An Investigation of Motives As Beliefs and Learning Strategies: The Case for Online Islamic Education

Abstract

The outbreak of Covid 19 requires students to learn online including for Islamic education courses. This paper aims to investigate students' motivation to learn Islamic education online. The research was conducted in January 2022 in three branches of one higher learning institution in Malaysia. The research used a quantitative approach to explore motivational beliefs and learning strategies for Islamic education amongst students. A sample of 139 students was purposively selected to answer a survey that was adapted from Pintrich & Ge Groot. The instrument contained three main sections which were a demographic profile, motivational beliefs and learning strategies. The motivational beliefs included self-efficacy, intrinsic values and test anxiety while learning strategies included cognitive strategy and selfregulation. The result indicated that the level of motivational beliefs was moderately high and most of the students used cognitive strategies in their learning. Intrinsic value was a key feature that shapes students' motivation in learning Islamic education online. This study suggests that lecturers can help to improve students' motivational beliefs and learning strategies by giving students challenging assignments. Lecturers also have to consistently motivate students to relate their learning process with the responsibility of a servant and Caliph of God to stimulate and strengthen students' intrinsic values.