Abstract:

Satisfaction is a fundamental concept in education, as it is related to motivation, retention, academic performance, school success, and in general, with learning results. Several authors have attempted to determine the factors or dimensions that are related to the satisfaction because it has been shown that this concept is multidimensional. The analogy between the workplace and academic word has been proposed from different areas by several authors and in this analogy, considering the student as a consumer, the factors more studied, are the university environment, assessment and course organization, teachers, social life, the variety of courses offered and the services offered by the library. Moreover, several studies have investigated the factors related to the potential motivation and position’s motivating profile (PMP) in which learning takes place. Among these factors there are also the characteristics of academic activities, autonomy and work with others, factors related to satisfaction, a number of other features that, if present in the context of learning, increase motivation and satisfaction. For these reason, the challenge for educators is to redesign their classrooms, so that it increases student motivation and thus learning, modifying the activities they perform in class and the characteristics of the learning context. In this paper we analyze a global model, which includes the characteristics of the learning context by means of an indicator, the PMP, by an instrument, the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) developed by Hackman and Oldham, that part of the model of job characteristics, which was designed to make a diagnosis of the motivational properties of the job that favor the motivation and productivity of employees readapted to the world of the students. The questionnaire was given to sample with 535 students of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, from courses 2007-2010, and was analyzed with multivariate statistical technique of structural equation SEM. The results demonstrate the association between job characteristics of students and satisfaction through a validated and adapted to the world of teaching.

Keywords:

Motivation, satisfaction, students’ workplace redesign, learning setting, JDS.