The aim of this study was to investigate the elementary school students&rsquo / motivational traits (achiever, curious, conscientious and social) in science. More specifically present study examined the effects of gender, grade level and location of the school on elementary school students&rsquo / motivational traits. The data in the main study was collected by Motivational Pattern Questionnaire from randomly selected 8 classes of randomly selected 15 schools in five districts of Ankara. A total of 3685 students (1927 females and 1748 males), about 230 students per school, were participated in the study. The questionnaire was administrated to 6th (n=1291), 7th (n=1177) and 8th (n=1207) graders in spring 2004-2005 semester. According to the obtained data, scores of the students are assigned to four percentile groups. Each student assigned to the motivational pattern according to the highest percentage. To find the effects of gender, grade level, and location of the school on students motivational traits, one- way MANOVA was used. Results of the statistical analysis revealed that gender, has a significant effect on students&rsquo / motivational traits and girls are more achiever, curious, conscientious and sociable than boys. Furthermore, grade level has a significant effect on students&rsquo / motivational traits and 6th graders are more achiever, curious, conscientious and sociable than 7th and 8th graders. It is also found that scores of the students related to the motivational traits decreases as the grade level increases. This means that 8th graders have lowest mean score while 6th graders have the highest mean score relate to motivational trait. While students from urban schools are more curious and more sociable than the students from rural schools, no significant difference between the mean scores of the students from urban schools and the students from rural schools with respect to achiever students and conscientious students dimensions was demonstrated.

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