STUDENTS' EXPECTATIONS AND EXPERIENCES RELATED TO THEIR CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF PREVAILING CURRICULUM - ALIGNMENT OR DISSONANCE

In a longitudinal study four students, in four cohorts of engineering students, have been interviewed on a regular basis, from enrolment until graduation and their entrance into work-life. Their expectations, motives for studying, study motivation, experiences of teaching and learning and knowledge and experiences of the implementation of a CDIO curriculum are discussed and related to the implementation process. The results are presented as four cases. From the students self-reported experiences one conclusion is that these students did not know very much about the epistemological or pedagogical considerations behind the implementation. They associated the CDIO-project with project-work scheduled as modules in their curriculums. The students´ motives for enrolling in the Y-program were related to its´ wide base, meaning they could delay their choice of profile until later, and its´ reputation as “the toughest” and “the best” program. Their motivation for carrying this out differed, from being future oriented with hope for good and interesting jobs, to here-and-now oriented with a focus on the joy of studying and being a student. Their motives and motivations influenced their approaches to studying in relation to their conceptions of the prevailing curriculum, which was very much the same in all cohorts.. For some of the students this was dissonant or incompatible with their personal conceptions of learning and contributed to their loss of study motivation at times.