The purpose of this dissertation is first to provide an overview of professional competency development and teaching in veterinary education, and then to address the dearth of research in this area by examining students' motivational perceptions of their courses, how these perceptions compare and contrast across courses, and how their perceptions relate to their effort levels and course ratings. Professional competencies encompass cognitive, social, and personal resource skills such as interpersonal communication skills, collaboration, management, promotion of public health, lifelong learning, ethics, diversity competence, and adaptability to changing environments. The inclusion of professional competencies as a requisite portion of the veterinary curriculum has evolved substantially over the past 20 years. In this dissertation, two manuscripts are presented. The first (Chapter 2) is a literature review exploring the past 20 years of professional competency teaching and its development within, and inclusion into, the veterinary curriculum. The first manuscript concludes by describing recommendations from the literature for effective methods of inclusion of professional competencies into the veterinary curriculum. The second manuscript (Chapter 3) details a study conducted in a veterinary college with the aim of determining the extent to which students' motivational perceptions of their courses affect their effort and course ratings in veterinary courses. A second purpose of this study was to identify teaching strategies that can be used to improve the quality of teaching in professional competency courses. Results indicated that perceptions of empowerment, usefulness, and interest have the strongest relationship with effort and course ratings. Based on student responses to open-ended items, suggestions were made that instructors can use to improve student perceptions in their courses as a means to potentially increase student effort levels and overall course ratings. Together, these manuscripts contribute to current motivational theories and offer instructional design ideas to curriculum designers and educators who wish to improve students' motivation and engagement in professional competency development. / Doctor of Philosophy / The overall purpose of this dissertation was to explore student motivation within veterinary education with the goal of identifying ways to improve veterinary courses as well as students' willingness to put effort into their coursework. This study focused primarily on the teaching of professional competencies, which refers to skills in communication, collaboration, management, promotion of public health, lifelong learning, ethics, diversity competence, and adaptability to changing environments. The importance of mastering these skillsets has steadily increased in importance over the past two decades and continues to be an underdeveloped area of many veterinary curricula. There are two manuscripts included in this dissertation. Manuscript 1 (Chapter 2) is a literature review exploring the development of professional competency teaching over the past 20 years and its inclusion into the curriculum at most veterinary colleges. The first manuscript concludes by describing recommendations from the literature for effective methods of inclusion of professional competencies into the veterinary curriculum. Manuscript 2 (Chapter 3) details a study conducted in a veterinary college in which students were surveyed and asked about multiple aspects of their veterinary courses. The purpose of this study was to identify teaching strategies that can be used to improve the quality of teaching in professional competency courses, with the hope of improving students' motivation and effort levels as well. Together, these manuscripts contribute to current motivational theories and offer instructional design ideas to curriculum designers and educators who wish to improve students' motivation and engagement in professional competency development.