IINVESTIGATING THE REASONS BEHIND UNMOTIVATED ENGINEERING STUDENTS

In recent years, faculty members of various universities have presented numerous reports of lack of motivation among students in engineering fields. What are the reasons for this lack of motivation and how can students’ motivation be increased? Factors influencing motivation can be internal or external. The source of internal motivation, as the name suggests, lies in the internal personality of each person. On the other hand, the source of external motivation is in one’s environment and as an external factor encourages him/her to execute a certain task. Considering that motivation is an influential parameter in students’ learning and function in classroom, identifying the causes of lack of motivation and striving to rectify them, have considerable roles in the success of education and quality of learning. With this in mind, a two-step survey was conducted among the engineering students in University of Tehran. From the survey, the most and least influential factors in students’ lack of motivation were identified. In order to validate the findings of the first survey, a similar second survey was conducted in K.N. Toosi University, which resulted in similar results. It was found from the surveys that causes of lack of motivation are rooted both inside the universities (course curriculum, instructors and learning environment), and also outside in the society. From the 27 potential reasons for lack of motivation, the rigidity and theoretical nature of the courses, insufficient practical and skill building activities, and unrealized expectations were found to be the most influential in the expansion of lack of motivation among engineering students.