Development of Engineering Students’ Motivation and Independent Learning Skills

Abstract

The current study examines ways of engineering students' development of motivation and independent learning skills which are considered to be the most influential factors for effective language learning in the groups of young adults. As the discipline "Foreign language" is not a major subject in most technical universities in Russia, the number of academic hours allocated for it is limited, moreover, engineering students show low motivation to practice a second language outside the classroom. Besides, as teaching practice shows the first-year students' independent learning skills are not yet developed enough. Therefore, the authors aimed to find ways to enhance their students' motivation to master English and teach them how to manage their extracurricular time more effectively. A two-stage survey was conducted in the 2020-2021 academic year in experimental and control groups of the first-year students at Saint Petersburg Mining University for which special questionnaires were designed. The analysis of the participants' responses allowed selecting the most efficient language learning tools and their effectiveness was assessed at the end of the academic year. The authors also determined the relation between the selected various teaching tools and non-technical competences mastering. The authors managed to define how the selected teaching tools can be beneficial for developing each of these core competences, viz. critical thinking, project work, team-building, leadership, communication, cross-cultural interaction and self-development.

The Curriculum of Islamic Religious Education in the Whirlwind of Independent Education and Its Implementation on Learning

“…It encourages students to master various fields of knowledge relevant to entering the workforce and provides students with the opportunity to choose their courses. This policy also aims to enhance the link and match between academia and the business/industrial world while preparing students for the workforce from the outset (Sveshnikova et al, 2022).…”

“…As a result, Islamic religious education has become less adaptable to the rapid social and technological changes. This has led to the challenge of Islamic education in embracing the principles of self-directed learning, which are highly open to social change and globalization (Halim & Amril, 2022;Sveshnikova et al, 2022).…”

Training Mining Engineers in the Context of Sustainable Development: A Moral and Ethical Aspect

“…On the other hand, the transition to sustainable development implies the need for rational use of raw materials and protection of the environment. This requires improving the training of mining engineers in order to develop innovative competencies of future miners (Sveshnikova et al, 2022).…”

Teaching English for Special Purposes to Bachelors of Engineering and Technology: Corpus Approach and Terminological Units

“…Another important aspect of upgrade in the modern Russian higher technical education, which is embodied in the educational standards, is a focus on independent students' research. Its key goal is development of lexical and research competencies in students of engineering programs (Bakirova, 2021;Goman, 2019;Pushmina et al, 2022;Sveshnikova et al, 2022). So, corpus-based learning can be treated as student-centered, ensuring a shift from an inductive to a deductive approach.…”