Factors affecting scientific research activities of students. case study of "Euréka Student Science Research Award"

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Nguyen Thi Ai Truc

FACTORS AFFECTING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES OF
STUDENTS. CASE STUDY OF "EURÉKA STUDENT SCIENCE
RESEARCH AWARD"

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2020


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Nguyen Thi Ai Truc

FACTORS AFFECTING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES OF
STUDENTS. CASE STUDY OF "EURÉKA STUDENT SCIENCE
RESEARCH AWARD"

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: PROF. TRAN HA MINH QUAN

Ho Chi Minh City
1 – Year 2020

APPENDIX
SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE FINAL THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Final thesis title: FACTORS

AFFECTING SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS. CASE STUDY OF
"EURÉKA STUDENT SCIENCE RESEARCH AWARD"

Student name: Nguyen Thi Ai Truc
Supervisor name: PROF. TRAN HA MINH QUAN
1. General comments:
„ Remarks on the student’s attitude:
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
„ Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality:
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
2. Overall assessment:
„ Meet requirement for submitting.
„ Not meet requirement for submitting.
3. Other remarks:
- Did the student follow the report schedule?
„ Yes

„ No

„ Other..............................................................................

- The plagiarism percentage:

Supervisor’s signature

2


Executive summary ............................................................................................. 4
1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Center of Science and Technology development for Youth ............... 5
1.2 Euréka Student Scientific Research Award ......................................... 5
1.3 Problem Finding Process ....................................................................... 6
1.4 Symptom .................................................................................................. 7
2. Problem justification .................................................................................. 10
2.1.

Initial Identification of Problem ...................................................... 10

2.2.

The Existence problem ...................................................................... 14

2.3.

Cause validation................................................................................. 16

2.4.

Final Cause-Effect Map .................................................................... 22

3. Solution for Solving Problem ..................................................................... 22
3.1. School ........................................................................................................ 22
3.2. Lectures..................................................................................................... 23
3.3. Students..................................................................................................... 24
Appendix ............................................................................................................ 28

3


Executive summary
This thesis examines the factors affecting students' scientific research activities at
universities in Ho Chi Minh City. The topic is made based on data from the Euréka
Scientific Research Student Award. With the criterion of the award is to promote the
scientific research movement of students, the award has been gathered by nearly 50 of
universities, colleges and institutes in Ho Chi Minh City. However, the level of
participation of many schools is limited. This study will explore the factors affecting
students' scientific research activities at universities in Ho Chi Minh City, thereby
proposing solutions to promote this activity in universities which limited.

4


1. Introduction
1.1 Center of Science and Technology development for Youth
Center of Science and Technology development for Youth (known as TST) is a
unit directly under Ho Chi Minh City Communist Youth Union. TST was found in
August 03th 1989 by People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. Our mission are
mobilize and promote the movement of scientific and technical activities and creative

capacity of the youth. There are several programs that Center being as organizer such
as Euréka Student Scientific Research Prize, International Students Science Forum,
etc.
1.2 Euréka Student Scientific Research Award
Student Scientific Research Award (known as Euréka Award) is the national wide
prize for scientific research and creativity of students from universities and colleges. It
was established in 1999 and fasten become the only prize of Youth Union for student
who have passion in term of scientific research.
Table 1 Euréka Award data from 1999 to 2019

Euréka award data from 1999 to 2019
2263
2069
1758
1385 1435

1407
1200

1198

1064
878
708 709
430
334
221 257

493

734 768

1106

1165

844

373 324 398 345 371 409

777
496 500

596

507 516 517

903 858

648 621

156
116
97
85 106 100
19 21 18 17 24 21 23 23 22 27 26 30 34 34 34 36 46 75
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Number of Subjects

Number of Schools

Number of participants

Source: Euréka Award’s announcement from 1999 to 2019

The purpose of Euréka Award is to discover and foster the creative ideas of
students, promote the scientific research movement among students of universities,

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colleges and institutes in the direction of development, with the high scale and quality
of research works. Besides that, the prize contribute to improving the quality of
training, encouraging students to develop their potential in research and innovation.
Moreover, Euréka Award is also contribute to the application of science and
technology into production, business and life.
The table 1 illustrate that Euréka Award is develop in terms of the number of
participating schools as well as the number of topics. From the beginning until 2014,
Euréka Award organized only in Ho Chi Minh City. The award officially deployed
widely in 2015 in the southern region and expanded nationwide in 2016.
The Prize includes 12 fields, which presentative Chemical Engineering, Food
Technology, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering,
Training and Education, Law and Legal, Economics, General Engineering, Agriculture
- Forestry - Fishery, Urban Planning – Architecture – Construction, Resources and
Environment Management, Social Sciences and Humanities.
1.3 Problem Finding Process
In order to find out the problem of Center of Science and Technology Development
for Youth, the process will be conducted:
-

Collecting the data from Euréka Award’s annual report and Projects’
collection announcements of Euréka Award from 2014 to 2019.

-

Referring the feedback from contestants on December 2017

-

Conducting in-depth interview with contestants, employees, representatives
of participating schools, and science council’s members.

-

Conducting the survey for contestants and representatives of participating
schools.

-

Reviewing literature related to problem.

-

Conducting second in-depth interview with the manager to determine existed
problem.

-

Reviewing some theory framework to validate the problem importance.

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1.4 Symptom
I used the result from the survey that TST conduct on December 2017 (see
appendix B) and also conducted depth interview with two students, who are contestant
Euréka Award in 2017 and received the First prize and the Third Prize (see appendix
G and H). I used finding from the survey and depth interview to create questionnaire
(see appendix I) for participants who took part in Euréka Award. The purpose for this
action is to have an overview and find out the symptoms. I collected data for this
research through email survey in the early of September 2018 by sent for about 500
contestants and received 100 responses. The result illustrated that only seven
respondents know about Euréka Award through website and 60% of participants know
about the Euréka Award by school deployment. The application of social media in
implementing prize information is limited. The information about Euréka Awards is
directly transmitted in the form of issuing documents and announcements from Ho Chi
Minh City Youth Union to the School Youth Union. This shows that the access to
Prize’s information of the student depends heavily on the implementation of the
school.
In addition, I created depth interviews with two employees, who have been
working in the center over 6 years. The interview guide (see appendix C) was about
evaluation of the Euréka Award from 2014 to 2019, especially to explored the reason
why the number of project in 2016 is dramatically decrease although the Prize was
expanded national wide at that time. They believed that the expansion is quite fast, and
the Euréka Award’s awareness is still low and lack of widespread. The schools play an
important role in term of encouraging student take part in research activities;
especially participate in Euréka Student Scientific Research Award.

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Table 2 Proportion of top 4th university dominate Euréka award

Total number of subjects
(1) = (a)+(b)+(c)+(d)
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
(a)
Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh
City - University of Sciences (b)
Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh
City - University of Technology (c)
Ho Chi Minh City Open University (d)

Ho Chi Minh city’ Number of projects
(2)
Proportion (3)=(1)/(2)*100%

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

216

244

184

266

313

261

46

65

56

97

137

97

76

65

49

82

62

67

48

58

44

41

60

60

46

56

35

46

54

37

517

608

466

593

687

649

42%

40%

39%

45%

46%

40%

Source: Euréka Award’s announcement from 2014 to 2019

The Statistics of the number of projects involved Euréka Award from 2014 to 2019
(appendix A) showed that there are four universities included Ho Chi Minh City
University off Technology, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City –
University of Sciences, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City – University
of Technology , Ho Chi Minh City Open University dominated the prize. The total

number of projects participating in awards from these four universities is high in Ho
Chi Minh City, accounting for over 40%. This means that the total number of projects
for the remaining 44 schools is only 60%. The development of students' scientific
research movement is uneven across schools in Ho Chi Minh City.

8


Table 3 The number of school have low performance
2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Total number of
School

40

40

40

40

48

49

Total number of
Project

517

608

466

593

687

649

12.92

15.2

11.65

14.82

14.31

13.24

21

27

26

27

32

33

Average number of
project per school
The number of schools
with project less than
the average

Source: Euréka Award’s announcement from 2014 to 2019

The table 3 above illustrations that the average number of project in each school
participating in the Euréka award is 13 projects in 2019. However, that up to 33
schools (accounting for 67%) have a lower number of projects less than 13 projects.
Most school have low performance in term of participating the Euréka Award.

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2. Problem justification
Part 1 presented background information about the Euréka Student Science
Research Prize as well as how to find symptoms. Part 2 will describe the use in-depth
interview and literature review to find potential problems causes of this symptom,
which includes identification problems, problem exist, and problem importance.
2.1. Initial Identification of Problem
In order to find the problems for the symptom, the in-depth interviews were
conducted with several characters that may be symptom related from inside and
outside. The informants ‘profiles be listed as below:
-

Mrs. Vo The Hanh, Chief of Office and Accountant of Center of Science and
Technology development for Youth, 6 years’ experience

-

Ms. Ngo Thi Tu Trinh, Head of Department of Creative Movement
Development, Center of Science and Technology Development for Youth, 10
years’ experience.

-

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Luan, Manager of External Communication and Science
Technology Services, 7 years’ experience

-

Prof. Thai Van Nam, Deputy Director of Applied Sciences Institute, Ho Chi
Minh City University of Technology, 20 years working at school.

-

Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Tram, employee at Science and Technology department, Ho
Chi Minh City University of Technology.

-

Huynh Tan Long, contestant participated in Euréka Award in 2017, Fourth year
student at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, the Third place in 2017
Euréka Award with the project belong to Urban Planning – Architecture –
Construction filed.

-

Nguyen Thanh An, candidate participated in Euréka Award in 2017, student at
Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City - University of Sciences, the
First place in 2017 Euréka Award with the project belong to Information
Technology filed.

-

The report of the 20th years Euréka Student Scientific Research Award
Seminar.

10


To be find out the causes of symptom, the study gather several results from the
interviewees. Ms. Tu Trinh admitted that the trend of credit training and graduation

exam is a reason that lead students just concentrated on leaning to complete and
disregard science research activities. This creates many obstacles in encouraging
students participate in research activities at the school. That also lead to the quantity
and quality of research is low. Besides, the deployment of prize information depends
heavily on the direct relationship with the Science Department and Youth Union of the
schools. TST cannot control does the Science Department or Youth Union of School
deployed the information to students, who actually concern about doing Science
Research. Therefore, the Schools play an important role to support and encourage
student do research.
Both of Ms. Tu Trinh and Mrs. The Hanh agreed that TST still apply ineffective
communication method to spread out the prize information, such as sending
announcements by mail, poster, banner, telephone. However, Mrs. The Hanh notice
that media is only a small part of the impact on students’ awareness. The lack of
instructed by supervisors is a difficulty for student to undertake science research.
Besides that, according to Mrs. The Hanh, the council’s evaluation the quality of
projects is stable. There are several filed did not have The First Prize as well as The
Special Prize. As an accountant of TST, Mrs. The Hanh believe the media budget is
quite low, and cannot meet the demand of the prize communication and the employees
do not have breakthrough in communication.
Mr. Thanh Luan admit that the communication budget is not enough for apply
communication methods. Although External Communications and Science
Technology Services Department efforts to find sponsorship to ensure communication
budget. However, it is not easy to meet sponsors demand because they demand
benefits and images to appear more. Sponsors refer to sponsoring television programs,
gameshow, entertainment area or environmental protection activities. They mostly do
not like to fund social or educational activities. Donors desire to have images on
television, newspapers, etc. The current sponsorship benefit do not meet the demand of
sponsors. This led to sponsors sponsoring the Euréka Award but only for a year and
could not maintain in the long term.

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In term of being supervisor, who guide many student, Prof. Thai Van Nam
admitted that implementation of scientific research is limited for the young today. The
students tend to learn quickly to graduate and go to work. Many students think that
scientific research takes them time, influencing their study, and they are willing to
refuse to participate. In addition, financial deficits are also one of the causes,
especially for some areas where experiments are required. Moreover, Prof. Thai Van
Nam believe that supervisors play two roles in two metaphors, which are pull and
push. In the image of pull, the teacher plays the role of orienting the project to
students. The teacher based on the topics and projects that he is implementing and then
divided into sub-topics for students to implement. The goals were clear and the main
task was student pass it. In this case, the teacher required having a research project but
otherwise it would be very difficult for the student to do it. In the image of push,
teachers provide feedback based on their individual perspective, vision, judgment, and
how the implementation is based on student choice. Students need to have an idea as
well as individual competencies. Further, the school’s support encouraging student in
scientific research. In the same view as Prof. Thai Van Nam, Ms. Tram also said that
scientific research need a large amount of money to implement while the school still
has limitation in financial support. Most of the funding for the project is from
themselves. Besides that, students’ awareness about doing research still low and they
think that doing scientific research is take time and influence to their study result.
In term of contestant, Huynh Tan Long, who win the Third place in 2017 Euréka
Award with the project belong to Urban Planning – Architecture – Construction filed
admitted the meaningful of participate Euréka Award are having in-depth study of
subject, ability to work independently and work in groups, acquire more knowledge. In
addition, instructive guidance of instructor is a great motivation for him to participate
Euréka Award as well as complete the project. Having different thought about Euréka
Award’s benefit, Nguyen Thanh An, who win the First place in 2017 Euréka Award

with the project belong to Information Technology filed, learned a great deal about the
development and operation of real-world project, applying and exploring the value of
theoretical research. However, Nguyen Thanh An also faced obstacles, which are
balance and ensure the progress of work in a limited of time and work pressure.

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However, his supervisor plays an important role in term of support during the
implementation process.
Being gather all the interviews’ result, the initial cause-effect map come up with:

Limited in deployment of
school

Factors
affecting
students'
scientific
research
activities

Lack of mechanism of
commendation and reward
School
supports

School’s scientific
research activities
limitation

Financial funding
Lack of enthusiasms

Uneven
research
activities in
schools

Potential
Central
Problems

Faculty
supports

Restrict ideas and
orientations
Limiting the ability of
scientific research
Lack of doing research’s
benefit awareness

Low
performance
at some
school

Symptom
Student
limitations

Low self-efficacy
Lack of self – research
funding and time

Figure 1 Initial Cause - Effect Map

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2.2. The Existence problem
The figure 1 summarizes the results of interviews with subjects such as senior staff,
instructors, students, and university science management personnel. It is a general
picture of the factors leading to limited scientific research activities of universities
leading to uneven research activities in schools.
Scientific research is an essential activity in the learning process of students. There
are several evidence prove that the scientific research activities play an important role
contribute to quality academic result for student. Based on the Decision
No.08/2000/QD-BGDDT of March 30th, 2000 of the Minister of Education and
Training, which is enclosed with the Regulation on scientific studies of students in
universities and colleges, indicates that the purpose of scientific research for student is
contributed to improving the quality of training, access to and application of scientific
research methods, solving some problems of science and practice (16). With the same
point of view, “Research is a systematic and methodical process of inquiry and
investigation with a view of increasing knowledge. As far as the nature of research is
concerned, the above definition tells us that researchers need to use appropriate
methods for collecting and analyzing research data, and that they need to apply them
rigorously. The general purpose of academic research is to investigate a research
question with a view to generating knowledge. A research project offers both
undergraduate and postgraduate students an opportunity to identify and select a

research problem and investigate it independently under the guidance of a supervisor”
(17). Besides that, this research also define the research benefit is that contribute to
develop skill for student, such as “to review and synthesize existing knowledge; to
investigate some existing situation or problem; to provide solutions to a problem; to
explore and analyze more general issues; to construct or create a new procedure or
system; to explain a new phenomenon; to generate new knowledge; a combination of
any of the above” (17). In the other study emphasizes that university research is “the
production of disciplinary knowledge and the importance of university recognition”
(18). Although all schools recognize that scientific research is important, not all
schools are interested and promote this activity. Differences in the implementation,
organization, mechanism, and policy of research activities among universities create

14


this gap, typically can be seen through the number of annual scientific research
projects attended in the Eureka Award (appendix A).
Underwent in-depth interview with Mr. Duc Su, who is Vice Director of Center of
Science and Technology development for Youth and have over 10 years associated
with the research activities of students, clarified many point of views. In the recent
year, student research activity has develop in term of quantity and quality. However,
some public universities are more prominent than private universities as well as
colleges and institutes. This is partially visible through participation in Euréka Award.
In addition, through the process of developing a seminar on creative thinking and
scientific research methods at schools in the HCMC area, Students' perceptions of
scientific research activities are necessary. However, when asked about the meaning
and benefits of this, the students were still confused. This shows that the majority of
students are not fully aware of the meaning and benefits of scientific research. When
asked about the difficulties in implementing the topic, he received answers like “how
to choose a topic that is both scientific and practical, select topics, determine research

purposes, build scientific hypotheses and implementation methods, etc.” The cognitive
limitations of students' scientific research skills are thought to come from
organizational constraints, orientation, and education from schools and faculty. The
academic activities of the school are not enough to stimulate students' passion for
research. Besides, lecturers spend a lot of time on teaching, so the attention,
monitoring and urging in the process of guiding students to implement the topic are
limited. As a result, some students dropped out halfway through, or the project was
completed but the quality was not high. The implementation of research projects
depends a lot on student competence as well as support from school and lecture. The
lack of commendation and reward policies also leads to limitations of both lecturers
and students.
In addition, in the interview of Prof. Thai Van Nam, he acknowledged that it would
be impossible for students to do scientific research or to be passionate about the
activity themselves. Students' passion for scientific research is stimulated and nurtured
through the great fire transmitted from the lectures and university’s movement
activities. The students tend to learn quickly to graduate and go to work. Many

15


students think that scientific research takes them time, influencing their study, and they
are willing to refuse to participate. In order to change students' awareness of the
implementation of scientific research projects, the university needs to have specific
policies to encourage lecturers and students in scientific research activities.
Supervisors need to show well into two roles, which are pull and push. In the image of
pull, the teacher plays the role of orienting the project to students. The teacher based
on the topics and projects that he is implementing and then divided into sub-topics for
students to implement. The goals were clear and the main task was student pass it. In
this case, the teacher required having a research project but otherwise it would be very
difficult for the student to do it. In the image of push, teachers provide feedback based

on their individual perspective, vision, judgment, and how the implementation is based
on student choice. Students need to have an idea as well as individual competencies. In
this way, students will be motivated to participate in scientific research activities and
to enhance this passion.
2.3. Cause validation
An enormous number of factor that can inspire or impede the research activity.
Those factors can be divided into several group such as demographics, self-knowledge
and individual competencies, work environment (10). According to Chen et al., the
research pointed out factors influencing research productivity such as promotion,
financial research support. This study also applied two theories to explain individual
motivation, which are Equity theory (11) and Expectancy theory (12). The Expectancy
theory explained human behavior base on the attractiveness of research rewards, such
as “the values of the rewards from the outcomes, the likelihood that rewards will result
from these outcomes, and the likelihood of attaining these outcome through their
actions and efforts”. The research objectives is to clearly understanding about
behavioral intention or motivation of dedication to do research (13).
Referring to the factors that cause limitations in students' scientific research
activities, the initial cause – effect map has classified into three main difference groups
including school support, faculty support, and student’s limitation.
-

School supports

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o Limited in deployment of school: The deployment of scientific research
activities by schools plays an important role in encouraging students to participate. In
term of personnel, the Dean of the University, who enthusiastic about scientific
research, will propose and organize activities for students. Beside to organizing

research activities at the school, implementing research activities at the city or country
level is necessary. For example, the Euréka award applies the method of deploying
information in documents through Youth Union system so to ensure that award
information is delivered to students, there is a need for coordination between the
organizers and the school, which is directly Department of Scientific Management and
School’s Youth Union.
o Lack of mechanism of commendation and reward: According to
Bandura, rewards are informative and motivating (20). The study of Schunk
mentioned, “As students work at tasks, they learn which actions lead to success and
which to failure. Such information guides actions. Anticipation of desirable outcomes
motivates students to persist. Rewards enhance efficacy when they are linked with a
student's accomplishments and convey that the student has guide progress in learning.
Receipt of the reward also symbolizes progress. Rewards offered for task participation
do not convey the same type of progress information.” In that study, Schunk declare
two kind of reward, which are performance-contingent reward and task-contingent
reward (26). In recognition of efforts to participate in scientific research, mechanism
of commendation are necessary. In addition, the organization of scientific research
activities at the school is essential and there should be a mechanism to add points in
studying process if students participate in or achieve high awards in scientific research
activities. This is not only an external motivation to encourage more students to
participate but also creates a thriving scientific research movement. As a result, the
school's popularity and reputation were enhanced. In addition, the commendation also
spreads the passion and inspires other students through typical examples. Promoting
the scientific research movement at the school and praising students with good
achievements also creates habits and is a good example for students who do not have
scientific research projects to study and follow. Students get a lot of information about
their abilities from knowledge about how others perform. Schunk found that
“Observing others succeed can convey to observers that they too are capable and can

17

motivate them to attempt the task. Conversely, observed failures may lower students'
sense of efficacy and dissuade them from working on the task” (28). Schunk tested on
student and stated “observing multiple models is better than observing a single model
because it increases the likelihood that students will view themselves similar to at least
one model” (37).
o Financial support: Funding for the implementation of the project is
essential, especially for the natural specialized group, when the funding for the
purchase of chemicals and laboratory equipment accounts for a large proportion. Some
experiments are done if the results are not good and need to be done many times, this
expense is more. Therefore, the support from the university's scientific research funds
is an effective solution to promote increased research activities of students.
-

Faculty supports

The teacher place an important role in learning process of student and not just do
dissemination of information. The research also emphasize the fundamental task for
teacher is engage student in learning activities in order to achieve the outcomes (14).
Base on above statement, Biggs aimed, “What the student does depends on what the
student perceives, interprets, and intends to do” (15). Therefore, instructors play an
extremely important role in Students’ scientific research participation. For students
who do not have the knowledge and skills, the lecturer not only plays a role as directs
research projects but also conveys the knowledge, methods and techniques necessary
for implementation.. However, in order to have enthusiastic faculties, the school needs
specific mechanisms and policies to support. Each instructor has a requirement to
ensure the number of lecture in class. However, if instructing a group of students to
carry out a research project, this may limit the teaching of lecturers. Therefore, the
conversion of lecture hours when instructing groups of students can achieve better

results. If it requires that students participate in research activities that are selfconscious, very few students have this hobby. Therefore, lecturers are the ones who
inspire and have direct effects to stimulate curiosity and research among students. In
case lecturers have researched a big project and divided it into small branches for
research students, it is an advantage.

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Besides, setting goals for students to accomplish and complete also contributes to
support for students' success in scientific research. But how to set goals and the nature
of the goals depends very much on the skills of the lecturer. The previous studies was
hypothesized goal setting is an important cognitive process affecting motivation (32)
(33). This demonstrate that student, who with goals or goals set by teachers, able to
experience the initial feeling of their own ability to achieve it. Research of Bandura &
Cervone provided that student who receive feedback on goal progress will raise selfefficacy, contribute to maintain motivation and improves skill development (34).
Schunk pointed out “The motivational benefits of goals depend on their properties:
proximity, specificity, and difficulty”. Next, the definitions of those properties are also
mentioned in that study. “Proximal (close-at-hand) goals promote self-efficacy and
motivation better than distant goals” while “goals that incorporate specific
performance standards raise efficacy and motivation better than general goals” (26). In
addition, the earlier study of Schunk supported, “Proximal goals result in greater
motivation than distant goals. It is easier to gauge progress toward a proximal goal,
and the perception of progress raises self-efficacy. Proximal goals are especially
influential with young children, who do not represent distant outcomes in thought”. In
the research of Schunk also stated, “Specific goals boost performance by greater
specification of the amount of effort required for success and the self-satisfaction
anticipated. “Specific goals promote self-efficacy because progress is easy to gauge”.
In term of difficulty goal setting, Schunk stated that “Goal difficulty, or the level of
task proficiency required as assessed against a standard, influences the effort learners
expend to attain a goal. Assuming requisite skills, individuals expend greater effort to

attain difficult goals than when standards are lower. Learners initially may doubt
whether they can attain difficult goals, but working toward them builds self-efficacy”.
The later study of Schunk claimed, “Pursuing easier goals may enhance efficacy and
motivation during the early stages of skill acquisition, but difficult goals are more
effective as skills develop because they offer more information about capabilities”
(28). Besides that, allowing students to set goals may enhance goal commitment.
Schunk concluded, “Self-set goals also promote self-efficacy”.

19


In addtition, giving feedback in each stage of conducting scientific research is also
one of the essential factors for students to evaluate the process and complete their
research projects. Bandura admitted attributional feedback have important effects on
efficacy and motivation (20). “Effort feedback for prior successes supports students'
perceptions of their progress, sustains motivation, and increases efficacy for learning”
(31). “The timing of feedback also is important. Early successes signal high learning
ability; feedback for early successes can enhance learning efficacy. Effort feedback for
early successes should be more credible when students have to work hard to succeed”.
Schunk claim “Effort feedback may be credible in the early stages of learning when
students need to expend effort to succeed. As skills develop, they ought to succeed
with less effort; thus, ability feedback may become more credible. Effort feedback
over an extended period might actually lower self-efficacy, because as students
become more skillful they might wonder why they still have to work hard to succeed.
Periodic assessments of students' skills, efficacy, and interpretations of feedback could
yield information about feedback sequences that optimally affect achievement
outcomes” (26).
-

Student’s limitations

o Lack of doing research’s benefit awareness: Once the students are owned

incorrect assessment of the benefits of conducting scientific research, the refusal of a
topic is an obvious result. In the contrast, the students will be interested in doing and
achieving good results. Doing research not only accumulates a certain amount of
knowledge but also contribute to practice soft skills such as teamwork, self-research
and understanding a problem, problem solving, critical thinking. , creative thinking ...
but these things may not be learned if passively learning in class.
o Low self-efficacy: “Self-efficacy refers to the individual’s perception of
his/her ability in accomplishing learning task” and “self-efficacy is defined in terms of
individuals' perceived capabilities to attain designated types of performances and
achieve specific results” (19). Another self-efficacy definition mentioned is “People's
judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to
attain designated types of performances" (20). Gist pointed, “Low self-efficacy may be
induced by negative performance appraisals. If so, low self-efficacy may inhibit effort

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even when skill is present, and it may lead to easy discouragement. Research is needed
to determine if performance can be improved by enhancing efficacy perceptions; it
also is needed to develop efficient mechanisms for enhancing efficacy perceptions in
conjunction with performance appraisals” (21). In the previous research of Bandura
hypothesized self-efficacy influence the choice of student to participate activities. The
student who have high self-efficacy join the activities and keep continue doing task
while avoid task like student who have low self-efficacy when facing difficult.
Moreover, which the high self-efficacy student, they expend more effort to persist
learning or doing task. Therefore, they will gain more knowledge and become more
skillful. In addition, when student satisfy with their achievement, they feel capable to
improve skills and contribute to set a new challenging goal (27). Therefore, selfefficacy is also one of the important factors affecting scientific research.

o Lack of self-funding and time: It can be said that to carry out a research
project, in addition to the school's supported funding, students may have to pay an
additional amount of funding. Therefore, if an individual does not have economic
conditions, it may be a factor leading to the refusal to participate in this activity.
Besides, the implementation of the project also requires spending a certain amount of
time. In the assumption that you have to work part-time jobs to pay for tuition, the
time to do scientific research is limited. However, this factor will not be analyzed in
depth in this study, so it is an objective condition and depends on the individual's
condition.
It can be seen whether the research activity of a school is strong or not depends
very much on the mechanism and features of each school. If the school has
mechanisms to promote scientific research, faculty and students will be able to
participate more in quantity and thereby improve quality.

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2.4. Final Cause-Effect Map

Validated Causes
Factors affecting
students’ scientific
research activities

Validated
Problem
Uneven research

- School supports

activities in
schools

- Lecture supports

Symptom
Limiting in
Students'
Scientific
research
activities

- Student’s limitation

Figure 2 Final Cause - Effect Map

3. Solution for Solving Problem
To promote scientific research activities of students to develop, this study proposes
a system of solutions related to three target groups including schools, lecturers and
students.
3.1. School
-

Deploying activities: Ensuring the systematic work in implementing academic

activities from the School Board to the Departments, setting specific targets for the
faculties. There is a coordination between the Student Union, the Youth Union, the
Department of Science Management to organize academic contests, seminars, and
scientific seminars to promote passion and create scientific research motivation
suitable for each student's level of study over the years. In addition, students will also

understand the importance and benefits of conducting research projects and found
scientific research as an important part of the school's learning process. Specifically,
every year, the school holds seminars on scientific research methods. In addition, there
are reviews of students' research projects to select faculties of the Faculty level and
further review at the School levels, City levels, and National levels. Besides, the

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school can also hold awards for scientific research students at the school level. Practice
demonstrations that the schools that have awards for scientific research students at the
school level, the number and quality of projects when participating in the Eureka
Award are better than the common ground of other schools (for example, University of
Economics, University of Science - Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City
University of Technology, ...)
-

The school should have a mechanism of commendation and reward for students

who win prizes at the City levels, national and international level, so that it can
motivate them and others when participating in scientific research. In addition, the
University also needs a mechanism to add learning or training points for students, who
have a scientific research topic at the school level or won prizes at the national or city
awards.
-

Mechanisms for Lecturers: Setting out for lecturers that guiding students to

conduct scientific research is a criterion for emulation evaluation and classification.
Besides, lecturers are allowed to exchange lecture hours when instructing students to

carry out scientific research projects. In addition, the school should set out a reward
policy for lecturers if the student's topic they teach is winning national or state awards.
-

Financial policy: To promote scientific research activities, the funding factor is

not important but it creates more motivation and binds students to participate in
scientific research. The University should have a mechanism for funding scientific
research projects that are approved by the Faculty and school levels.
3.2. Lectures
-

At present, a large number of lecturers at universities and colleges focus on

teaching without scientific research works or internationally published works. This is
also one of the reasons leading to the limitation of guiding students in scientific
research because it is the lecturer who must be passionate about scientific research and
be capable of scientific research in order to guide students to do this. Therefore,
lecturers need to improve their own scientific research capabilities.
-

Besides, the skill of suggesting new issues, orienting topics, giving students

access to resources is the strength that creates the advantage in being a topic guide.
Moreover, the skill to set goals for students to achieve is also very important. The

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objectives should be specific, authentic and achievable. At the same time, lecturers

give feedback at the appropriate time as a way to motivate students to conduct and
complete scientific research.
3.3. Students
-

Students need to have proper awareness that scientific research is a part of the

university education process. Most students realize that scientific research is not a
mandatory activity, but mainly comes from passion. Students can find a passion for
scientific research through school activities, academic competitions, conferences, and
guidance and inspiration from teachers and friends.
-

Besides that, students improve their individual competence by acquiring

knowledge of the subjects at the school and self-learning new knowledge by self-study
methods and reference materials from the library. Students also need to participate in
forums, academic activities to create an environment for exchanging, studying and
accessing new sources of knowledge. From there, the students can also improve their
professional knowledge, and have an additional environment to train themselves. In
the process of participating in academic activities or scientific forums, students are
also able to observe other students succeed, and see it as a learning example to strive
for implementation.
-

Moreover, the students also need to equip themselves with soft skills such as

teamwork, interview skills, problem solving skills, ... through extra-curricular subjects
at the school, or professional subjects which are organized by schools.

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