Achievement Motivation of Civil Engineering Students of Universitas

Islam Riau

Ida Windi Wahyuni

, Anas Puri

Faculty of Islamic Study, Universitas Islam Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Islam Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Keywords:

Achievement Motivation, Motivating Factors, Inhibitor Factors, Training.

Abstract:

Achievement motivation is an encouragement to overcome obstacles, strength training and trying to do a

difﬁcult job in a good way. In other terms, achievement motivation is one’s attempt to ﬁnd and exceed

the standard of excellence. There is no enough information about achievement motivation and motivating

factors of students of Civil Engineering Department Universitas Islam Riau. This information is important

for the arrangement of teaching strategies and the maintaining program. This paper is intended to describe

the student’s achievement motivation according to motivating factors as well as inhibitors of achievement

motivation of research subjects. The sample of this research is a student of Civil Engineering Department

Universitas Islam Riau. The method to be used is qualitative descriptive research in which the data is

analyzed by the description of regular sentences in order to be easily understood the meaning contained

therein. Results show that the current students of Civil Engineering Department of Universitas Islam Riau

have high achievement motivation.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the basic needs that must be fulﬁlled by every

individual is education. Through the educational

process that, every individual is able to learn

and develop all their potential and characteristics.

The learning process in higher education requires

motivation for every student. Motivation means

generating motives, generating mobility, or moving

a person or self to do something in order to reach a

decision or goal. Biogenetic motives such as hunger,

thirst, the need for rest and the driving of human

activities that are innate to him and that of him from

birth can distinguish one’s nature (Wahyuni, 2011).

Motivation is one of the aspects that need to be

considered to keep students achieving. Motivation

plays an important role in achieving one’s goals.

Achievement motivation is needed in the learning

process because if everything is forced it will affect

the results obtained. This is a sign that if something

is done not according to his needs, will make a

person unmotivated. Achievement motivation gives

a great inﬂuence on the achievement of the students.

Students with high achievement motivation will

always be passionate and ambitious, perform the tasks

assigned to them as well as possible, learn faster, and

have achievements in their skills (Santrock, 2008).

The Ministry of National Education of the

Republic of Indonesia generally provides criteria for

outstanding students, i.e students who achieve high

achievement in academic and non-academic, able to

communicate with Indonesian and English, positive

attitude, and spirit of Pancasila view of life (Tinggi,

2010). (Akpan and Umobong, 2013) stated that

motivating students to succeed in school is one of the

greatest challenges of the century. Getting students to

learn and retaining their interest in what they learn is

one of the main goals of teachers in the classroom.

A student is a call for a person who is

currently studying at a university or college

(http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiswa). The

task of students in the campus is (1) to deepen and

apply the lecture material presented by the lecturer;

(2) learning to explore the potential within oneself

through organizational training, (3) The main task

of the students is the obligation to study and ﬁnish

college. A student who is capable of accepting

oneself will have a high appreciation against him

and have an elastic view of his limitations, will be

better able to establish relationships with the Creator

(Wahyuni, 2011).

Civil engineering is the science that studies about

Wahyuni, I. and Puri, A.

Achievement Motivation of Civil Engineering Students of Universitas Islam Riau.

DOI: 10.5220/0009060000880092

In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education and Humanity (ICoSEEH 2019) - Sustainable Development in Developing Country for Facing Industrial

Revolution 4.0, pages 88-92

ISBN: 978-989-758-464-0

building construction in all areas of development.

All related to development must involve the civil

engineering sciences. Some students claim that

the civil engineering department is a difﬁcult

department in terms of building drawings, counting

courses, lecturers difﬁcult, and many big tasks

to be completed. However, the civil engineering

department is in great demand by young people who

have an interest in the challenge. The civilian scholar

is not only expected to be a planner, but also an

executive in the ﬁeld.

Civil engineering students have more time for

ﬁeld activities. They are faced with practical concrete

and steel structures, drawings of building techniques,

etc. In addition, they also often practice surveying

and measurement by using theodolite in the ﬁeld with

hot or rainy conditions. This affair is no less extreme

than duty and overtime. Because most students

have eye bags like pandas. After graduating many

become successful with various projects that they did

(https://www.anakteknik.co.id/a/bhrearka/Ciri-Ciri-M

ahasiswa-Teknik-Berdasarkan-Jurusannya).

There is no enough information about

achievement motivation and motivating factors of

students of Civil Engineering Department Universitas

Islam Riau. Information about achievement

motivation and motivating factors of students is

important for arrangement of teaching strategies

and the maintaining program. Based on the above

description, this research problem can be formulated

that is (1) how civil engineering student achievement

motivation; and (2) what is the motivating factors and

inhibitors of student achievement motivation? The

purpose of this research was conducted to determine

the motivation of student achievement as well as the

factors driving and inhibiting student achievement

motivation.

2 MOTIVATION ACHIEVEMENT

(Winkel, 1996) asserts that achievement motivation

is the driving force in the individual to achieve

the highest level of academic achievement for

self-esteem. In achieving the highest possible

achievement, every individual must have a strong

desire to achieve his goal. It really depends on

the effort, ability, and willingness of the individual

itself. Achievement motivation has a big effect

on learning achievement (Achmad et al., 2018)

(Lutan, 1988) revealed that someone who has high

achievement motivation level shows a tendency of

a positive approach in performing their duties and

always oriented to achievement.

Research conducted by (Kavousipour et al., 2015)

revealed that the achievement motivation level in

SUMS students was higher than average and did

not decrease during the school year. The six most

inﬂuential factors in academic motivation are family

attitudes, getting good jobs in the future, respecting

themselves, the ability to learn, believing in their role

in victory and defeat and optimism about themselves.

The results of the study also show that personal, social

and educational factors inﬂuence the motivation of

more than economic and environmental factors.

According to (McClelland, 1987), there are

several factors of high achievement motivation,

namely:

• Responsibility. Individuals with high

achievement motivation will have more

responsibility for the results of their work

because then the individual is satisﬁed when

completing the task properly.

• Risk of task selection. Individuals who have high

achievement motivation will consider in advance

of the risks it faces before starting the job, in other

words, the action will be done will be adjusted to

the limits of ability it has.

• Requires feedback. Individuals with high

achieving motivation prefer to work in situations

where the individual gets concrete feedback about

what he or she has done.

• Innovative. Individuals with high achievement

motivation will be more active to seek information

in order to ﬁnd better ways or other new ways to

accomplish a task and do not like routine matters.

• Time of completion of the task. Individuals with

high achieving motivation can complete tasks

quickly and do not like to postpone work.

• The desire to be the best. Individuals will try their

best to be the best of others. Individuals with high

achievement motivation will not only be satisﬁed

with being able to do a task but will strive to

achieve certain performance standards in doing it.

(McClelland, 1987) also reveals that individuals

with high achieving needs will prefer tasks with

moderate difﬁculty levels because the task has a

challenging element of ability and is still within the

limits of a person’s ability to work. Conversely,

individuals who have lower n-ach choose tasks with

high or very low difﬁculty. This happens because

they do not like situations where there are challenges

and threats to their abilities. This difference is

also seen in problem-solving strategies. Individuals

with high n-ach have problem-solving strategies that

support their efforts in achieving desired outcomes.

Achievement Motivation of Civil Engineering Students of Universitas Islam Riau

In contrast, individuals with low n-ach do not have

a problem-solving strategy and tend to be easily

frustrated in the face of adversity. Factors that

inﬂuence the achievement motivation that can be

an extrinsic factor and intrinsic factor. Intrinsic

factors that play a role are the possibilities for

success, self-efﬁcacy, value, and previous experience.

While the extrinsic factors that play a role are the

family, school, and friends (Haryani and Tairas,

2014). Achievement motivation is a crucial factor

in achieving academic success and human resource

excellence (Kuntjojo, 2015). A person with a

success-oriented, high-motivated approach to success

and fearful achieves a low failure, is very involved

in various achievement activities and not anxious or

worried about performing well (Schunk, 2012).

3 RESEARCH METHODS

3.1 Location and Sample

This research was conducted at the Civil Engineering

Department of Universitas Islam Riau, a university

located in the city of Pekanbaru, Riau Province

in Sumatera Island, Indonesia. The university

was founded in 1962. The engineering faculty

was established in 1964. Currently, the Engineering

Faculty has 6 courses of civil engineering, mechanical

engineering, petroleum engineering, regional

and municipal planning techniques, informatics

engineering and geological engineering. Students

came from different regions, among others from

Pekanbaru and some districts around Riau. There

are also those from outside of Riau. The sample of

research is all students of the second semester of Civil

Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering

Universitas Islam Riau, amounting to 85 people.

3.2 Type of Study

In accordance with the purpose of research, then this

research is qualitative research. This study using a

descriptive study method. The purpose of descriptive

research in this research is to explain and describe

(descriptive) the results of research in a systematic,

factual and accurate about the facts and the properties

of a population. Descriptive method is not intended

to test a hypothesis but aims to create a description

of things to be studied (Suryabrata, 2000). In this

study to be studied is the motivation for student

achievement.

3.3 Type of Study

Data collection techniques used is a questionnaire

technique conducted on April 2018. Instrumentations

were designed based on McClelland [10]. This study

uses an instrument of achievement motivation scale

as shown in Table 1. There are three categorizations;

hight, medium, and low achievement motivation. The

number of instruments composed is 26 items with

score 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the achievement motivation

scale.

Table 1: Nonlinear Model Results

Score Categorization

(µ + 1, 0 ∂) ≤ X 78 ≤ X High

(µ + 1, 0 ∂) ≤ X 52 ≤ X < 78

< (µ + 1, 0 ∂) Medium

X < (µ − 1, 0 ∂) X < 52 Low

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The sample of this research is all students of

the second semester of the Department of Civil

Engineering Faculty of Engineering Universitas Islam

Riau which amounted to 85 students. They consisted

of 71 (84%) male and 14 (16%) female.

Figure 1: Most of the students were male.

Figure 2: Number of students based on place of origin.

ICoSEEH 2019 - The Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education, and Humanity

Students come from different regions (Fig.2),

such as Pekanbaru City is 21 people (25%), outside

Pekanbaru City (but still in Riau Province) is 48

people (56%), and from outside of Riau there are

16 people (19%). Most of the students come from

Riau Province. Based on the calculation of the results

of the data obtained the mean value of all subjects

is 85.4. There was a maximum value of 102 and a

minimum value of 68 with an aggregate total value of

7255.

Based on Fig. 3 is clearly visible about the

categorization of student achievement motivation in

stages in accordance with the results of research.

To know the categorization of stratiﬁed levels

for respondents in placing individuals into groups

that are separated in stages are done according to

a continuum based on attributes measured. The

continuum levels used consisted of high, medium and

low categorization (Azwar, 2007).

Figure 3: The motivation for Student Achievement.

This study revealed that the score 1, 2, 3 and 4

on the achievement motivation scale with the number

of items as much as 26 items and the number of

respondents 85 students have the minimum range is

1x26 = 26 and the maximum range 4x26 = 104.

Thus, it can be seen that the maximum range of the

minimum range is 104 − 26 = 78, the standard unit

of population deviation (∂) = 78 : 6 = 13, while the

mean is µ = (26 + 104) : 2 = 65. Table 2 states

that subjects had 69 subjects (81.2%) and 16 subjects

(18.8%) for the high category and medium category

respectively. And there were no subjects fulﬁlled in

the low category. Thus, it can be concluded that the

current students of civil engineering department have

high achievement motivation.

The results revealed that the high achievement

motivation shown by the civil engineering students

stated that students have a great responsibility for

Table 2: Results of Categorization Norm Score

Score Number of Subjects Percentage Categorization

78 ≤ X 69 81.2 High

52 ≤ X <78 16 18.8 Medium

X <52 0 0 Low

Total 85 100

the tasks that have been given, dare to take risks in

taking tasks by completing large tasks that must be

gathered in a timely manner, requiring feedback on

the big task that has been done, has a high innovation

in completing a task and do not like things that are

routines, and have a passion and a strong desire

to be the best. Individuals with high achievement

motivation will not only be satisﬁed with being able to

do a task but will strive to achieve certain performance

standards in doing it.

5 CONCLUSION

According to achievement motivation scale (high,

medium, and low) it can be concluded that the

current students of Civil Engineering Department

of Universitas Islam Riau have high achievement

motivation. This achievement motivation should be

kept consistency to ensure students graduate their

study well.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors give special thanks to the Head of Civil

Engineering Department and The Research Institutes

and Community Service (LPPM) of Universitas Islam

Riau for supporting this research.

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ICoSEEH 2019 - The Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education, and Humanity