Motivation in engineering education: a framework supported by evaluation instruments and enhancement resources

Motivation is a critical factor in the academic performance, especially in the EHEA context, where the active learning must be promoted. In the case of engineering education, it is particularly necessary to care the student motivation by several reasons. The difficulty of engineering degrees can hinder the motivation of students and it can affect the high levels of absenteeism and dropping out. Thus, it is important to work up frameworks to evaluate and enhance, in addition to technical competences, other competences such as motivation. This paper presents the definition of a motivational framework composed by several instruments, resources, mechanisms and technologies. It allows teachers and academic institutions to evaluate and enhance the motivation of their students. But the most innovative characteristic of the framework lies in the student side; it also allows students to self-evaluate and enhance their motivation by performing questionnaires, recommendations and complementary training activities. In order to validate the proposed solutions, a case study has been successfully performed with 152 students of the Technical University of Madrid. The empirical experience has enabled to confirm the usefulness of the provided framework and to explore motivational aspects related with the engineering education

Development of predicting model for safety behaviour based on safety psychology and working environment

The increasing trend of occupational accident due to unsafe act and unsafe condition especially in construction site suggests the need for more proactive safety assessment model. Therefore this research aimed to establish a prediction model of safety behaviour based on safety psychology and working environment factors in construction site. Theory of Planned Behaviour (TpB) was adapted to examine on the prediction model of safety behaviour among construction workers using safety psychology representing unsafe act and working environment factors representing unsafe condition. A modified perception questionnaire named Safety Psychometric Model (SPM) was proposed based on TpB questionnaire and safety attitude questionnaire (SQA). Previously, the approach has successfully applied in health care and manufacturing sector. The questionnaire has been validated by three industrial and academic experts. A total of 554 respondents among 92 construction site were selected as the subjects for analysis. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) was use for analysis purpose which involve correlation, regression and structural equation analysis. The results demonstrated that safety psychology and work environment factor was related positively with safety behaviour intention. The elements of workers’ attitude, subjective norm and perceived control that form the safety psychology context found to be significantly has the ability to predict safety behaviour. The demographics variances of personal and education background, working experiences and training background also determine as the factors of safety behaviour of the construction workers. The research also successfully established a safety behaviour prediction model that named Safety Psychometric Model. The model can be benefited by safety practitioners, organizations and researchers to explore the safety behaviour prediction. It also enhanced the knowledge in the area of employee behaviour prediction and modelling