Qualitative study of the student’s motivations of High School regarding the modality of studies

Abstract

The present paper is an approach to the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that lead the students of High School to opt for a specific study modality. From the scope of the Social Sciences Didactics it is relevant to know these motivations, to be able to design didactic strategies that improve the teaching and learning process, making it more motivating. The procedure followed in the present study consisted of analysing the writings of students of all the High School modalities of a school in the province of Badajoz, in which they answered questions about the reasons that had led them to opt for their studies. To carry out the analysis, a qualitative methodology has been used, which allows us to assess in a sufficiently rich way the factors that influence the motivation of student decisions. The results suggest that the students of the Sciences modality are more extrinsically motivated than the students of Humanities and Social Sciences, which indicates the need to work with extrinsic motivation factors in these modalities