Perspectives on Failure in the Classroom by Elementary Teachers New to Teaching Engineering

Abstract

This mixed methods study examines perspectives on failure in the classroom by elementary teachers new to teaching engineering. The study participants included 254 teachers in third, fourth, and fifth grade who responded to survey questions about failure, as well as a subset of 38 of those teachers who participated in interviews about failure. The study first examines the literature about failure in the contexts of engineering and education. Failure is positioned as largely normative and expected in engineering, whereas in education, learning and failure have a more tenuous relationship. Identity, failure avoidance, failure as part of the learning process, growth and fixed mindset, resilience, perseverance, and grit are addressed in a discussion of failure and education. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilized to examine how participants: reacted to the words failure or fail, reported allowing students to fail or revise their work, considered how failure should be avoided in education, considered how failure may be construed as a learning experience, and reported using the words failure or fail in their classrooms. Conclusions from the study include that: failure has a largely negative connotation within education and by teachers, which influences how teachers use the words fail and failure and create failure experiences for their students; many teachers practice resilience and perseverance and encourage similar practices in their students with respect to mistakes in the classroom, which serves as a helpful yet somewhat inaccurate analogue for failure in engineering design; and there is evidence that many teachers have adopted a growth mindset and encourage this mindset in their classrooms-however, there are some challenges to a true adoption of this mindset by teachers.

Failure and Idea Evolution in an Elementary Engineering Workshop (Fundamental)

“…I define failure as occurring when a design, design construction, prototype, or final product fails to meet some intended design criteria under intended constraints. This definition is aligned with descriptions in current policy documents and others in the engineering education community (e.g., Moore, Glancy, Tank, et al, 2014;Lottero-Perdue & Parry, 2014). By this definition, failure can be found at all stages of design-from drawings, to design constructions (if they fail a physical test), to finished products.…”

“…Allowing students to freely test designs and encounter failure is not without risks. Students may interpret failure during testing as a personal failure, rather than a failure of a physical object for a physical reason (Lottero-Perdue & Parry, 2014;Sadler, Coyle, & Schwartz, 2000). Even if they do attend to more factors, they may not recognize how these factors interact, or that multiple factors may be valid at the same time.…”

“…Lottero-Perdue and Parry (2014) found that a majority of teachers had an overall negative connotation of failure and that teachers were inclined to scaffold to avoid failure. However, many of these teachers associated failure with mistakes or saw failure as a personal trait, which is not consistent with the engineering view of failure as an "essential feedback mechanism" (p. 3).…”

“…Failure is an integral part of the iteration cycle in the engineering design process; designs often fail, that is, do not meet all criteria and constraints, and a central disciplinary practice in engineering is interpreting this failure as feedback on those designs (Lottero-Perdue & Parry, 2014;Cunningham & Carlsen, 2015).…”

“…However, while the engineering education community generally agrees that engaging in testing and iteration, including failure, holds a great deal of potential, there is great uncertainty about what failure can and should look like at the elementary level and what supports are necessary to make failure productive in elementary classrooms. In addition, teachers are hesitant to allow their students to fail or to even use the word failure in their classrooms (Lottero-Perdue & Parry, 2014). …”