Engineering student motivation and attitudes towards self-regulated learning

Abstract

This research seeks to understand the connections between aspects of time-oriented motivation and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) strategies of students. The Future Time Perspective (FTP) of a student includes the future goals of that student and how those goals relate to his or her current learning behaviors, such as SRL or the ability to think motivationally, metacognitively, and behaviorally1. This project will enhance completed and ongoing work to study attitudes and motivations of engineering students and their effect on student learning; our understanding of student learning will be extended to include SRL strategies. The goals of this project are to 1) qualitatively describe and document engineering students' SRL strategy use, 2) examine interactions between students' motivations, specifically their FTPs and SRL strategy use, and 3) study goal setting as a connection between FTP and SRL for the engineering undergraduate population.