LECTURER'S RESEARCH ATTITUDE ON STUDENT'S RESEARCH MOTIVATION: IMPLICATION FOR RESEARCH-BASED LEARNING

Abstract

There is a growing concern about the research attitudes in Nigeria's academia. Lecturers in the tertiary education system are faced with imparting quality knowledge and providing relevant research skills. However, insinuations suggest that the observed variation in lecturer's research attitudes in academia is implicated in the student's research motivation. Thus, the primary purpose of the current study is to explore the research attitude of lecturers in academia as a factor that could account for the variance instudent's research motivation. We operationalized research motivation as the willingness and drive to engage in research activities. Ninety-six students pooled from public tertiary institutions in Enugu States of Nigeria completed a self-report measure. The linear regression result revealed a statistically significant relationship between research attitudes and research motivation. The adjusted R² revealed that the research attitudes of the lecturers accounted for the 27.2% variation in student's research motivation. We conclude that the lecturer's research attitudes are essential in improving student's research motivation.