2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The positive benefits of fostering a Growth Mindset in students have been widely reported. Developing the skill of persisting through and learning from failure is key to developing a growth mindset and the entrepreneurial mindset – KEEN (Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network). This work-in-progress paper will examine how an MBL model could be a valuable tool for developing our students’ Failure Mindset. The MBL framework we employ is centered on learning through practice and coaching – making mistakes and learning from those mistakes, frequent low-stakes assessments, analyzing the results for further practice, and coaching on that skill or before moving forward to the next skill. A positive Failure Mindset looks at failure as a positive outcome that enhances one’s opportunities for learning. In this study, we will explore preliminary data by examining three groups of students:
• entering first-year students, including those enrolled in an MBL course and those not enrolled in this course,
• third-year students enrolled in an MBL course – 90% of these students have previously taken at least one MBL course,
• and students enrolled in a one-semester off-campus alternative MBL-assessed project-based learning curriculum.
We will use an established tool for assessing Failure Mindset and test the following hypotheses.
• H1 – At initial assessment, students in 3rd-year students will exhibit a higher propensity toward a positive Failure Mindset than the entering first-year students.
• H2 – The measure of Failure Mindset will increase over the course of the semester for all 3 groups of students.
• H3 – the 1st year students in the MBL course will exhibit a more positive failure mindset at the end of the semester than those not enrolled in an MBL course.
We will also examine any correlation between failure mindset and course performance. Data collection is underway and will be completed in time for the final paper submission and ASEE Conference.