Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 831 de 957
“When I did industrial training, I got chances to see the real things (engineering
applications). I can see how the boiler or steamer works. So, when I did experiment in
laboratory, I can easily predict what will happened next... It’s the same when I learn the
related topics. I can easily relate the theory with the related application and processes. It’s
just easy to learn everything once you know the real process.” [MM(M)-I1Q2-100326].
“We needed to grasp the whole concept of it and tried to relate it to our day-to-day life. That
way helps me to understand more about engineering. For example, heat transfer can be
applied directly to cooking tasks. With this example, I could see the benefits of learning the
subject matter. I think, the understanding of concepts are important for a person to succeed
in this field. [MM(F)-I4A2-101213]
The interview data also imply that students possess different learning approaches to
persist and succeed in engineering. In view of the comparable results, greater attention
should be paid to the differences in learning between the gender. The results would seem
to suggest that there may be some cultural differences in learning. Many researchers have
provided model of cultural differences in learning between Australia and Malaysia, one of
them is collectivist and individualist (Hofstede, 1986). Further analysis of the results is
needed to draw further conclusion.
Conclusion and Future Research
In general, the current findings suggest that the theory of reasoned action model may not
be suitable to measure academic performance or achievement. The reason may be because
the theory was originally developed to explain the reason of a single behaviour of a
person. The complexity in the engineering learning process is that it involves anticipation
of various factors such as internal and external motivation, multiple intention and
continuous development of cognitive and critical thinking processes. It is seen necessary
to also consider external motivational factors that can reinforce their internal factors.
Combination of the internal and external factors will provide useful information for
researchers and educators to better understand factors that contribute to student success
and persistence in engineering. Despite providing a useful framework of elements to
explain behaviour, the model may not be suitable to be used for predicting engineering
learning success. Therefore, this study suggests a need for a different model structure that
can explain students’ learning experiences in engineering. The gender and cultural
differences in learning observed in this study should be a part of such model.
References
Baillie, C. (2000). Motivation and Attrition in Engineering Student. European Journal of
Engineering Education, 25(2), 145-155.
Bain, A. (1859). The Emotions and The Will. London: John W. Parker and Sons.
Biggs, J., Kember, D., & Leung, D. Y. P. (2001). The Revised Two-factor Study Process
Questionnaire: R-SPQ-2F. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(1), 133-
149.
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011