Fostering motivation as a class objective in a large engineering class for second-year students: A narrative approach

Self Determination Theory (SDT) states that intrinsic motivation (IM) in a particular context is supported by increasing an individual's sense of autonomy, relatedness, and competence with respect to that context. When instructors use IMsupportive methods, they promote learning of class content. This research seeks to describe through narratives how students' motivation changes in response to a pedagogy designed with fostering intrinsic motivation as a primary class objective. After being observed in the classroom of an IM-supportive class conversion, students were interviewed to document their narratives. Interview transcripts were coded to describe students' motivational orientation throughout the class. The majority of interviewed students demonstrated increases in intrinsic motivation for studying the class content. The interviews revealed that individual choice, interpersonal relationships, and constructive failure were critical in moving students toward intrinsic motivation. While the IM-supportive learning environment did not affect all students equally, the commonthemes of individual choice, interpersonal relationships, and constructive failure provide deeper insights intohow to improve and assess students' motivational changes in technical engineering classes.