The effect of students’academic motivation on their self-perceived digital and sustainability competencies in wood science and technology education

Goropečnik, Luka (author), Kropivšek, Jože (author), Kristl, Nina (author), Makovec Radovan, Danijela (author)

The wood and furniture sector faces challenges in adopting digital and sustainability practices, mainly due to a lack of competencies for effective implementation. While current educational reforms in Slovenia emphasize the development of digital and sustainability competencies at all levels of wood science and technology education, the role of motivation, one of the key drivers of learning, in shaping these competencies has not been sufficiently explored. This study investigated how academic motivation affects students,self-perceived digital and sustainability competencies. A survey was conducted among 433 final-year students in wood science and technology education programs, including secondary vocational and technical, short-cycle higher vocational, and higher education institutions.The Academic Motivation Scale was used along with instruments derived from established European digital and sustainability competence frameworks. Structural equation modeling revealed that students’ academic motivation positively predicted their self-perceived generic digital, generic sustainability, and professional digital and sustainability competencies, and explained between 22 and 29%of the variance.Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were not shownto be distinct dimensions, but formed a unidimensional construct, suggesting that both internal interests and external incentives jointly support the perception of these competencies. Students’academic motivation is a decisive factor for their self-perceiveddigital and sustainability competencies in wood science and technology education.

• Language: English
• Keywords: academic motivation, sustainability competencies, digital competencies, wood science and technology education, self-assessment, self-perception, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty; FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 267-287
• Numbering: Vol. 21, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176067
• UDC: 630*9
• ISSN on article: 1930-2126
• DOI: 10.15376/biores.21.1.267-2-287
• COBISS.SI-ID: 257991171
• Publication date in RUL: 20.11.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Bioresources
• Publisher: Dept. of Wood and Paper Science, College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University
• ISSN: 1930-2126
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1618569

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: akademska motivacija, trajnostne kompetence, digitalne kompetence, izobraževanje na področju lesarstva, samoocena, samopercepcija, notranja motivacija, zunanja motivacija