Motivations of Students in a Thermodynamics Course

Students have different motivations when it comes to being successful in college.Some are driven by their own curiosity and interest in the topics they are studying.Others are driven by their need to earn high grades or their fear of falling short of expectations.Motivated students tend to be more successful in college, so it is important that those motivations are understood.With more knowledge of their students' motivations, professors can be more effective in the classroom.The current study analyzes the data from an anonymous survey given to students enrolled in Thermodynamics in the fall semester at two public universities, Mississippi State University and North Carolina State University.Using a Likert scale, students indicated their level of agreement to statements about thermodynamics and engineering in general.The collected surveys provide insight into student opinions about their desire to learn, their ability to deal with uncertainty, and their capacity for overcoming obstacles.Generally, the strongest agreement was for third-person statements about the work of an engineer and the weakest agreement was for first-person statements about personal experiences.