Motivation Scale and The
Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale.
The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 software. Among the mathematical and statistical
methods, ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation coecient were used to nd out the relationships among the
variables. Due to the size of the research population and its composition, the gender of the respondent was not
taken into account in the analyses, and only undergraduate students were compared together with master’s
degree students.
The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS-C 28)
The Academic Motivation Scale distinguishes three types of motivation to learn – extrinsic motivation (EM),
intrinsic motivation (IM) and amotivation. The scale is designed for middle and high school students, but in
some research, it has been shown to be a valid instrument for elementary school students as well. The AMS-C

19 Central European Journal of Educational Research 5(1) 2023. 17–23.
28 includes 28 statements that the respondent uses to rate his/her attitude and motivation towards learning on a
7-point Likert scale, which relate to 7 subscales: IM to know, IM to accomplish, IM to experience, external: EM,
introjected EM, identied regulation EM and amotivation. The maximum possible score for each scale was 28
points in the total score. The AMS-C 28 has been psychometrically validated on a population of secondary
school students in Slovakia and conrmatory factor analysis was used to establish construct validity, which
conrmed it as a reliable and valid research instrument: α EM (external) = 0,78, α EM (identied) = 0,79, α EM (introjected) = 0,77,
α IM (to know) = 0,73, α IM (to acomplish things) = 0,63, α IM (to experience stimulation) = 0,70 (Kubiatko, 2018).
The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10)
The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale is designed for the adult population. Resilience is characterized here as
a stress management ability. The questionnaire contains 10 items that have been scored as a summative score
that expresses resilience as the ability to tolerate change, personal problems, illness, pressure, failure, or feelings
of pain (Cambell-Sills & Stein, 2007). Respondents rate items on a scale from 0 (not true at all) to 4 (true almost
all the time), total score ranges from 0-40. The average score of 30.1 corresponded with the average scores in
studies from the USA, Canada, Portugal and Hungary (from 28 to 30.1) (Davidson, 2018). The CD-RISC-10
showed high internal consistency: Cronbach’s α = 0.81.
Ethics statement
The aims and objectives of the research were explained to the students. Written informed consent was obtained
from all participants involved in the study.
Research sample
The research population included students in the 1st and 3rd year of the Bachelor’s degree program and the 1st
year of the Master’s degree program. A specic feature of each group was that rst year students entered
university after almost two years of predominantly distance learning due to the COVID pandemic. They did not
nish their secondary school studies with a high school diploma, but with an average grade in their nal report
certicates. Students in the third year of the bachelor’s degree completed the rst semester of their studies in
in-person/contact classes, while the second semester classes were moved online and, for almost 3 semesters,
were taught by distance learning. Students in the third year of the Bachelor’s degree and the rst year of the
Master’s degree completed their secondary education with a regular matriculation examination.
Of the total number of students enrolled in the bachelor’s and master’s degrees Special education,
Preschool and elementary education programs and the Preschool and elementary education and education of
the children with conduct disorders study programs, a sum of 130 students completed the questionnaire. Of the
242 rst year bachelor’s degree students, 48 students participated in the research, while of the 192 third year
bachelor’s degree students, 52 students participated in the research. Of the 112 rst year master’s degree
students, 30 students completed the questionnaire. The response rate of the questionnaire was 24%. Because
only 3 men (1 bachelor’s and 2 master’s degree) completed the questionnaire, we did not control for gender in
the analyses.
Results
There was no signicant dierence in the resilience summary score between the bachelor’s and master’s student
cohorts. The expected dierence between the types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation between students at
both levels of education, based on the research of some authors, was also not conrmed. Students scored lowest
on intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation, while higher scores were found on extrinsic motivation -
identied, a variable related to the expectation of a better job placement (Table 1.). In the amotivation subscale,
where a maximum score of 28 points was possible, the average scores measured were 8.73 for bachelor’s
students and 8.63 for master’s students, which can be considered low values. Only 9 students (7 bachelor and
2 master students) expressed their reduced motivation for study by scoring 5 points or higher in at least two of
the four items for amotivation.

20 Dubayová, T. et al.
Table 1. Dierence in the values of the variables: resilience (expressed by total score) and dierent types of motivation
between bachelor’s and master’s students.
Bachelor’s degree
students
N = 100
Master’s degree
students
N = 30
Mann–Whitney
test
priemer SD priemer SD
CD-RISC-10 (SUM) 30,18 5,03 30,10 3,85 ns
Intrinsic motivation towards knowledge 18,97 5,25 19,10 6,02 ns
Intristic motivation towards accomplish-
ments 16,88 5,37 17,37 6,17 ns
Intristic motivation to experience stimu-
lation 13,38 5,65 13,70 5,45 ns
Extrinsic motivation – identied 22,04 4,77 22,53 4,64 ns
Extrinsic motivation – introjected 16,07 6,35 16,20 7,65 ns
Extrinsic motivation – external regulation 19,30 5,72 18,93 5,29 ns
Amotivation 8,73 5.09 8,63 6,19 ns
(Abbreviations: CD-RISC-10 = total score in resilience)
Subsequently, we investigated the association between the nal resilience score and the dierent types of
motivation through Pearson’s correlation coecient. We included all students in the analyses because of similar
results in mean scores between undergraduate and graduate students. The strongest association emerged between
total resilience scores and amotivation, conrming that low resilience corresponds with higher scores in
amotivation.
Apart from extrinsic motivation – introjected and extrinsic motivation - external regulation, all other types
of motivation were positively correlated with high resilience values, but only at the p≤0.05 level, which could
change in the direction of both higher and lower correlations in the case of a larger research set. Correlations at
a level higher than p ≤ 0.05 will not be interpreted as these are correlations between dimensions of the same
research instrument where relationships between them are assumed.
Table 2. Correlations between the variables: resilience (expressed by total score) and individual types of motivation in
students of pedagogy.
CD-RISC-10
(SUM) IM - K IM - A IM - ES EM - ID EM - IN EM – ER AM
CD-RISC-10
(SUM) -
IM - K ,185* -
IM - A ,199* ,754** -
IM - ES ,176* ,730** ,757** -
EM - ID ,179* ,651** ,574** ,412** -
EM - IN ,067 ,379** ,645** ,473** ,372** -
EM – ER ,080 ,358** ,480** ,329** ,567** ,554** -
AM -,268** -,511** -,445** -,247** -,637** -,175* -,251** -
(Abbreviations: * p≤0,05, ** p≤0,01; IM – K intrinsic motivation towards knowledge; IM – A intrinsic motivation towards
accomplishments; IM – ES – intrinsic motivation towards experience stimulation; EM – ID extrinsic motivation identied;
EM – IN – extrinsic motivation introjected; EM – ER – extrinsic motivation towards external regulation; AM –
amotivation)
Discussion
Motivation and resilience as content-related constructs are important prerequisites for an active and successful
mastery of university studies. The aim of this paper was to investigate the relationship between dierent types
of motivation and resilience in undergraduate and graduate students of education.

21 Central European Journal of Educational Research 5(1) 2023. 17–23.
There was no signicant dierence in any of the measured variables between the two sets of students, on
the basis of which we consider the rst hypothesis to be unconrmed. The results are not consistent with the
ndings of Kuruc (2021) who found higher intrinsic motivation in senior students compared to undergraduate
students. However, the dierence between the research results may be inuenced by the lower representation of
master’s students.
Resilience, according to the results presented, is statistically signicantly associated with the construct of
motivation. Only two variables did not show an association – extrinsic motivation – introjected and extrinsic
motivation – external regulation. We talk about extrinsic motivation – introjected when people perform an
action with a sense of pressure to avoid guilt or anxiety or to achieve ego boosting or pride, e.g. they consider
it important to prove to themselves that they can graduate from college. In terms of mean scores, this type of
motivation scored the lowest, so we can assume that studying at university does not serve to prove to oneself
one’s importance. Given that this is an introjection of extrinsic motives, its link to resilient behaviour is not
linear, since individuals with low extrinsic motivation – introjected are likely to have achieved dierent levels
of resilience. Extrinsic motivation – external regulation as a typical representative of extrinsic motivation is
characterized by the fact that a person acts in order to obtain an extrinsic reward, such as a better salary or a
better position in the labor market (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Its association with resilience also appears ambiguous,
although its mean score was quite high. Arguably, being motivated by a desire for something is unrelated to
intrinsic power to achieve set goals. Bulkova and Hibky’s (2016) ndings suggest that among the three types of
motivation, cognitive motivation was the least preferred, but students attributed more importance to social and
instrumental motivation, and enjoyment, pleasure, and beliefs about the importance of university study for
personal development were not the main sources of motivation for university students. Also for this research set,
the values in all three types of intrinsic motivation were lower than those in the subscales of extrinsic motivation.
Consistent with the nding of a positive correlation between intrinsic motivation and resilience scores, we
consider the second hypothesis to be conrmed.
The limitations of the study are the disproportionality of the research samples, where there were only 30
master’s students, so we consider the unobserved dierences between the two groups of students to be indicative
only. Unfortunately, due to the small number of respondents in the sample, we cannot consider the results to be
representative. Nevertheless, they motivate us to continue the research. For practical reasons, we chose to
distribute the questionnaire electronically, which did not allow us to control the data collection. It is possible
that the research was predominantly attended by students with a tendency to cooperate and that students with
lower motivation avoided completing the questionnaire, as evidenced by the low number of students showing
high scores in the area of amotivation. In the future, we recommend prioritizing data collection in the classroom
and through the pen-and-paper method, despite its lengthiness. Another limitation of the study is the lack of
representation of statements from students from other universities. In the following research, the data collection
will be conducted in all faculties of education in Slovakia and we recommend that the results of the presented
research be seen as preliminary and pilot. Other variables such as emotional intelligence will also be surveyed
in the following larger research. Regarding the research ndings, Magnano, Craparo and Paolilo (2011) conrm
its signicant role and association with resilience and motivation to achieve academic success.
Of course, a student’s resilience is built throughout his or her life so far, and his or her ability to adapt to
and cope with even adverse life circumstances inuences his or her motivation to act. On the basis of our
research, even after confronting other authors, we cannot assume the causality of the relationship between
motivation and resilience. It is not clear whether low ability to overcome obstacles is the cause of low levels of
overall motivation to learn, or whether low motivation causes higher passivity and low combativeness in
situations that can only be successfully overcome by increased activity. Research in this area needs to be
expanded to include additional contexts that will help create a more comprehensive model with new, even non-
linear, relationships.
Conclusion
The teaching profession is demanding both in terms of personal commitment and motivation for the profession
and in terms of coping with stressful situations. This study presents an insight into the motives for studying and
its relations to resilience of one cohort of male and female students of the Faculty of Education of the University
of Prešov. The key result is the conrmation of an inverse relationship between the level of amotivation and
resilience, which suggests that students poorly motivated by both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation factors are

22 Dubayová, T. et al.
less prepared to cope with the burden. The results of the pilot research also suggest relationships of resilience
with other types of motivation, but these will need to be veried with a larger research population. The research
inspires to include other variables such as relationship to learning, emotional intelligence, etc., to the next
research, which would also help to clarify the broader context needed to understand the relationship between
motivation and resilience.
Acknowledgement This study was supported by the grant project VEGA 1/0280/22 entitled “Identication of Psychosocial
Factors of Inclusive Environment for Children with Special Educational Needs During School Attendance”.
We thank Johnathan Dabney for the English language editing.
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