How do engineering students differ from students of other disciplines in Taiwan?

This study investigates the learning motivating factors among engineering undergraduates and students from different disciplines and the relationships between the motivating factors and the learning efficacy. There was a tendency for the subjects to choose some factors as having great motivating effect such as ‘individual attitude and expectation’ and ‘reward and recognition’. The results also show some difference among students from different backgrounds. The order of motivating factors varies. It is obviously that students from the Arts and Science and Engineering backgrounds are more motivated by intrinsic factors (individual attitude and expectation), while those from Social Science and Business and Management backgrounds are more motivated by extrinsic factors (reward and recognition). The findings from the study provide insights into development of teaching inventories in the higher education. The study provides a means to examine how the various factors influence learning motivation among university students. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.