Below the surface: The relationship among different types of motivation, engagement, and performance of undergraduate students in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among learning motivation, engagement behaviors, and performance of undergraduate students. 178 junior students are surveyed from five colleges at a four-year research university in Taiwan. The scales of motivation, engagement, and perceived learning outcomes are adapted from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the College Student Report (NSSE). T-test, one-way ANOVA, multiple hierarchical regression analysis, and structural equation model (SEM) procedures were used to answer the research questions. The research questions are four: 1. Are there significant differences in students' learning motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes among different student demographic characteristics (gender, socioeconomic status, major)? 2. What is the relationship between different types of students' learning motivation and engagement behaviors? 3. What is the relationship between different types of students' engagement behaviors and learning outcomes? 4. How do students' learning motivation mediated by student engagement influence students' learning outcomes?;The findings include that students' major plays an important role in explaining both engagement behaviors and learning outcomes. The results also confirm the hypothesis that different types of students' learning motivation can significantly predict different types of student engagement behaviors and can significantly predict different types of learning outcomes. In addition, student engagement is a partial mediated variable between learning motivation and outcomes, which highlights the importance of learning motivation. These findings suggest that instructors should try to encourage students to master learning materials, highlight the utility and importance of their major courses, and provide a healthy competitive mechanism in the classroom. However, extrinsic motivation is also a negative predictor for the perceived personal and social gains. Instructors and university administrators should ensure that learning environment does not overemphasize grades and competition. Finally, instructors should provide students more successful learning experiences so that they can build more confidence in their ability to learn in their major courses.