The impact of an authentic, student-centered engineering project on student motivation

30th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Building on A Century of Progress in Engineering Education. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.00CH37135) Pub Date : 2000-10-18 DOI:10.1109/FIE.2000.896540

R. Marra, Tim Wheeler

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

The SPIRIT (Student Projects In Rocket Investigative Techniques) project used teaching innovation and flexibility to forge a highly successful and popular two-year project course at Pennsylvania State University. A combination of traditional and non-traditional teaching methods were used to: (1) maintain a base of common knowledge pertaining to the scientific/engineering mission among a highly diverse student population, and (2) allow students to focus on the knowledge and skills of most interest to them. This paper discusses the impact of this course and project on student motivation levels as measured by the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and student focus groups. Initial results show that, even without academic "rewards", SPIRIT students demonstrated a consistently high level of motivation and enthusiasm for the project. In addition, first- and second-year students rated the SPIRIT project more motivating than a comparison course to a statistically significant extent. The impact of these results in terms of future curricular reform is also discussed.

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一个真实的，以学生为中心的工程项目对学生动机的影响

宾夕法尼亚州立大学的SPIRIT(火箭调查技术学生项目)项目利用教学创新和灵活性打造了一门非常成功和受欢迎的两年制项目课程。采用传统和非传统教学方法的结合:(1)在高度多样化的学生群体中保持与科学/工程任务相关的常识基础;(2)让学生专注于他们最感兴趣的知识和技能。本文讨论了这门课程和项目对学生动机水平的影响，通过动机学习策略问卷(MSLQ)和学生焦点小组来测量。初步结果表明，即使没有学术上的“奖励”，SPIRIT项目的学生也始终表现出高度的积极性和对项目的热情。此外，一年级和二年级的学生认为SPIRIT项目比比较课程更有激励作用，这在统计上有显著的程度。本文还讨论了这些结果对今后课程改革的影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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30th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Building on A Century of Progress in Engineering Education. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.00CH37135)

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