Measuring Students’ Motivation to Engage in Sustainable Engineering Practice

Abstract

Abstract – Worldwide, political and professional organizations consider engineering to be a key profession in the application of sustainable development to solve global problems. In order for engineering professionals to play a key role in sustainable development, they must be motivated to engage in such practice. The purpose of this study is to develop a measure of students’ motivation to engage in sustainable engineering practice. A survey instrument was developed by applying a mixed-method approach consisting of a survey instrument design phase, small pilot study, and national study. The proposed survey instrument includes 3 openended and 40 closed-ended questions to measure previous experiences and stereotypes, self-concept of abilities, and subjective task value with respect to sustainable engineering practice. Factor analyses of the closed-ended questions resulted in the identification of 7 factors, 5 of which can be considered to be strong factors. Evidence for validity and reliability is established through the pilot study and factor analyses.