Motivating Engineering Undergraduates to Learn

Abstract

An approach to educating mechanical engineers is presented which is based on the observations of behavioural scientists who have examined what motivates people to work. Behavioural scientists' work has been widely adopted by industry and it is also relevant to education. The methods described are based on satisfying those factors in a student's character which are motivating factors on the reasonable assumption that well-motivated students work well. The methods relate to material presentation rather than to syllabuses and they are shown to have advantages which will benefit the whole profession in the long term.