"Failure Is Good Too": Scaffolding for Success During Elementary Engineering Projects Across Settings

• In Event: 35.028 - Failure in the Learning Process: How Learners Experience and Overcome Obstacles Through Resources and Supports

Abstract

Recent policy documents frame engineering as an iterative design process in which failure is ubiquitous with design optimization (NRC, 2012; Cunningham & Kelly, 2017). In our research we conceptualized “learning and persisting in the face of failure” as part of the problem-solution coevolution cycle (Dorst & Cross, 2001) through which situated and tacit knowledge emerge through a reflective conversation with the material aspects of design work (Schön, 1983; Schön, 1992). Our research asked, “How can we support and scaffold iterative, learning-by-doing during elementary engineering projects to (a) build on youth’s everyday experiences and knowledge, (b) support successful design solutions, and (c) connect emergent knowledge to classroom science learning goals?

As part of a two-year research-practice partnership (Penuel et al., 2015), we created and tested 15 engineering design activities, and associated distributed scaffolding (Puntambekar & Kolodner, 2005) to observe students’ experiences with iterative design practices. We used grounded theory and open coding strategies (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) to analyze over 170 hours of classroom data for 28 students, including fieldnotes, video recordings, and interview data of students’ design practices and reflections.

We found that focusing on failure as a foundation for iterative design work and optimization helped youth connect classroom engineering projects to everyday hobbies and pursuits. Over 60% of youth independently surfaced “learning from failure” as central to their everyday engineering activities including gaming, play, homework, and chores, and expressed a sense of fun related to this type of learning. As one students shared, “It's fun to make your own design, because you can test it to like failure and stuff. Then until you get it right because that's a great part for me, to test it to see if it will work or not.” Another student also shared how the process of failure helped with his own learning, “Like every time you fail, you can see the problem and actually fix it, and make it better so when you fail you'd start over intelligently.” Building on our first set of findings, we designed reflective scaffolds that drew on everyday experiences as foundations for disciplinary learning through engineering design. Two themes emerged from our reflective scaffolds. First, youth’s everyday experiences provided the foundations for successful design work, and helped structure “ill-defined” engineering problems. Second, focusing emergent learning on “what worked” surfaced related science principles and design solutions more effectively thank talking about failure points. As one student shared, “When you’re engineering, you’re trying new stuff, but sometimes you can actually use the things you already know, and also science, and add them together and make [designs] work.”

This research supports engineering researchers and curriculum designers in developing engineering learning environments that move youth along a trajectory of systematic optimization practices, as opposed to ad-hoc engineering and novice design work.

Authors

• Veronica Cassone McGowan, University of Washington

• Gina Tesoriero, University of Washington - Seattle

• Kristen Bergsman, University of Washington - Seattle

• Philip L. Bell, University of Washington