Investigation of secondary school students' effect of test anxiety towards science learning motivations

This study was carried out to determine the impact of test anxiety on the motivation of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students to learn the science lesson. Furthermore, according to various variables, students' learning motivation and exam anxiety levels also were examined. In this context, in order to learn students' demographic information as data collection tool "Personal Information Form", to determine the secondary schools' level of motivation towards science learning "Motivation Scale for Science Learning" and for level of test anxiety of the students "Westside Test Anxiety Scale" were applied. These scales were applied for 7 secondary schools and one of the branches from the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades, which were available from each school in the center of Diyarbakır. Prior to statistical analysis, demographic variables were grouped and descriptive frequency and percentage values of the variables were excluded. The homogeneity of the groups was tested using the Levene's test. For non-normal distributed groups, Mann-Whitney U test, for normal distributed groups ANOVA, which is a nonparametric test, was used. According to the study results, it was determined that the class variable was not effective on the students' learning motivation, but it was found to be effective on exam anxiety levels. While maternal educational background was not effective on students' learning motivations but it was influential on exam anxiety levels. It was concluded that the educational background of the father did not affect students' motivation to learn science and the anxiety of the students. It was determined that it did not have an effect for the students with whom they prepared for the exams on the science motivations but they were effective on the exam anxiety levels. It has been concluded that how students prepare for exams have an impact on science learning motivations and exam anxiety levels. It was determined that the duration of starting the exams was effective on the motivation of science learning and exam anxiety. The students who found the science course difficult to learn were found to have low levels of science learning motivation but higher levels of exam anxiety. It was found that students who love science lesson have high motivation for science learning and low exam anxiety. It was found that there was a significant and negative relationship between the students' learning motivation and test anxiety. Key Words: Motivation, Motivation Towards Science Learning, Anxiety, Test Anxiety