Board 90: Work in Progress: Response to Failure and Success in an ECE Course

Jennifer Cromley; Jessica R Gladstone; Juan Alvarez; Zhengyan Ye; Parth Shastri; Aizhan Daukenova; Shiyu Sun

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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: Electrical and Computer Engineering Division (ECE) Poster Session
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer Engineering Division (ECE)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48391

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Paper Authors

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Jennifer Cromley University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Jennifer Cromley is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on two broad areas: achievement/retention in STEM and comprehension of illustrated scientific text

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Jessica R Gladstone University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Juan Alvarez University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Juan Alvarez joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Illinois faculty in Spring 2011 and is currently a Teaching Assistant Professor. Prior to that, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at York University, Canada, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Chemical Physics Theory Group at the University of Toronto, Canada, and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Saskatchewan. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.S. from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois in 2004 and 2002, respectively. He teaches courses in communications, signal processing and probability and carries out research in engineering education.

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Abstract

In engineering as a profession and in engineering education, failure is commonplace--attempted designs fail, experiments fail about 90% of the time, and students do not achieve the scores they desire on homework, quizzes, and exams. Thus, the ability to navigate and respond to failure as an opportunity for growth and learning is a key component of the scientific enterprise. However, engineering education research is sparse on how students respond to failure.

Research on response to failure has been extensive in workplace settings, in which there is a very wide range of negative and positive responses to failure, including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, working harder, working smarter, shock, fear, renewed dedication, increased susceptibility to stereotypes, blame, shame, despair, changes in interest, reassessing career, reassessing self-perceived ability, and learning from failure. Thus, these responses may include combinations of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Research on responses to success likewise suggests positive emotions in response to success on work projects, such as pride, satisfaction, and happiness. Educational research on response to failure across different domains and ages--not just in engineering education--has been quite narrow because research has used theories that make very narrow predictions about response to failure, like self-belief theory[1], achievement goal orientation[2], expectancy-value theory[3], interest theory[4], etc. Educational research on response to success has been sparse, but also suggests positive emotions in response to success.

Our long-term goal is to find ways to help build resilience to failure and ways in which we can help students learn from failure (e.g., viewing failure as an opportunity), and hence it is critical to understand the range of responses to failure. Furthermore, to understand what response to failure looks like, we need to contrast it with response to success. Additionally, it is important to consider not only the standards of the course or the specific task (i.e., what counts as a failing score) but also the standards of the students. For instance, the same grade may be interpreted differently by two different students, one may see it as a success and the other may see it as a failure. Thus, it is critical to interview students to develop a better understanding of their response to their standard of failure or success.

For this work-in-progress, we interviewed 26 students in a second year ECE course in a large public university, which is required for EE or CE majors, so we expect that students will see the course as important, and simultaneously put a great deal of grade pressure on themselves, making this an excellent test bed for measuring responses to failure and success in Engineering. Interviews focused on a) perceived success vs. perceived failure on the first exam, b) emotional responses to the first exam grade received, c) perceived reasons for that success or failure on the first exam, d) any additional study strategies used to study for the first exam, and e) plans--if any--to change study strategies for the second exam. We have completed the first-exam interviews and a motivation questionnaire, and applied a draft coding scheme derived from the interview statements to about one-half of the transcripts. Results so far are consistent with broader findings regarding emotions in formal learning--those who did better than expected verbalized a wide range of (almost all) positive emotions and those who did worse than expected verbalized a wide range of (almost all) negative emotions.

Follow-up interviews after the second exam of the semester have begun, and will be transcribed, coded, and analyzed using the same coding scheme with codes added as warranted by additional student statements in the interviews. A Likert-type questionnaire will be written based on the coded interview responses. In addition, interview responses will be analyzed based on scores on various motivation scales (e.g., students valuing the content more may have more-negative responses to perceived failure versus those who value the content less).

References

[1] Dweck, C. S. (2000). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Psychology Press.

[2] Elliot, A. J., & McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2× 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(3), 501-519.

[3] Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 68-81.

[4] Hidi, S., & Renninger, K. A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 111-127.

Citation
Format

Cromley, J., & Gladstone, J. R., & Alvarez, J., & Ye, Z., & Shastri, P., & Daukenova, A., & Sun, S. (2024, June), Board 90: Work in Progress: Response to Failure and Success in an ECE Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48391

TY - CPAPER
AB - In engineering as a profession and in engineering education, failure is commonplace--attempted designs fail, experiments fail about 90% of the time, and students do not achieve the scores they desire on homework, quizzes, and exams. Thus, the ability to navigate and respond to failure as an opportunity for growth and learning is a key component of the scientific enterprise. However, engineering education research is sparse on how students respond to failure.

Research on response to failure has been extensive in workplace settings, in which there is a very wide range of negative and positive responses to failure, including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, working harder, working smarter, shock, fear, renewed dedication, increased susceptibility to stereotypes, blame, shame, despair, changes in interest, reassessing career, reassessing self-perceived ability, and learning from failure. Thus, these responses may include combinations of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Research on responses to success likewise suggests positive emotions in response to success on work projects, such as pride, satisfaction, and happiness. Educational research on response to failure across different domains and ages--not just in engineering education--has been quite narrow because research has used theories that make very narrow predictions about response to failure, like self-belief theory[1], achievement goal orientation[2], expectancy-value theory[3], interest theory[4], etc. Educational research on response to success has been sparse, but also suggests positive emotions in response to success.

Our long-term goal is to find ways to help build resilience to failure and ways in which we can help students learn from failure (e.g., viewing failure as an opportunity), and hence it is critical to understand the range of responses to failure. Furthermore, to understand what response to failure looks like, we need to contrast it with response to success. Additionally, it is important to consider not only the standards of the course or the specific task (i.e., what counts as a failing score) but also the standards of the students. For instance, the same grade may be interpreted differently by two different students, one may see it as a success and the other may see it as a failure. Thus, it is critical to interview students to develop a better understanding of their response to their standard of failure or success.

For this work-in-progress, we interviewed 26 students in a second year ECE course in a large public university, which is required for EE or CE majors, so we expect that students will see the course as important, and simultaneously put a great deal of grade pressure on themselves, making this an excellent test bed for measuring responses to failure and success in Engineering. Interviews focused on a) perceived success vs. perceived failure on the first exam, b) emotional responses to the first exam grade received, c) perceived reasons for that success or failure on the first exam, d) any additional study strategies used to study for the first exam, and e) plans--if any--to change study strategies for the second exam. We have completed the first-exam interviews and a motivation questionnaire, and applied a draft coding scheme derived from the interview statements to about one-half of the transcripts. Results so far are consistent with broader findings regarding emotions in formal learning--those who did better than expected verbalized a wide range of (almost all) positive emotions and those who did worse than expected verbalized a wide range of (almost all) negative emotions.

Follow-up interviews after the second exam of the semester have begun, and will be transcribed, coded, and analyzed using the same coding scheme with codes added as warranted by additional student statements in the interviews. A Likert-type questionnaire will be written based on the coded interview responses. In addition, interview responses will be analyzed based on scores on various motivation scales (e.g., students valuing the content more may have more-negative responses to perceived failure versus those who value the content less).

References

[1] Dweck, C. S. (2000). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Psychology Press.

[2] Elliot, A. J., &amp;amp; McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2× 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(3), 501-519.

[3] Wigfield, A., &amp;amp; Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 68-81.

[4] Hidi, S., &amp;amp; Renninger, K. A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 111-127.

AU - Jennifer Cromley
AU - Jessica R Gladstone
AU - Juan Alvarez
AU - Zhengyan Ye
AU - Parth Shastri
AU - Aizhan Daukenova
AU - Shiyu Sun
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 90: Work in Progress: Response to Failure and Success in an ECE Course
UR - https://peer.asee.org/48391
ER -