| Using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and McKeachie, 1991) and supported by interviews with the participants, this study compared the learning strategies and motivations used by engineering students participating in a self-study Engineering Fundamentals course and a lecture-based Operating Systems course at three nuclear power plants in the United States. The results of this study determined that while the self-study and the lecture-based instructional delivery methods promoted the use of different motivations and learning strategies for the engineers, the learning outcomes were not affected. The dominant factor that contributed to the student success in both courses was the practice of effective self-regulation strategies by the learners. |
