Assessing the Motivation and Emotion Levels of First-Year Engineering Students Enrolled in an Academic Writing Course

Aparajita Jaiswal; Brainerd Prince; Vinayak Krishan Joshi

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 9: Student Growth & Professionalization
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs Division (FYP)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46620

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Paper Authors

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Aparajita Jaiswal Purdue University

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Aparajita Jaiswal is an Intercultural Research Specialist with CILMAR, Purdue University. Her research endeavors revolve around exploring strategies for seamlessly integrating intercultural learning into both regular curriculum and study abroad programs. Aparajita actively engages in offering guidance in developing research studies, curriculum enhancements, and assessment methods pertaining to integration and cultivation of intercultural competence. Her expertise extends to facilitating workshops and training sessions, catering to the needs of both staff and students within Purdue University.

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Brainerd Prince Plaksha University

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Brainerd Prince is Associate Professor and the Director of the Center for Thinking, Language and Communication at Plaksha University. He teaches courses such as Reimagining Technology and Society, Ethics of Technological Innovation, and Art of Thinking for undergraduate engineering students and Research Design for PhD scholars. He completed his PhD on Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Philosophy from OCMS, Oxford – Middlesex University, London. He was formerly a Research Tutor at OCMS, Oxford, and formerly a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, a Recognized Independent Centre of Oxford University. He is also the Founding Director of Samvada International Research Institute which offers consultancy services to institutions of research and higher education around the world on designing research tracks, research teaching and research projects. His first book The Integral Philosophy of Aurobindo: Hermeneutics and the Study of Religion was published by Routledge, Oxon in 2017. For more information, please visit: https://plaksha.edu.in/faculty-details/dr-brainerd-prince

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Vinayak Krishan Joshi Plaksha University

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Vinayak Joshi is a research lead in Centre for Thinking Language and Communication at Plaksha University, India. With an educational background in Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, his work primarily has been focused on research projects that try to optimize learning through innovative pedagogies, course designs and assessment tools for Engineering students.

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Abstract

This Complete Research paper aims to assess the motivation level and emotion states of engineering students enrolled in a writing course. Communication has been identified as one of the important 21st-century skills. Research has revealed that engineers need to develop verbal and written communication skills to share their ideas with others. Engaging engineering students in writing activities is an effective mechanism to help them reflect and develop critical thinking skills. Scholars have argued that engineering students are reluctant and demotivated to engage in courses focused on academic or technical writing. Studies have confirmed that training engineering students in writing will help them to share disciplinary knowledge with the community. Since writing is an essential communication skill that needs to be mastered early on in the program, therefore, engineering institutions need to create courses that focus on writing. In this paper, we intend to focus on a first-year engineering course that introduces students to the art of writing. The objective of the course was twofold: i) to help undergraduate engineering students learn about the intricacies of writing, such as writing an argumentative essay, and ii) to foster a learner-centered environment to keep students motivated and allow them to freely express their ideas through writing. Since the course was targeted at first-year engineering students, instructors refrained from using technical jargon, the concepts were explained using simple English language. For example, students were not asked to propose a research question rather, they were asked to think of the problems that they wanted to solve. The instructor and mentors guided the students to modify the identified problems into research questions. The course followed a project-based learning approach, students needed to submit two final projects. In one project, they needed to identify a grand challenge and write a research proposal based on the grand challenge. For both the papers, students were provided some themes based on either daily challenges, or themes from other subjects such as Artificial intelligence and Natures’ Machines. Based on these theme, students were required to write two reflection papers. Students for both these projects worked in a groups of five and were mentored by a research assistant. The study was conducted in an engineering University located in India. The objective of the study was to understand the motivation and emotion level of students enrolled in a first-year writing course. The study used a 5-point Likert Scale to collect motivation and emotion levels data from 130 students enrolled in the course. The results of the study demonstrated that students showed a moderate to high level of motivation (M=3.62, SD=0.55), moderate to high level of positive emotions, they are enjoyment, hope, and pride (M=3.86, SD=0.66), and lower levels of negative emotions they are anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, boredom (M=2.64, SD=0.76). Further, we conducted multiple regression to assess the relationship between motivation and types of emotions they are enjoyment, hope, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom. The results indicated that enjoyment, anxiety, and shame were the predictors of student motivation [F(8, 121) = 15.19, p < .001, R2 = 0.50, R2adj = 0.47)]. The results confirmed that enjoyment had a positive impact on student motivation, whereas anxiety and shame were the negative predictors. Overall, the study showcases that helping students to develop positive emotions can lead to higher motivational levels among students. Therefore, instructors need to create learner-centered writing courses that allow the students to express their ideas and feel motivated.

Citation
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Jaiswal, A., & Prince, B., & Joshi, V. K. (2024, June), Assessing the Motivation and Emotion Levels of First-Year Engineering Students Enrolled in an Academic Writing Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46620

TY - CPAPER
AB - This Complete Research paper aims to assess the motivation level and emotion states of engineering students enrolled in a writing course. Communication has been identified as one of the important 21st-century skills. Research has revealed that engineers need to develop verbal and written communication skills to share their ideas with others. Engaging engineering students in writing activities is an effective mechanism to help them reflect and develop critical thinking skills. Scholars have argued that engineering students are reluctant and demotivated to engage in courses focused on academic or technical writing. Studies have confirmed that training engineering students in writing will help them to share disciplinary knowledge with the community. Since writing is an essential communication skill that needs to be mastered early on in the program, therefore, engineering institutions need to create courses that focus on writing. In this paper, we intend to focus on a first-year engineering course that introduces students to the art of writing. The objective of the course was twofold: i) to help undergraduate engineering students learn about the intricacies of writing, such as writing an argumentative essay, and ii) to foster a learner-centered environment to keep students motivated and allow them to freely express their ideas through writing. Since the course was targeted at first-year engineering students, instructors refrained from using technical jargon, the concepts were explained using simple English language. For example, students were not asked to propose a research question rather, they were asked to think of the problems that they wanted to solve. The instructor and mentors guided the students to modify the identified problems into research questions. The course followed a project-based learning approach, students needed to submit two final projects. In one project, they needed to identify a grand challenge and write a research proposal based on the grand challenge. For both the papers, students were provided some themes based on either daily challenges, or themes from other subjects such as Artificial intelligence and Natures’ Machines. Based on these theme, students were required to write two reflection papers. Students for both these projects worked in a groups of five and were mentored by a research assistant.
The study was conducted in an engineering University located in India. The objective of the study was to understand the motivation and emotion level of students enrolled in a first-year writing course. The study used a 5-point Likert Scale to collect motivation and emotion levels data from 130 students enrolled in the course. The results of the study demonstrated that students showed a moderate to high level of motivation (M=3.62, SD=0.55), moderate to high level of positive emotions, they are enjoyment, hope, and pride (M=3.86, SD=0.66), and lower levels of negative emotions they are anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, boredom (M=2.64, SD=0.76). Further, we conducted multiple regression to assess the relationship between motivation and types of emotions they are enjoyment, hope, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom. The results indicated that enjoyment, anxiety, and shame were the predictors of student motivation [F(8, 121) = 15.19, p &amp;lt; .001, R2 = 0.50, R2adj = 0.47)]. The results confirmed that enjoyment had a positive impact on student motivation, whereas anxiety and shame were the negative predictors. Overall, the study showcases that helping students to develop positive emotions can lead to higher motivational levels among students. Therefore, instructors need to create learner-centered writing courses that allow the students to express their ideas and feel motivated.
AU - Aparajita Jaiswal
AU - Brainerd Prince
AU - Vinayak Krishan Joshi
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Assessing the Motivation and Emotion Levels of First-Year Engineering Students Enrolled in an Academic Writing Course
UR - https://peer.asee.org/46620
ER -