From Trailing & Failing to Learning & Progressing:A bespoke approach to failure in engineering education

Abstract

Starting with the research question “How can we reverse the negative impact of failure on engineering students’ futures?” the ‘Changing Futures Project’ is a five year longitudinal project which aims to identify and address the pedagogy of failure, and in doing so make a positive difference to students’ educational outcomes and progress. It builds on previous work [1, 2] to look at the issues behind ‘failure’ from the perspectives of individual students. In looking at the issues through the eyes of the students themselves this paper makes a distinctive contribution to current debates to the field of engineering education in general, but particularly in the areas of attrition, retention and student support. The paper ends with a total of 10 recommendations for institutions, colleagues and students