“Fail a little, succeed a lot”: How Experiential Learning Influenced Civil Engineering Students’ Approach to Coursework

Noel Hennessey; Dean Papajohn; Tyler Jean Le Peau

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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: Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) - Student-Centered Approaches in Design Education
Tagged Division: Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46402

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Paper Authors

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Noel Hennessey The University of Arizona orcid.org/0000-0003-3460-0111

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Noel Hennessey is the Director of ENGineering Access, Greater Equity, and Diversity at the University of Arizona College of Engineering. She oversees a suite of research informed and evidence based initiatives designed to improve underserved students' sense of belonging and engineering identity development.

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Dean Papajohn

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Tyler Jean Le Peau The University of Arizona

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Abstract

The workforce of the United States needs newly trained engineers now more than ever, intensifying a need for strong practices to retain students in engineering education and particularly to broaden access to and participation in engineering education for historically underserved groups. Student support programs that focus on students’ academic skills and institutional capital are valuable in building students’ academic self-confidence, grade point average, and foundational math skills (Allen & Bir, 2012; Ami, 2001; Cabrera, Miner, & Milem, 2013). Though some support programs incorporate career identity development peripherally, the novel Building Pathways program centers experiential learning and developing meaningful relationships with mentors in industry, driving a stronger emphasis on what scholar Marcela Cuellar termed “liberatory outcomes,” including engineering identity development and sense of belonging (Garcia & Cuellar, 2023). Early outcomes from a summer internship program suggest that a strong engineering identity and sense of belonging can potentially override the significance of grades and slower progress towards engineering degree completion. This study employed a mixed methods approach to understanding whether and how experiential learning positively influences students’ sense of belonging in engineering education and their overall experience of engineering identity development. Students in a summer internship program (n=6) took a one-credit internship preparation course during their spring semester preceding their summer internship, then worked full time for an employer in civil engineering. The group took a retrospective pre- and post-survey that included validated survey instruments on engineering identity development and sense of belonging. The overall change in their self-reported engineering identity and sense of belonging scores indicates the potential for experiential learning to play a more significant role in broadening participation in engineering, particularly for underserved student populations such as low-income, first-generation, women, and students of color. They also participated in a focus group near the close of their summer experience, and several themes arose from the focus group data. First, despite varying degrees of progression through coursework, students demonstrated a strong commitment to and identity within the engineering profession. Validation from their experiential learning opportunities provided some protection from feelings of perfectionism, and a stronger sense of engineering identity cultivated resilience in the face of challenging coursework. In this sense, academic success did not lead into engineering identity development; a solid engineering identity helps students advance through challenging courses.

Even as more support programs incorporate strong connections with career readiness and experiential learning, these are still often either in the context of the curriculum (for example, a flipped classroom), or as secondary to the academic identity (extra-curricular club membership), implying that liberatory outcomes are still outranked by normative, academic outcomes in intentional strategies to broaden participation in engineering. Findings from this study indicate that liberatory outcomes may lead to resiliency in the classroom, building students’ ability to overcome curricular struggles in pursuit of a rewarding career.

Citation
Format

Hennessey, N., & Papajohn, D., & Le Peau, T. J. (2024, June), “Fail a little, succeed a lot”: How Experiential Learning Influenced Civil Engineering Students’ Approach to Coursework Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46402

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The workforce of the United States needs newly trained engineers now more than ever, intensifying a need for strong practices to retain students in engineering education and particularly to broaden access to and participation in engineering education for historically underserved groups. Student support programs that focus on students’ academic skills and institutional capital are valuable in building students’ academic self-confidence, grade point average, and foundational math skills (Allen &amp;amp; Bir, 2012; Ami, 2001; Cabrera, Miner, &amp;amp; Milem, 2013). Though some support programs incorporate career identity development peripherally, the novel Building Pathways program centers experiential learning and developing meaningful relationships with mentors in industry, driving a stronger emphasis on what scholar Marcela Cuellar termed “liberatory outcomes,” including engineering identity development and sense of belonging (Garcia &amp;amp; Cuellar, 2023). Early outcomes from a summer internship program suggest that a strong engineering identity and sense of belonging can potentially override the significance of grades and slower progress towards engineering degree completion. This study employed a mixed methods approach to understanding whether and how experiential learning positively influences students’ sense of belonging in engineering education and their overall experience of engineering identity development.  Students in a summer internship program (n=6) took a one-credit internship preparation course during their spring semester preceding their summer internship, then worked full time for an employer in civil engineering. The group took a retrospective pre- and post-survey that included validated survey instruments on engineering identity development and sense of belonging. The overall change in their self-reported engineering identity and sense of belonging scores indicates the potential for experiential learning to play a more significant role in broadening participation in engineering, particularly for underserved student populations such as low-income, first-generation, women, and students of color. They also participated in a focus group near the close of their summer experience, and several themes arose from the focus group data. First, despite varying degrees of progression through coursework, students demonstrated a strong commitment to and identity within the engineering profession. Validation from their experiential learning opportunities provided some protection from feelings of perfectionism, and a stronger sense of engineering identity cultivated resilience in the face of challenging coursework. In this sense, academic success did not lead into engineering identity development; a solid engineering identity helps students advance through challenging courses. 

Even as more support programs incorporate strong connections with career readiness and experiential learning, these are still often either in the context of the curriculum (for example, a flipped classroom), or as secondary to the academic identity (extra-curricular club membership), implying that liberatory outcomes are still outranked by normative, academic outcomes in intentional strategies to broaden participation in engineering. Findings from this study indicate that liberatory outcomes may lead to resiliency in the classroom, building students’ ability to overcome curricular struggles in pursuit of a rewarding career.  
AU  - Noel Hennessey
AU  - Dean Papajohn
AU  - Tyler Jean Le Peau
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - “Fail a little, succeed a lot”: How Experiential Learning Influenced Civil Engineering Students’ Approach to Coursework 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/46402
ER  -