Resumen de Students’ motivation and academic achievement: the case of an engineering preparatory program
Engineering preparatory programs offer applicants who have not attained adequate achievements in their high schoolstudies an opportunity to improve their chances to be accepted to undergraduate engineering programs. This study, whichmade use of quantitative and qualitative instruments, characterized the motivation for higher education in science andengineering in students attending an engineering preparatory program, and examined the relation between suchmotivation and the students’ academic achievement. The study shows that at the end of the program, the degree ofperceived control (coercion) in students who completed the program was significantly lower than that found in all thestudents at the beginning of the program. This difference was accompanied by a decline in the number of students attendingthe program. The gap could possibly be accounted for by the explanation that students with a relatively high initial degreeof perceived control apparently withdrew from the program, whereas students characterized by a relatively low initialdegree of perceived control and who completed the program probably experienced an increase in their degree of relativeautonomy. The study shows that the degree of relative autonomy in students completing the program was significantlylower than that measured in outstanding 12th grade students majoring in science and engineering. The study indicates theimportance of autonomous motivation in engineering preparatory programs by showing positive correlation between the Relative Autonomy Index and the students’ academic achievement.
