Influence of self-efficacy and metacognition on malaysian pre-university students’ chemistry academic motivation: the moderating role of gender and locality

This study explores the relationships among self-efficacy, metacognition, and academic motivation in chemistry, focusing on the moderating roles of gender and locality among Malaysian pre-university students. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 556 students and analysed through partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that both self-efficacy and metacognition significantly predict academic motivation. Specifically, metacognition had a stronger influence on academic motivation (β = 0.412) than self-efficacy (β = 0.288). Gender significantly moderated the relationship between self-efficacy and academic motivation, with female students showing a stronger link between self-efficacy and motivation than male students (β = −0.07). However, locality did not significantly moderate the relationships between self-efficacy, metacognition, and academic motivation. The combination of self-efficacy and metacognition accounted for 42.3% of the variance in academic motivation (R² = 0.423). These findings provide valuable insights into the factors that drive academic motivation in chemistry education. They suggest that educators emphasise self-efficacy, especially among female students, and integrate metacognitive strategies into the curriculum to enhance pre-university student motivation. Future research should explore the effects of educational interventions targeting self-efficacy and metacognition on academic motivation in chemistry.