Academic motivation in beginning students of electrical engineering: A case study of Danish and Israeli universities

In light of the acute shortage of engineers in the Western world, nurturing academic motivation is a primary goal of engineering education. The study described in this article focused on the mapping and analysis of the factors driving beginning students to study electrical engineering. One hundred and seventy-six Danish and Israeli students took part in the study. The participants filled out a closed-ended anonymous questionnaire used to measure their academic motivation. Based on the findings, beginning students of electrical engineering are mostly driven by intrinsic motivation (i.e. interest in studying engineering) and identified regulation (i.e. recognition of the value inherent to these studies), regardless of their semester of study (first, second or third). It has also been found that despite the differences between Danish and Israeli students and their programmes, their motivational factors are very similar.