Developing an instrument to measure motivation, learning strategies and conceptual change

Recent studies have shown that some students are graduating from engineering programs while still holding onto misconceptions in areas such as statics, electricity and magnetism, and thermodynamics. While considerable research has been devoted to promoting conceptual understanding, few studies have focused on the intentional ways that students can engage in learning that can affect conceptual change. Intentional strategies include motivational factors and the learning strategies students use. In an effort to understand the relationship between intentionality and conceptual change, we are conducting a five-year NSF-funded study that focuses on difficult concepts taught in thermodynamics courses. The overall study is mixed methods using interviews, surveys and real-time experience sampling methods. We are currently in the first phase and this paper focuses on the development of a survey instrument to measure student's motivation, learning strategies and conceptual understanding. We draw on existing instruments and scales to represent a broad range of constructs in a survey instrument that we believe will be useful for engineering education researchers and practitioners alike. Although our pilot testing sample size was small, documenting our process of survey development yields meaningful insights for engineering education researchers and practitioners.