Motivation of university students in educational sciences according to gender, religious culture, and social skills during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The current health situation has posed a significant challenge for students and teachers of all educational stages, as they have had to adapt the teaching-learning process to the health restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to analyze the motivation of university students in education sciences in relation to their gender, religious tendencies, and social skills. A total of 130 university students enrolled in the University of Granada at the Ceuta and Melilla campuses (M = 23.38; SD = 6.95) participated in this research in an ex post facto quantitative study with a descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional design. The students responded to the adaptation into Spanish of the Situational Motivation Scale of Guay et al. (2000). Among the results, it can be highlighted that the most intrinsically motivated population is female and Catholic. Regarding social skills, sociability, communication, and assertiveness are the skills that most influence student’s degree of motivation. The data drawn from this study demonstrate the usefulness of analyzing students’ motivation to provide them with more individualized teaching, as well as the need to work on students’ social skills.