Does motivation affect students’ understanding and performance in engineering statics?

Abstract

Students’ understanding of fundamental engineering concepts is not necessarily reflected by their good academic performance. The difficulty that many students face in Statics has often affected their course performance and other follow-on courses, consequently, disheartening them from continuing with their engineering programme. The findings of this study indicate that most students attributed their performance in Statics to their own effort and self-efficacy. This supports Bandura's claim that students’ motivation influence their achievement. Consistent with the cognitive theory, students are perceived to have more responsibility for their own learning. Does motivation actually make the students succeed in Statics? This paper presents the findings from four case studies in the public universities in Malaysia.