A comparison of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors as predictors of civil engineering students’academic success

• Autores: Héctor Martín, Christelle Sorhaindo
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 35, no. 2, 2019, págs. 458-472
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A Comparison of Intrinsic and Extrinsic MotivationalFactors as Predictors of Civil Engineering Students’Academic Success*HECTOR MARTIN1** and CHRISTELLE SORHAINDO21University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad. 868-662-2002. E-mail: hector.martin@sta.uwi.edu2Graduate, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad. E-mail: christelle38sorhaindo@hotmail.comStudents’ academic performance is stymied when there is a lack of motivation to learn. It is hypothesised that intrinsicmotivational factors are moreprevalentthan extrinsicfactors in civil engineeringstudentswithhighacademic performanceand that motivation does not remain constant throughout a degree. Cognitive theory is utilised with a cross-sectionaldesign to evaluate 148 students enrolled in a three year BSc. Civil Engineering program. Principal component analysisreduced twenty-two positive variables to five factors (Personal, Perfectionist, Parental/Family, Job/Career, and SocialAcceptance) contributing towards student’s overall motivation. Using ANOVA at a significance level of p0.05, themotivational factors that differed between academic years of study were Perfectionist Motivation and Job/CareerMotivation. These differences provide a basis for the further examination of the time-varying nature of motivation.While intrinsic motivational variables were shown to have a more positive effect based on the mean responses, as a factor itwas not wholly successful in predicting academic performance, rather extrinsic factor social acceptance accounted for highgrade-point averages. Trends indicate motivational factors vary by age, gender, and local versus foreign origin. Theseresult provide a greater understanding of precisely what impulses students are guided by during their studies and providefoundation for focus areas to be explored by educators.