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The relationship between achievement motivation and academic achievement is complex, but generally, the more a student is motivated to do an academic task, the greater the effort, persistence, and use of cognitive strategies expended on the task, and the better the performance on the task (Pintrich, 2003). The majority of achievement motivation research has been conducted in Western countries (Kumar, 2004). This is a concern as North American classrooms are becoming increasingly culturally diverse. The present study looked at the relationships between motivation and academic achievement in two distinct cultures: Western (Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom) and Asian (Hong Kong-China, Japan, and Korea). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2003 (PISA; OECD, 2004). The findings from this study demonstrate that there are some distinct cultural differences in the relationships between achievement motivation and academic achievement.

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Shelley Ross completed her dissertation in 2008, with Dr. John Anderson at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. She is currently a Medical Education Researcher at the University of Alberta where she studies competency-based assessment, assessment for learning, and increasing use of formative feedback in medical education.

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