Pintrich and colleagues¹ highly emphasised the relationship between motivation and cognition in student performance and learning. It is well documented that there is a relationship between motivation and student performance.^2-4 This suggests that if we measure the academic motivation of students using a specific tool, we will able to improve the learning strategies of students.⁵ Pintrich and colleagues have developed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) in order to measures “students’ motivational orientations and their use of different learning strategies for a specific college course.¹

The MSLQ is based on a general cognitive view of motivation and learning strategies in which the student is an active information processor, and beliefs and cognitions mediate instructional input.¹ The questionnaire consisted of two sections. The first section was designed to measure the academic motivation used by students. The second section was intended to measure the types of learning strategies. Since these sections measure two different constructs, therefore each section can be used separately or together. Therefore, based on the purpose of this study, researchers can use one of these sections or use both sections together.^1,5   As the purpose of this study is to fit a model for the academic motivation of medical students, the section of motivation is used.

The academic motivation section of the MSLQ is based on the social-cognitive model of motivation, which consisted of three general motivational constructs: expectancy, value and affect.^6,7 The expectancy construct focuses on students’ beliefs that they can accomplish a task, and it consists of two subscales. The first subscale is the control of learning beliefs (the belief that outcomes depend on effort and ability rather than on external factors), and the second is self-efficacy (the confidence that one’s abilities are sufficient to succeed). The construct of value focuses on the student’s reasons for engaging in an academic task and consisted of three subscales. The first subscale is intrinsic goal orientation (a focus on learning and mastery), the second subscale is extrinsic goal orientation (a focus on grades and approval from others), and the third subscale is task value beliefs (a judgement of how interesting, useful and essential the student finds the course content).⁸ The last construct is the construct of affect, and it includes responses to a test anxiety scale, which addresses student worries.⁸

The MSLQ, either in its entirety or the form of selected subscales, has been used in many different ways to improve learning.  For instance,  it has been used to measure the nature of motivation across different course subjects,^9-13 and different populations.^{5, 14} It has also been used to measure the motivational effects of various aspects of teaching strategies and course structures.^15-18 The MSLQ is a reliable and valid questionnaire for measuring academic motivation in some different countries with different cultures, including Estonia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Portugal, Spain, China and America.^5,19-23 It has also been used to improve education for undergraduate medical students and other healthcare students.^2-5  Therefore, the questionnaire can be used  for different cultures to monitor and enhance the quality of educational strategies.

However, no previous studies have investigated the hypothesised model of the academic motivation section among Saudi Arabian medical students. Since social and cultural issues can be threats to the validity of test scores,²⁴ one may argue that the MSLQ might perform differently among Saudi Arabian medical students who their culture is different with Western culture.  If this is the case, the MSLQ is required to be revised.²⁵ Therefore, the aim of this study is to shine new light on these debates through an investigation of the hypothesised structure of the academic motivation section of the MSLQ¹ among Saudi Arabian medical students.  A further aim is to provide reliability evidence for the subscales of the academic motivation of the MSLQ.

Table 1 shows the mean and standard deviation for each item within each subscale. As can be seen from the Table, Cronbach’s alphas for the subscales are satisfactory, a range from 0.75 to 0.89.  The hypothesised six-factor model of the academic motivation of the MSLQ is described graphically in Figure 1. Circles represent latent variables and rectangles represent measure variables.

The single-headed arrowsrepresent the factor loadings (regression), and the bidirectional curved arrows represent factor correlations (factor covariance for unstandardized solutions). The path diagram also shows relationships among variables. The numbers “1” in the diagram reflect that the regression coefficient has been fixed to 1. As we hypothesised a six-factor model is confirmed in the academic motivation of the MSLQ, the model was tested using fit statistics.  The results of fit statistics for the one-factor model and the six- factor model are presented in Table 2. The values for the one-factor model indicate a poor fit between the model and the observed data. For the six-factor model, the only value that fits the model is SRMR which is less than 0.009. Taken together, these values suggest that both models do not fit our data set.

This study set out with the aim of assessing the academic motivation section of the MSLQ, using the CFA approach, in order to monitor and enhance teaching and learning among Saudi Arabian medical students.  The results of this study show the academic motivation section of the MSLQ has satisfactory internal consistency reliability. Contrary to exceptions, this study did not approve the hypothesised model of the academic motivation section of the MSLQ to be used for Saudi Arabian medical students. Alternatively stated, the model may not work for monitoring and improving teaching and learning in medicine.  Alternatively, our data sample may not represent the whole student given that female students are not included in this study. However, these results match those observed in the previous studies.^{22, 35-38}  For example, in a study, using medical residents,  the researchers found that the original model fit poorly to their data.²²  Furthermore, a poor fit was also found in another study that tested the validity of the questionnaire.³⁵  It is difficult to explain these results, but it might be due to the fact that the educational and cultural contexts are different among Saudi Arabian medical students. Although the score reliability of the subscales of the academic motivation of the MSLQ is encouraging, there is abundant room for future research.

Finally, a number of important limitations need to be considered. First, the study is limited by the lack of data on female students.  Secondly, the data only came from a single institute. Therefore, the generalisability of these results is limited to the target population. Finally, the major limitation of this study is the low sample size.   These limitations mean that study results need to be interpreted cautiously.

The present study was designed to measure the construct validity of the motivation section of the MSLQ and to assess its hypothesised model. The results of this study show the motivation section of the MSLQ is a reliable measure. However, the data do not fit the hypothesised model and therefore the questionnaire may not be valid. The reliability of scale score may encourage researchers to conduct further studies in order to obtain a clear picture of the MSLQ.  This research has generated some questions in need of future investigations.   For example, a future study with more focus on both genders is suggested. In addition to this, a large sample size could provide a clear picture of both sections of the MSQL for Saudi Arabian medical students.