Work-in-Progress: Seizing failure as an opportunity to learn: 
Undergraduate engineering students’ conceptions of failure and iteration

Sara A. Atwood; Kelsey Scalaro; Rebecca Holcombe

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 5
Tagged Division: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48550

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Paper Authors

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Sara A. Atwood Elizabethtown College

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Dr. Sara A. Atwood is the Dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science and Professor of Engineering at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. She holds a BA and MS in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley.

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Kelsey Scalaro University of Nevada, Reno

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Kelsey is a recent Engineering Education PhD graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research focus is on identity development for undergraduate engineering students and is interested in exploring design as a fundamental engineering practice in support of identity supporting program design.

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Rebecca Holcombe

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Abstract

The purpose of this work-in-progress research paper is to explore how mid-program engineering students perceive mastery-based assessment in a multidisciplinary, project-based engineering program.

There have been calls in engineering education to support students beyond learning specific competencies but to also include curricular practices that help students see themselves as people who can do engineering. While it is understood that students’ mindsets and feelings of control over their own actions and outcomes are influential in how students see themselves as engineers, less is known about what specific classroom practices have this effect. Specifically, students experience assessment in relation to their learning throughout their engineering programs, but little is known about how their perceptions of these experiences impact their sense of agency or control over how and what they learn. This work explores how mastery-based learning and its associated assessment can be paired with a multidisciplinary project-based learning approach to influence students’ feelings of control and choice in their own engineering education.

This paper focuses on qualitative findings from an initial pilot study for a larger, NSF-funded project at a small, Eastern private college. This exploratory pilot study includes the perceptions of four second-year engineering students enrolled in an undergraduate engineering program designed around integrated, multidisciplinary projects. A semi-structured interview with multiple open-ended questions was used to prompt participants to share their experiences with assessment in relation to their own learning, performance, confidence, and choices. Directed content and thematic analysis were used to identify codes and develop themes in relation to how participants described certain features of assessment in their engineering program.

Preliminary results will illustrate students’ beliefs, learning, and perceptions of choice in relation to specific features of mastery-based assessment in a multidisciplinary project-based context. The initial themes and patterns identified in this preliminary pilot study will be used to set up a more focused secondary full data collection phase in the larger study and to initiate important conversation around the impacts of specific pedagogical choices on outcomes parallel to learning. By better understanding students’ perceptions of this pedagogical design, future classroom practices can be designed and oriented to support students in feeling agentic in their own engineering education and in becoming their version of an engineer.

Citation
Format

Atwood, S. A., & Scalaro, K., & Holcombe, R. (2024, June), Work-in-Progress: Seizing failure as an opportunity to learn: Undergraduate engineering students’ conceptions of failure and iteration Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48550

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The purpose of this work-in-progress research paper is to explore how mid-program engineering students perceive mastery-based assessment in a multidisciplinary, project-based engineering program. 

There have been calls in engineering education to support students beyond learning specific competencies but to also include curricular practices that help students see themselves as people who can do engineering. While it is understood that students’ mindsets and feelings of control over their own actions and outcomes are influential in how students see themselves as engineers, less is known about what specific classroom practices have this effect. Specifically, students experience assessment in relation to their learning throughout their engineering programs, but little is known about how their perceptions of these experiences impact their sense of agency or control over how and what they learn. This work explores how mastery-based learning and its associated assessment can be paired with a multidisciplinary project-based learning approach to influence students’ feelings of control and choice in their own engineering education. 

This paper focuses on qualitative findings from an initial pilot study for a larger, NSF-funded project at a small, Eastern private college. This exploratory pilot study includes the perceptions of four second-year engineering students enrolled in an undergraduate engineering program designed around integrated, multidisciplinary projects. A semi-structured interview with multiple open-ended questions was used to prompt participants to share their experiences with assessment in relation to their own learning, performance, confidence, and choices. Directed content and thematic analysis were used to identify codes and develop themes in relation to how participants described certain features of assessment in their engineering program.

Preliminary results will illustrate students’ beliefs, learning, and perceptions of choice in relation to specific features of mastery-based assessment in a multidisciplinary project-based context. The initial themes and patterns identified in this preliminary pilot study will be used to set up a more focused secondary full data collection phase in the larger study and to initiate important conversation around the impacts of specific pedagogical choices on outcomes parallel to learning. By better understanding students’ perceptions of this pedagogical design, future classroom practices can be designed and oriented to support students in feeling agentic in their own engineering education and in becoming their version of an engineer.

AU  - Sara A. Atwood
AU  - Kelsey Scalaro
AU  - Rebecca Holcombe
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Work-in-Progress: Seizing failure as an opportunity to learn: 
Undergraduate engineering students’ conceptions of failure and iteration
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/48550
ER  -