Comparative Study to Analyze the Motivational Patterns among Students of a Healthcare University in UAE Using the Achievement Goal Questionnaire (Revised)

Aims: This cross sectional study was conducted on students at Ras Al Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University to analyze the motivation patterns in the health sciences university students.

Methodology: Total number of students who participated were 145. Data was entered into SPSS 22 software and analyzed. Student ‘t’ test was used to compare among the groups.

Results: The study results showed that all students exhibited highest scores of Mastery Approach goal motivation >10.62±4.24; but there was a decay in the later years of study and the Mastery Avoidance scores increased. This was more pronounced in the medical students (P =0.02).

Conclusion: This work underscores the notion that health sciences students are highly motivated and strive hard to achieve their goals. This study can be used to develop teaching methodologies and assessments that promote deep approaches to learning.