Analysis of the Factors Motivating Students at a Two-Year Technological College to Study Electronics

Two-year technological colleges provide practical engineering training, allowing their graduates to become directly integrated into the employment market. Similarly tostudents atcommunity colleges, studentsat technological colleges are usually from the socio-economic periphery or students with relatively low academic achievements. Using quantitative and qualitative instruments, the study described in this paper characterized the factors motivating students to study electronics at a leading two-year college in Israel. Fifty second-year electronics students took part in the study. According to the findings, the students are primarily motivated by interest in the studies (intrinsic motivation) and by recognizing their inherent value (identified regulation). However, an additional factor that should be taken into account is external regulation, according to which, some of the students are studying electronics at the two-year college for lack of any other option. The external regulation's relatively high weight could possibly beexplained by the findings, accordingtowhich, the need for competence and the need for relatedness are only partially met in those students during their studies.