Longitudinal Study of Changes in Student Motivation and Attitudes in Engineering

Kuzbary, Daniel Michael; Sharp, Julia L.; Benson, Lisa; Spence, Catherine

doi:10.18260/1-2--28634

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…This result aligns with previous work indicating that expectations for success and perceived usefulness of tasks can influence goal setting behaviors (Husman et al 2016;Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Our model supports previous conceptualizations of motivation for understanding the engineering major interest of first-year engineering students (Benson, McGough, Kuzbary, & Sharp, 2017;Jones, Paretti, Hein, & Knott, 2010;Kirn, 2014) by suggesting a blend of existing models of FTP (Hilpert et al 2012;Husman et al 2016).…”

Section: Connections Within Identity and Motivation Constructssupporting

confidence: 84%

Identity‐based motivation: Connections between first‐year students' engineering role identities and future‐time perspectives

Godwin

Kirn

2020

J of Engineering Edu

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BackgroundResearch in engineering education has highlighted the importance of identity and motivation for a number of student outcomes including persistence. However, these constructs have often been studied separately, despite theorized and demonstrated connections between students' identity and motivation in other fields. PurposeOur study fills this gap in the literature by investigating the connections between identity and motivation. We specifically examined the connections between students' engineering role identity and future-time perspective (FTP; motivation) theories to understand students' interest in choosing an engineering major after their first year, which we call continuing engineering major interest. MethodsThe data came from a questionnaire distributed during Fall 2015 (n = 2,879). Structural equation modeling was used to understand the connections between the latent factors of engineering role This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/jee.20324 identity and FTP. We also examined the predictive validity of this model on students' continuing engineering major interest. ResultsOur results show connections between students' engineering role identity and the domain-specific constructs of FTP. Identity was fully mediated by students' future-time perspectives and these perspectives were important for predicting continuing major interest. Engineering role identity measures explained a combined 69% of the variance in the FTP measures, and engineering role identity and FTP measures together explained 14.2% of the variance in engineering major interest. ConclusionsThese findings provide empirical evidence for linking identity and motivation in studies of engineering students' career pathways. The results of this work inform how theories of identity and motivation can be used collectively in engineering education research.

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Section: Connections Within Identity and Motivation Constructssupporting

confidence: 84%

Identity‐based motivation: Connections between first‐year students' engineering role identities and future‐time perspectives

Godwin

Kirn

2020

J of Engineering Edu

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“…Students' perceptions about themselves change during their college experience, and these perceptions are related to aspects of motivation (Benson et al, 2017). According to (Turner and Patrick, 2008), it is only by unfolding patterns of how individuals change in response to their contexts, and how these contexts change in response to individuals' actions, that one can illuminate the development of motivation.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Expectancy-Value-Cost Light Scale to Measure Motivation of Students in Computing Courses

Schoeffel¹,

Ramos²,

Cechinel³

et al. 2021

Informatics in Education

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This paper proposes and validates a short and simple Expectancy-Value-Cost scale, called EVC Light. The scale measures the motivation of students in computing courses, allowing the easy and weekly application across a course. One of the factors related directly to the high rate of failure and dropout in computing courses is student motivation. However, measuring motivation is complex, there are several scales already carried out to do that job, but only a few of them consider the longitudinal follow-up of motivation throughout the courses. The EVC Light was applied to 245 undergraduate students from four universities. The Omega coefficient, scale items intercorrelation, item-total correlation, and factor analysis are used to validate and measure the reliability of the instrument. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses supported the structure, consistency, and validity of the EVC Light scale. Moreover, a significant relationship between motivation and student results was identified, based mainly on the Expectancy and Cost factors.

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“…A significant decrease was observed for "Mastery Approach and Expectancy" while a slight decrease was observed for "Perception of the Future" was observed [11]. The authors cited "more negative views" about pursuing a career in engineering and a decrease in being motivated by future goals as potential factors contributing to the survey results [11]. The study was effective at demonstrating that motivation is not static and also helped to validate the importance of understanding how to maintain student motivation in engineering education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The study observed a decrease in motivation in some of these areas. A significant decrease was observed for "Mastery Approach and Expectancy" while a slight decrease was observed for "Perception of the Future" was observed [11]. The authors cited "more negative views" about pursuing a career in engineering and a decrease in being motivated by future goals as potential factors contributing to the survey results [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Some studies have also explored how engineering students' motivation changes over time, specifically over the course of their undergraduate studies. One study used a survey titled "Motivation and Attitudes in Engineering (MAE) Survey" to collect data on how seven different factors contribute to motivating students over the course of their undergraduate engineering experience [11]. The study observed a decrease in motivation in some of these areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving Engineering Technology Curriculum Through the Identification of Effective Motivational Strategies and Teaching Approaches

Sprau Coulter

2018 St.Lawrence Section Meeting Proceedings

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With the many demands placed on students and the stringent requirements established by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), undergraduate engineering and engineering technology programs are overflowing with challenging, required courses. The program requirements are intended to better prepare graduates for the diverse technical and social skills necessary to succeed. However, students have complained current curriculum does little to contextualize engineering material and provides inadequate real-world learning opportunities. A lack of curriculum flexibility, increasing awareness of the difficult nature of engineering course work, and concerns surrounding student retention have contributed to higher education questioning whether or not traditional teaching approaches are effective.The research study collected data on students' perception of the effectiveness of various teaching approaches and motivational strategies. The study also collected data on students' perception of the importance of receiving instructor feedback. The intention of the study is to gauge the effectiveness of various motivational strategies and teaching approaches and to identify specific areas where faculty should focus their classroom efforts. Upon completion of a traditional 3-credit, 15 weeks, face-to-face engineering technology course; students completed a 19 question survey where they evaluated the success of various learning opportunities that were incorporated into that particular course. All survey participants had the same professor who provided each of the six courses included in the study with the same types of learning opportunities. The data was compiled to identify if students consistently identify specific motivational strategies or teaching methods as effective techniques for learning new material. Through the study, it was identified that students value opportunities to contextualize course material, and perceive timely, faculty feedback as having a positive impact on their ability to learn the material.

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Longitudinal Study of Changes in Student Motivation and Attitudes in Engineering

Cited by 3 publications

References 30 publications

Identity‐based motivation: Connections between first‐year students' engineering role identities and future‐time perspectives

Identity‐based motivation: Connections between first‐year students' engineering role identities and future‐time perspectives

The Expectancy-Value-Cost Light Scale to Measure Motivation of Students in Computing Courses

Improving Engineering Technology Curriculum Through the Identification of Effective Motivational Strategies and Teaching Approaches

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