1. Introduction
Student learning is the purpose of any pedagogical act [
1]. This fact appears to be simple yet nonetheless carries a set of implications that need to be properly developed [
2]. One of these aspects is motivation [
3,
4].
There is consensus in the scientific literature when it comes to defining motivation [
5]. This is considered as an individual state or condition of each person that promotes a series of actions in the subject [
6]. It can be positive, prompting individuals to approach stimuli, or negative, generating an opposite attitude, i.e., moving away from the stimulus that causes it [
7]. Currently, there are two kinds of motivation: intrinsic motivation (IM) and extrinsic motivation (EM) [
8]. The actions that an individual performs to satisfy his own needs are considered intrinsic motivation [
9], i.e., why a person performs certain actions due to his own interests [
10]. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation moves an individual to carry out actions in order to satisfy his environment [
11]. In this case, the person tries to gain recognition of his environment, be it near or distant [
12].
Several studies in the educational field have analyzed intrinsic motivation [
13,
14], all of which focused on situations of choice and novelty of suggested content [
15]. Moreover, they looked at carrying out pedagogical actions with techno-pedagogical resources [
16] or reading development via students choosing texts [
17]. It has been shown that intrinsic motivation affects men and women differently, especially when there is a public assessment of academic performance [
18].
The studies on extrinsic motivation apply to educational settings [
19]. Many of these studies focus on the effect of mobbing [
20] on the development of learning through services [
21], the influence of physical exercise [
22], collaboration with sick people [
23], or learning other languages [
24]. Again, as with analogous motivation, gender also influences extrinsic motivation, especially in connection to stressful situations [
25].
Focusing on motivation in the educational field, it can be considered as an essential part of self-regulation, and thus a fundamental aspect for learning acquisition [
26]. This self-regulation can come from metacognitive motivating and behavioral actions generated by students engaged directly with their own learning [
27]. Thanks to the self-regulation of learning, students gain an understanding of their own will [
28] through their involvement in pedagogical acts, with no need to generate inner conflicts [
29]. It can be said that self-regulation triggers both academic and learning skills [
30]. Several studies have, as such, investigated motivation via different approaches, such as the motivation of achievements [
31], the motivation of students toward learning [
32], self-regulated learning, and work motivation [
33].
In the scientific literature, there are several questionnaires or scales to measure student motivation, among which is the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (MSLQ) [
34]. This instrument analyzes both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation [
35]. In this tool, intrinsic motivation refers to the internal approval of the students themselves [
36]. In contrast, extrinsic motivation refers to the acquisition of academic achievements reflected through qualifications or external approvals in their environment [
20]. It must be kept in mind that both motivations must be considered as opposite poles of a unidimensional continuum. This continuum goes from the exterior to internal self-regulation, i.e., it ranges from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation [
23].
The MSLQ focuses primarily on the motivational orientation and learning strategies of students in secondary and higher education [
37]. This instrument has been translated and adapted in several languages and can be used to identify students’ motivation in higher education [
38]. This instrument is divided into two subscales [
37]. One of them analyzes intrinsic motivation, oriented towards learning and focusing on the internal approval of the subject. The other analyzes extrinsic motivation, related to grades, and focusing on the subject’s external approval [
39]. The analysis of both dimensions can be carried out separately, as they do not necessarily complement each other [
38]. This instrument is intended to be used in several higher education courses, not only in one [
40]. Furthermore, this instrument has been analyzed from a statistical point of view to find out its psychometric properties. In all of them, the reliability of the instrument has been found to be adequate, with values close to 0.70 in both dimensions. It should be noted that these results are the result of the analysis carried out in the validations and reliability of several instruments via a meta-analysis [
38]. This instrument has also been used to analyze various aspects and has been used in various contexts [
41,
42,
43,
44], which makes it in itself a widely and internationally used instrument [
45].
In other studies, the MSLQ instrument has been analyzed on the basis of self-determination theory [
46], where the two dimensions of the MSLQ scale have been considered as two opposite poles (both extrinsic and intrinsic-dry motivation) on a unidimensional continuum of motivation [
47], indicating that student motivation evolves from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation [
48]. This comparison may be similar to femininity and masculinity, where the person either exhibits one type of majority motivation or the other, but not both at the same time [
49].
The Nielsen questionnaire has been useful to determine how both types of motivation affect students in various reviews, according to gender [
50], age [
51], nationality [
52], and culture [
53]. Moreover, it has been used to set motivational stereotypes [
54]. Most of these reviews have used quasi-experimental methods by applying a pretest–posttest.
Based on all of the above, this work aimed to continue the path started by previous studies that approached intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in different contexts. Therefore, this research attempted to adapt Nielsen’s MSLQ into a Spanish-speaking context. This task was carried out with the purpose of designing and introducing a valid and reliable instrument into the scientific community, and to obtain results related to motivation in Spanish students.
4. Discussion and Conclusions
As the scientific literature shows, the concept of motivation assumes a relevant value in general education [
3], as well as the processes of teaching and learning, in particular [
26]. This was summarized in the importance of this construct for students to achieve high levels both in their academic performance and in their attitude toward their studies [
30,
31,
32,
33]. There have been many studies collected in the scientific literature that analyze the motivation construct [
71,
72,
73,
74,
75,
76]. This leads to generating a relevant tool that can be adapted to each of the training contexts in Spain, i.e., to various subjects and contents in which to assess the motivation of students after the application of a certain teaching and learning methodology.
To understand the daily motivation of students, it is essential to use validated instruments, i.e., tools that allow for the collection of precise data on the question of art [
77]. Another particular of great importance is the instrument’s adjustment to context, since cultural and geographical differences may determine the accuracy and precision of the obtained results [
78]. Consequently, the adaptation of tools designed by other researchers for other contexts becomes an interesting and exploratory field of study. All this has the purpose to offer the scientific community a wide spectrum of instruments that serve to measure specific particular aspects and can be adapted to different contexts. This will allow the narrowing of research biases, as well as the attainment of precise studies with reliable and relevant results [
79].
The results achieved in this adaptation and subsequent validation are suitable for applying the MSLQ instrument in a Spanish context. Acceptable but not excellent fit indices were obtained, especially for the original model. This was in line with other adaptations and validations that the original instrument made to various contexts and specific areas of knowledge [
80,
81,
82,
83,
84,
85]. In such publications on the different validations carried out with the MSLQ, different incidents and burdens on certain items were reflected that condition the reliability values. This made us reflect on the importance of validating the instrument for each geographic region and each pedagogical subject. This is a consequence of the peculiarities of each study population.
Although the original instrument proposed by Nielsen presented relevant psychometric properties, an analysis made for a Spanish context was needed to modify the wording of the items concerning intrinsic motivation. This came from the difficulty of measuring this specific construct exhibited in previous studies [
86]. This difficulty was exponentially accented in ages such as adolescence [
87], which was the composition of the sample analyzed in this research. In the same way, the literature displays the weakness of accurately measuring intrinsic motivation [
88,
89]. All of this indicates that the results should be interpreted cautiously. Our findings show the relationship between the two analyzed types of motivation [
90].
Therefore, we concluded that the adaptation and validation of the MSLQ to a Spanish context (
Appendix A) obtained psychometric values and properties that positioned it as a valid and reliable instrument to collect information on the motivation of Spanish adolescent students.
This research had several limitations. First: access to the sample. Once an educational center with an adequate volume of participants needed to validate the tool was found, the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. This delayed the study and caused student participation to suffer. Many students did not have the necessary means at home to complete the questionnaire. To solve this problem, the school provided electronic resources to the most disadvantaged students. Therefore, this research was conditioned by the situation generated by the pandemic.
As a future line of research, one should apply the designed instrument in different regions of the Spanish territory. This has the purpose of distinguishing the motivation of students during a pandemic. Therefore, this tool attained a fundamental value in current education, conditioned and limited in many aspects, by the adaptation of the training processes derived from the health crisis. In short, the knowledge of the motivation of today’s students rises as a relevant factor due to the methodological changes that occurred. All of this demands tools adapted to different contexts, such as the one offered here.
5. Theoretical and Practical Implications
This study developed a set of implications of both a theoretical and practical nature. Regarding the theoretical implications, the questionnaire designed and adapted to the Spanish context supposed the appearance of a validated instrument for the preparation of studies on the motivation of Spanish adolescents in educational aspects, which was relevant for the educational community. Motivation, as it has been verified in the presented literature, is a construct that has been studied in recent years as a consequence of the appearance of new training approaches, as well as of new spaces generated as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, a recent validated and reliable tool to measure motivation in Spanish students is positioned as one more element to reduce this gap in the Spanish scientific literature.
With regards to the practical implications of this work, the availability of a validated and appropriate tool for a certain context allows educational institutions to identify the motivation of students in aspects concerning various actions or training programs. This is the order of the day due to the use of active methodologies (e.g., gamification, escape rooms, flipped learning, ubiquitous learning) and emerging technologies (e.g., robotics, augmented reality, virtual reality) penetrating learning spaces. This allows for the opportunity to transform traditional teaching and learning processes, which must be valued at a motivational level.
This instrument being short in length allows it to be used as a complement to other instruments. This will allow teachers or the scientific community to carry out data collection covering various dimensions.
Also, this instrument is valid for educational contexts where there are Latin American students both in Europe and in Latin America. In addition, this tool can be used in those countries where Spanish for foreigners or Spanish as a second language is taught.
By taking into consideration this instrument and the results that can be obtained with its use, professionals can use the information to improve motivation levels and work on them. Likewise, this tool can serve as support for the design and development of other instruments that are made to measure motivation in other educational stages, many of which cover additional age ranges. This is important as motivation can ease student learning, which is needed at all educational stages.