Abstract:

In our previous work, burnout degree together with Maslach inventory dimensions mainly responsible for this symptom were reported among a cohort of 250 students of biotechnology bachelor’s degree at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). Quantitative tools were used for this purpose (an online survey and statistical analysis). Based on those findings, we tried to gain in understanding the learning-teaching elements contributing the most to students' motivation, with the final goal of preventing and reducing the prevalence of academic burnout.
In this context, the aim of this contribution is to share with the teaching community the main reflections of students and teachers collected in a collaborative framework involving both actors (students and learners). Information was gathered by means of 6-10 membered focus groups, one per academic year, with students and a template specifically designed and validated to gather signification information about activities performed in the context of each subject and to be fulfilled by teachers. This template comprises the description of theoretical and practical tasks, their deadlines, the face-to-face and non-face-to-face dedication required by the student to succeed with them, their novelty degree and/or the motivation experimented by students with regard to the proposed methodologies, among other data. Different aspects were discussed with both actors, teachers and students of the biotechnology bachelor’s degree at the UPV, to face their perception and better identify and understand the learning elements that positively impact student motivation and support emotional well-being.
Briefly, students agreed to identify the overload of tasks’ deadlines together with the lack of novelty, applicability and diversity of the learning activities as the main responsible for the motivation decay during the 1st and 2nd academic years. Students enrolled in the 1st academic year also highlighted the lack of fellowship and high competitiveness as key factors for deficient acquisition of skills such as team working. On the other hand, students of the 3rd and 4th academic years reported the necessity of intensifying the information related to the professional’s outings for boosting academic motivation. In contrast, they pointed out the implication and the high level of the teachers as positive aspects. We expected that these results will encourage other colleagues to implement actions specially addressed to promote student emotional well-being, with an expected positive impact on academic performance at higher education.

Keywords:

motivation, stressful factors, well-being, academic performance, integral formation.