Development of a methodology and investigation of the cognitive motivation of students to study chemistry in English

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study on the development and testing of the methodology «Cognitive motivation of students to study chemistry in English.» Even though at present there is a sufficient number of methods to determine the level of cognitive motivation of students, the methodology for determining the level of motivation to study specialized subjects in a foreign language has not yet been available. The study included 1–3 year students of Pavlodar State Pedagogical University of the Higher School of Natural Sciences, students in the educational program «Chemistry». To process the obtained data, the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 program and Microsoft Excel were used. The substantive, constructive (conceptual), discriminant validity of the technique, its internal consistency and retest reliability are proved. The values of the interval of levels of the formation of cognitive motivation for studying chemistry in English are determined. The authors of the article substantiate the reason for the change in the hierarchy of components of educational motivation among students in the process of studying at a university and practically prove an increase in the level of cognitive motivation for studying chemistry in English for senior students. The developed methodology positively correlates with converging methods of researching the motivation of professional activity (K. Zamfir in the modification of A.A. Rean), personality diagnostics for the motivation for success of T. Ehlers, and the methodology of studying the motivation of learning at the university of T.I. Ilyina (scale «Mastering the profession») and negatively correlates with the methodology of studying the motivation of learning at the university T.I. Ilyina (scale»Knowledge Acquisition»).