The implementation of an intervention plan to improve student motivation and performance in mechanical engineering senior design capstone

• Autores: Elisabeth Kames, Beshoy Morkos, Amanda Bessette
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 35, no. 3, 2019, págs. 779-794
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Motivation and performance play an integral role in the success of engineering students at the collegiate level. Professorsface challenges between the diversity of the students and diversity in engineering disciplines, creating the need to reformeducation in the field of engineering. The purpose of the study is to identify motivational changes and implement anintervention plan incorporating strategies, discussions, and approaches to adapt the educational system to work for anassortmentof studentpopulations. The studyuses an adapted version of the Motivational Student Learning Questionnaire(MSLQ), to measure the motivation of two different cohorts of students throughout capstone design courses incomparison to their respective performance. The five motivation factors studied were: cognitive value, self-regulation,presentation anxiety, intrinsic value, and self-efficacy. Statistical Analysis was performed between the motivation factorsand demographic populations of the students (male vs. female, domestic vs. international), as well as within populations.The first cohort of students were the control cohort, experiencing the typical senior design capstone requirements. Thesecond cohort of students experienced the implementation of an intervention plan to better prepare them for the seniordesign capstone sequence. The intervention plan entailed changes made to Design Methodologies, a precursor course tocapstone completed during the junior year. This research will evaluate whether these changes affected the students’ initialmotivational levels among different demographics. It is important to note that the changes made to Design Methodologieswere not related to the content of the course; rather the changes were intended to better familiarize the students with theirupcoming tasks and goals for senior design capstone.The findings of the two-year longitudinal study comparing motivational factors and performance of the two mechanicalengineering senior design capstone course cohorts are presented: the control cohort using the standard teaching methodsfor Senior Design Capstone at the university and the test cohort undergoing the intervention plan in the curriculum. Theresults show that the intervention plan made a positive impact on the student factors, especially for the internationalstudent population. More importantly, the intervention plan focused on promoting positive reinforcement regardingmotivational factors rather than negative reinforcement.