Associations of Intrinsic Motivation and External Pressures with Engaged Learning Pedagogies by Faculty Teaching Capstone Experiences: A Mixed Methods Approach

Capstone experiences (CEs) are established high impact practices (HIPs) designed so students can synthesize their knowledge and skills obtained across their academic training. Understanding how instructors’ intrinsic motivation and external expectations influence the design of CEs can help institutions create resources to support instructors when developing and teaching CEs. We aimed to determine whether different levels of intrinsic motivation were associated with: (1) demographics of faculty teaching CEs, (2) structure of CEs, (3) pedagogy or assignments used by faculty teaching CEs, and (4) use of resources and/or perceived resource effectiveness available to faculty teaching CEs. We used a fixed convergent mixed methods approach in which quantitative and qualitative research questions were distributed via survey and interviews, respectively. Data were collected and analyzed independently. Analyzed data were merged to compare and interpret qualitative and quantitative results pertaining to faculty perceptions of motivation related to teaching CEs. Instructors who develop and teach CEs are highly intrinsically motivated. The quantitative and qualitative data reveal the instructors’ perceptions of value of and their interest in the CE were the most common intrinsic motivators. The participants with the highest levels of intrinsic motivation used more evidence-based pedagogical approaches, reported higher colleague recognition, and reported access to more teaching resources. Understanding the factors that promote motivation to develop and teach CEs is imperative to support instructor and student success when engaging in this type of HIP.