Sustaining young people’s enrolment intentions in relation to physics : development and validation of a tool

Currently there is a need for measures to examine the issue of sustaining students’ enrolment intentions over an extended period of study in physics, a subject which is generally perceived as hard and demanding by students. This paper addresses this gap in research by describing the development and the assessment of psychometric properties of the Physics Motivation Questionnaire, which examines the predictive relations among senior secondary physics students’ achievement motivation, sustained engagement and sustained enrolment intentions. The theoretical framework of the instrument largely draws on the Expectancy-Value theory of achievement motivation and the latent variables are assessed through six measures. Data shows that the Physics Motivation Questionnaire is a theoretically sound and psychometrically valid instrument which has utility in examining physics at a topic-specific level. The questionnaire makes a unique contribution to the physics enrolment literature and has significant implications for educational practitioners. These implications are discussed in the context of the findings.