The relationships between the motivational beliefs, course experiences and achievement among postgraduate students in Pakistan

While there is considerable literature concerning the relationship between student motivation and achievement, few studies have examined the relationship between student motivation, course experiences and academic achievement at the postgraduate level. This paper is based on the ?ndings of the initial correlation analysis of the relationship between motivational beliefs and course experiences of 368 postgraduate students in ?ve different subject areas enrolled in day and afternoon classes at a highly-ranked public university in Pakistan. A questionnaire was developed using scales from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and the Course Experiences Questionnaire to measure the motivational beliefs and course experiences of students. Academic achievement was measured using the achievement score in the courses in which the data were collected. The results of the study indicated that students achievement scores were positively correlated with their self-ef?cacy for learning and negatively correlated with test anxiety, whereas the course-experience factor learning community was signi?cantly correlated with achievement scores. Signi?cant correlations were also found among almost all motivational beliefs and course experience factors.