Motivation to Learn in Health College Training

Abstract Studies have shown that motivation to learn is associated to good academic performance. Our goal was to investigate differences in learning motivation among the courses of physiotherapy, physical education, and nursery, and the influence of a supervised internship. Participants included 500 university students of both sexes, aged between 18 and 58 years (M = 26.43; SD =6.97), from the first to the tenth period, of which 279 (55.8%) had already completed a curricular internship. Data collection was conducted with the Scale for evaluation of motivation lo learn of university students. Results showed that the nursery and physiotherapy students were more motivated than those of physical education courses. No differences in motivation were not found between men and women in any of the courses. The analysis that compared the students who completed an internship and those who did not, showed no relevant significance.