Academic Motivation of Sophomore and Junior Electrical Engineering Students

Given the importance of motivation in engineering education, the research described here analyzed the factors driving sophomore and junior students to study electrical engineering. The study involved 399 students (192 sophomore students and 207 junior students) at a leading technical university in Israel. At the beginning of the relevant year, the participants completed an anonymous Likert-like scale, based on self-determination theory. According to the results, both sophomore and junior students were mainly driven by autonomous factors. It was also revealed that the intrinsic motivation of junior students was significantly higher than that of sophomore students. Based on the curriculum, the paper provides a possible explanation for these findings.