The Effects of Learning Motivation, Achievement Motivation, and

Academic Self-Efficacy on College Students' Achievement

Xiaoxiao Kang

Academy of Choreographic Art, Hebei Institute of Communications, Shijiazhuang, 050000, China

Keywords: Learning Motivation, Achievement Motivation, Academic Self-Efficacy, College Students.

Abstract: As the main force of the fresh century, college students’ strengths and achievements are widely concerned by

society. The reasons affecting college students' performance are among today's investigation's main themes.

This paper mainly centers on how learning motivation (LM), achievement motivation (AM), and academic

self-efficacy (ASE) influence college students' performance. In this paper, the study is made by reviewing the

previous related literature. Moreover, Previous research has demonstrated that a study examining the relation-

ship between college students' LM and academic performance reveals a significant and positive correlation

between these two factors. The results of the literature review on AM and ASE respectively show a significant

positive correlation between them and academic performance. This paper summarizes the literature and finds

that LM, AM and ASE have an impact on college students' academic performance, and that good intervention

motivation and self-efficacy can make college students' academic performance improve, tap college students'

potentials, and make contributions to society.

1 INTRODUCTION

In today's academic field, learning motivation has

become the focus and cutting-edge topic of research

at home and abroad. College students constitute the

backbone of the new era and play a pivotal role in

driving societal advancement. They are exposed to

cutting-edge academic theories and research methods

on college campuses, and through unique

perspectives and innovative thinking, they put

forward new ideas and new technologies to promote

the development of the academic field and the

progress of the times. For college students, it is

crucial for them to cultivate their study habits and

establish a correct view of learning, which makes the

study of college students' motivation of study of great

practical significance. The objective of this study is to

examine the impact of college students' motivation,

AM, and ASE on their academic performance.

This study employs a structured literature review

methodology to critically analyze and synthesize

existing research on the relationship between LM,

ASE, and academic performance among college

students. The goal is to identify key findings,

highlight gaps in current research, and propose

actionable insights for educators and policymakers.

An in-depth investigation into college students' LM

and self-efficacy can offer valuable insights and

references for enhancing educational and teaching

practices. In the course of teaching practice, the

authors have developed teaching methodologies,

cultivation programs, and learning models that are

more closely aligned with the needs and

characteristics of college students, based on an

accurate understanding of their motivations. Through

these initiatives, people are not only able to enhance

the overall quality and competence of college

students, so that they in the knowledge reserve,

thinking ability, practical skills and other dimensions

to achieve a qualitative leap, but also can vigorously

promote the personalised development of college

students, so that each college student can respect their

own uniqueness on the basis of the full exploitation

of their potential. They blossomed into their own

glory, ultimately cultivating a number of individuals

for the community who possess both solid

professional qualities and charismatic personalities.

The ultimate goal is to nurture a batch of high-quality

talents for society.

328

Kang, X.

The Effects of Learning Motivation, Achievement Motivation, and Academic Self-Efﬁcacy on College Students’ Achievement.

DOI: 10.5220/0013984200004912

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development (IESD 2025), pages 328-333

ISBN: 978-989-758-779-5

2 INTRODUCTION TO THE KEY

CONCEPTS

2.1 Introduction to Motivation

This paper examines motivation including learning

motivation (LM) and achievement motivation (AM).

LM is defined in educational psychology as the pro-

pensity to motivate and sustain students to engage in

learning behaviours towards a certain goal. LM can

be reflected in the level of effort, language expres-

sion, and expectations of events by students, so it can-

not be directly observed (Wang et al., 2022). Univer-

sity students' learning activities are influenced by

motivation, which is a key predictor of their academic

performance (Kazemi, 2016).

AM means the motivation of an individual to pur-

sue what he or she considers to be of great value and

to achieve perfection, both a motivation to strive for

the success of an activity by holding himself or her-

self to a high standard. AM is a concept put forward

by psychologist Murray, and later Atkinson agreed

with Murray's idea and put forward the theory of AM

includes two aspects: the drive to succeed and the

drive to avoid failure. AM theory is highly applicable

in analyzing the current issue of college students' ac-

ademic performance. Numerous empirical studies

have demonstrated a significant and positive correla-

tion between AM and academic performance (Xiao et

al., 2023).

2.2 Introduction to Academic

Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in their

capability to effectively utilize their skills and com-

petencies to accomplish tasks and achieve success.

Individuals' beliefs regarding their capabilities signif-

icantly influence behavioral outcomes. Academic

self-efficacy of university students affects the way

they think, react and behave, influences behavioural

habits and outcomes, is an important factor in person-

ality development and learning ability, and is a pre-

dictor of academic achievement. Therefore, in-depth

investigation of its impact on academic achievement

can help to improve students' self-confidence and

self-realisation ability, and promote them to achieve

their academic goals (Xiang, 2023).

2.3 Introduction to the Concept

If Achievement motivation (AM) and academic self-

efficacy(ASE) are intrinsic drivers of academic suc-

cess. AM refers to an individual's intrinsic drive to

pursue work that they deem important and valuable,

and to strive for excellence in its completion. It is like

a flame deep inside that motivates people to pursue

excellence and constantly challenge themselves. Ac-

cording to American psychologist McClelland, peo-

ple with high achievement motivation aspire to do

things more perfectly, improve their efficiency and

achieve greater success. They will set clear goals for

themselves and are willing to put in efforts to achieve

them. For example, students who aspire to excel aca-

demically will proactively develop study plans and

dedicate significant time and effort to their studies.

ASE, derived from Bandura's self-efficacy, refers

to the degree to which a student is confident in his or

her ability to use the abilities or skills that he or she

possesses to complete academic tasks. Simply put, it

is a student's subjective judgement of his or her ability

to learn. Students with high self-efficacy believe in

their ability to solve academic problems and face dif-

ficulties positively. However, when some students

encounter challenges, they may readily experience

self-doubt and withdraw from tasks. This behavior

suggests a lower level of self-efficacy among these

students.

AM and ASE influence each other. High AM en-

hances ASE, and students believe more in their abili-

ties when they work hard and succeed. ASE stimu-

lates AM, and confident students set challenging

goals and pursue higher achievement.

3 THE EFFECTS OF LEARNING

MOTIVATION, ACHIEVEMENT

MOTIVATION, AND

SELF-EFFICACY ON

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

3.1 The Effect of Motivation on

University Students' Performance

Learning motivation is born in students' learning

practice, and has a crucial role in shaping and predict-

ing the direction of their learning behaviour and aca-

demic performance. In the field of learning motiva-

tion research, junior high school abroad, other

countries started earlier and harvested fruitful results.

Although there are many different definitions of mo-

tivation, a consensus has been reached on the core

point of motivation as the psychological drive that in-

spires and sustains students' learning behaviours.

The Effects of Learning Motivation, Achievement Motivation, and Academic Self-Efﬁcacy on College Students’ Achievement

329

Some scholars have proposed that learning moti-

vation is a psychological process that can guarantee

the continuous advancement of students' learning be-

haviours, and even if it encounters external disturb-

ances, it can have a decisive influence on the termi-

nation of learning behaviours or not (Kuh, 2001;

Liang, 2020). Zhang regarded LM as a motivational

tendency formed under the synergistic effect of an in-

dividual's internal needs and external factors (Zhang,

2000). Based on the research report examining the re-

lationship between motivation and academic perfor-

mance, a strong positive correlation exists between

these two factors. In addition, the evolving diversity

of contemporary society has led to a notable increase

in the development and importance of motivation

(Gao, 2020).

Among them, in a study by Gao, it was shown that

college students' study motivation and academic per-

formance were significantly positively correlated

(Gao, 2020). In this research, 6600 undergraduate stu-

dents across 53 different majors at a university in

Guangdong were selected as the study participants,

and a basic questionnaire and a study motivation

questionnaire were distributed to the students through

questionnaires, in which the study motivation ques-

tionnaire was based on a 4-point scoring system of

Likert, and the high and low scores represented the

strengths and weaknesses of the study motivation.

The research encompasses a wide range of disciplines

and a substantial number of students, thereby ensur-

ing robust representativeness.

The dependent variable, academic performance,

was obtained from the school's academic affairs sys-

tem grade pool. IT technology was used to collect

data from the questionnaires on basic information and

academic motivation of college students, and

SPSS15. 0 was used to statistically analyse these three

data, including correlation and regression analyses.

The analysis results indicated a positive correlation

between college students' learning motivation (LM)

and their academic performance (AP). Furthermore,

all five dimensions of learning motivation exhibited

positive relationships with academic performance.

The stronger the motivation (including five dimen-

sions including cognitive expectations, goal orienta-

tion, self-efficacy, attributional style, and environ-

mental influences), the better the academic

performance, and all of them are positively correlated

with each other. These five factors constitute essential

elements of modern college students' motivation, col-

lectively impacting their academic achievement. This

influence is propelled by positive subjective motiva-

tional aspects and serves as a strong positive indicator

of academic success.

However, learning motivation is not the only fac-

tor that affects academic performance. In the research

exploring the relationship between college students'

academic performance and LM, Wang et al. subdi-

vided the subjects into 177 boys and 223 girls and

took computer science and technology majors of Yili

Normal University as an example, and also used ques-

tionnaire survey method, referred to the classification

of John Biggs' motivation, and combined with the

characteristics of the study of computer science and

technology majors. Drawing on John Biggs' classifi-

cation of learning approaches and aligning it with the

learning characteristics of college students majoring

in computer science and technology, the question-

naire was designed to categorize LM into superficial

motivation, deep motivation, and AM. Deep motiva-

tion is driven by students' desire to improve personal

abilities through knowledge acquisition. AM comes

from goals of realizing self-worth, ideals, and ambi-

tions. Both are crucial for effective learning.

The same SPSS software was used to analyse the

data, and after the correlation analysis, There is a sta-

tistically significant correlation between superficial

motivation and academic performance (Pearson's cor-

relation coefficient r = 0. 339, significance <0. 01)

Currently, most students show a strong superficial

motivation. They tend to concentrate on their studies

in a short period of time for the upcoming final exams

or to obtain various certificates, and this kind of LM

that aims purely at passing exams and obtaining cer-

tificates belongs to the category of superficial moti-

vation. After analysing the data, It has been observed

that the relationship between surface-level motivation

and students' academic achievement is the most sig-

nificant, demonstrating a strong positive correlation.

After conducting independent samples t-tests on the

three types of motivation, The research results show

that there are no significant differences between male

and female students in terms of surface motivation

and achievement motivation, but significant differ-

ences are shown in deep motivation, and the deeper

motivation of male students is higher than that of fe-

male students, perhaps because male students have a

greater desire for knowledge than female students,

and also have better hands-on ability. Lack of moti-

vation or only superficial motivation will not help im-

prove academic performance, but will bring many

negative effects to improve academic performance,

and become an obstacle on the road; deep motivation

has significant differences with gender, and boys are

stronger than girls. Boys are more inquisitive and

more hands-on than girls.

IESD 2025 - International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development

330

Through previous studies, the authors can find

that superficial motivation is the most influential fac-

tor on college students' academic performance, but

deeper motivation also plays a profound and lasting

role, and it is necessary for students and teachers to

work together to develop more positive motivation

for learning. Motivation indeed influences college

students' academic performance, yet it is not the sole

determinant. Other significant factors encompass in-

telligence, family background, and the learning envi-

ronment, among others.

3.2 Effect of Achievement Motivation

on College Students' Achievement

Some researchers believe that achievement motiva-

tion is an individual's internal drive to achieve good

grades and gain recognition from others. In the learn-

ing process, the self-confidence and metacognitive

level of college students motivate the expectation of

achieving good grades and the satisfaction of achiev-

ing grades with positive psychological cues. Accord-

ing to Atkinson's "expectancy-value" theory, achieve-

ment motivation can be divided into two categories:

one is the driving force to pursue success, and the

other is the tendency to avoid failure, and when stu-

dents want to accomplish something or get good

grades, these two kinds of motivation play a role at

the same time (Xu, 2010).

Some studies show no significant difference be-

tween AM and academic performance. Researchers

found no significant correlation between them among

junior high school students (Zhang et al., 2003). An-

other researcher with undergraduate college students

as the study subjects, found that achievement motiva-

tion and performance are significantly correlated.

Subsequently, Other researchers have shown a strong

positive link between motivation, learning strategies,

and academic performance. This indicates that aca-

demic success is affected by several related factors

(Liu, 2003).

Song investigated the correlation between AM

and academic performance among 364 students at the

College of Physical Education, Sichuan Normal Uni-

versity (Song, 2016). First scale is the achievement

scale according to the characteristics of the subject to

make a distinction, divided into arts and theory. Sec-

ond scale is the achievement motivation scale. Ques-

tionnaires were used to investigate the method of col-

lective measurement. After recovering the

questionnaire, the researcher used SPSS17. 0 statisti-

cal software to quantitatively process and statistically

analyse the relevant data.

The AM score for students at this school is 0. 46

± 0. 58, suggesting a higher motivation for pursuing

success and avoiding failure compared to students in

other institutions. During the correlation study, it was

found that the students' academic performance in arts

subjects showed a positive correlation with achieve-

ment motivation, There is a weak negative correlation

between achievement motivation and the theoretical

performance of students, indicating that an increase

in achievement motivation may be associated with a

slight decline in their theoretical performance. This

suggests that strong achievement motivation does not

necessarily lead to positive and beneficial learning

outcomes, and in some senses may even have a nega-

tive effect on learning outcomes, leading to devia-

tions from expectations and a de-optimisation of

learning outcomes.

When students are nearly saturated in the process

of learning, there will be a psychological disorder

caused by certain conditions-learning burnout, which

will affect the effectiveness of students' learning, and

therefore their grades will inevitably be affected. It

has been shown through previous studies that a per-

son's level of AM shapes his or her emotional state

when doing things to a considerable extent. There is

a strong correlation between AM level and learning

burnout among college students, with AM level play-

ing a crucial role in influencing learning burnout, Col-

lege students' burnout and its degree during academ-

ics directly impact final learning outcomes. Academic

burnout significantly affects college students' learn-

ing effects.

Research shows that college students' AM has a

positive U-shaped relationship with academic burn-

out (Xiao et al., 2023). Learning burnout is significant

when AM is too low or too high; learning burnout is

weak under moderate AM. Students who exhibit

stronger AM are likely to experience higher levels of

learning burnout. This is because the goals they set

are usually more challenging, and the pursuit of ex-

cellence inspires a strong motivation to learn, which

in turn generates a corresponding motivation. How-

ever, once they encounter difficulties and setbacks in

the learning process, their confidence is easily dam-

aged and they begin to doubt their ability, This leads

to the cultivation of various negative emotions, re-

sults in a pronounced state of learning burnout, and

ultimately exerts an adverse effect on academic

achievement.

Several studies indicate that various factors influ-

ence the connection between AM and the perfor-

mance of college students, and the differences in ma-

jors and grades can be used as influencing factors, and

that AM, as a kind of positive internal drive, should

The Effects of Learning Motivation, Achievement Motivation, and Academic Self-Efﬁcacy on College Students’ Achievement

331

be used by teachers reasonably to guide students to

engage in positive learning behaviours.

3.3 The Effect of Self-Efficacy on

College Students' Performance

Self-efficacy, which reflects an individual's confi-

dence in their capabilities, significantly influences the

effectiveness of personal endeavors. Schunk and

Ertmer suggested that self-efficacy has a correspond-

ing effect in the self-monitoring of the learning plan,

in behavioural performance, and in the self-reflection

phase, and that self-efficacy can be a predictor of col-

lege students' performance. Individuals' experience of

achieving success is the most influential factor on

self-efficacy, and therefore achievement in grades

may be accompanied by greater self-efficacy (Zhu &

Xie, 2007).

In Xiang's study, which investigates the connec-

tion between college students' self-efficacy, deep

learning, and academic performance, a sample of

1,400 undergraduate students was examined. The re-

search employed a questionnaire survey approach,

utilizing the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) as

the measurement tool to gather data (Xiang, 2023).

The correlation coefficient between college stu-

dents' self-efficacy and academic performance is 0.

657, which is statistically significant at the 1% level.

These findings suggest a moderate positive relation-

ship between these two variables. Specifically, an in-

crease in self-efficacy is likely to contribute posi-

tively to academic performance.

Following the regression analysis between the in-

dependent variable of college students' self-efficacy

and the dependent variable of academic performance,

it is evident that there is a positive correlation be-

tween students' self-efficacy and their academic out-

comes. Specifically, as self-efficacy levels increase,

academic performance tends to improve accordingly.

After the completion of the analysis the regression co-

efficient of college students' self-efficacy is 0. 657,

and it successfully passes the significance test at 1%

level. This means that for every one unit increase in

self-efficacy, the academic achievement of college

students will increase by 0. 657 units, This clearly in-

dicates that self-efficacy serves as a crucial driving

force for college students throughout their academic

development journey.

Gardner's theory of motivation centers on integra-

tive motivation. He posits that there is a positive cor-

relation between the strength of learning motivation

and self-efficacy, leading to improved academic out-

comes. According to Gardner, as learning motivation

intensifies and self-belief increases, academic perfor-

mance tends to enhance correspondingly (Zhao,

2023). Liu's research found a positive correlation be-

tween self-efficacy and leadership-member exchange

(LM) (Liu, 2010). Students' belief in their own abili-

ties can be found throughout the whole process of in-

dependent learning, and A. Bandura and D. H.

Schunk et al. showed that academic self-efficacy

level can accurately predict students' academic per-

formance. Those with high ASE had higher grades

and those with low ASE had lower grades. A wealth

of research has demonstrated a significant correlation

between self-efficacy and academic performance,

with both factors mutually influencing one another.

In conclusion, College students with higher self-

efficacy tend to attain greater academic success. It is

consistent with the findings of most researchers.

However, Online learning faces unpredictable factors

in the Internet age. University students struggle with

information overload and learning anxiety, impacting

their self-efficacy (Liu, 2024).

Therefore, teachers can emphasize the develop-

ment of college students' independent learning and

self-management skills. This approach boosts their

confidence in learning. It leads to better academic

outcomes.

4 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, numerous studies have indicated that

academic motivation is positively correlated with col-

lege students' academic achievement and serves as a

valuable predictor of their performance. Achievement

motivation also shows a significant positive relation-

ship with academic outcomes, acting as a beneficial

psychological factor that influences performance.

Additionally, self-efficacy is strongly linked to aca-

demic success, with both elements reinforcing each

other.

For educators, harnessing students' intrinsic moti-

vation has brought about substantial advancements in

education. By conducting thorough research and de-

veloping teaching strategies tailored to the unique

characteristics of college students, educators can en-

hance students' overall quality and support their indi-

vidual growth and development.

College students can foster a strong sense of mo-

tivation and improve their self-efficacy to achieve

better academic results. This involves cultivating pos-

itive psychological traits, implementing effective

learning motivation interventions, enhancing per-

sonal value, and contributing positively to society.

IESD 2025 - International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development

332

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