Getting the picture: Developing intrinsic motivation to self‐regulate engineering documentation practices in a high school drone design challenge

Abstract Background Engineers must learn to document their process to communicate effectively in teams—a skill that calls for knowing how and when to capture information, as well as the self‐regulation to continually engage in this practice. Motivation to self‐regulate requires that students be motivated to complete a goal and see value in the practice toward accomplishing that goal, raising the question of how students' experiences while participating in an engineering design task impact their motivation to self‐regulate their documentation practices. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the sequence of events that lead to changes in students' motivation to self‐regulate documentation practices to support their design process. Method We use Organismic Integration Theory on the phases of intrinsic motivation to self‐regulate as a lens in a case study to capture the collective growth of a high school engineering design team collaborating over the course of a semester‐long drone design challenge. Results Findings demonstrate that both successes and failures played an intimate role in increasing intrinsic motivation to engage in self‐regulatory practices, as increased motivation to see their drone fly pushed students to question the role of documentation in the design process. Conclusion When high school students work on intrinsically motivating projects with opportunities for both successes and failures, they can learn to self‐regulate documentation practices. We discuss the implications for instruction and research in turn.