Resumen de Canadian engineering students’ motivation in the contextof a shift toward student-centered teaching methods in an outcome-based education
Anastassis Kozanitis, Jean-François Desbiens
A recent transition to an outcome-based engineering education in Canada has prompted changes to instructional andpedagogical methods. Given that students can express a different degree of motivation depending on the course and on thelearning activities within a course, there is a need to examine the motivational dynamics that drive the students in thelearning process. Moreover, most studies on engineering students’ motivation have examined motivational componentsindependently. The purpose of this study is to analyze the joint contributions of student characteristics, their perception ofinstructors’ attitudes and behavior when interacting with students, as well as their perception of the nature of the learningactivities and their impact on student motivation within a course. The sample was composed of 215 students attending afrancophone engineering school in Canada. Participants completed a questionnaire composed of 42 items from variousexisting instruments. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to predict the set of motivational components for thisstudy. Instructors’ attitudes and behavior, as well as higher-order cognitive tasks are significantly related to studentmotivational components, resulting in a positive impact on mastery goal, performance goal, task value, control beliefs, andself-efficacy.
