Teaching engineering habits of mind: an employability strategy that involves

changing educators’ habits of mind Professor Bill Lucas & Dr Janet Hanson

@LucasLearn 6th International Symposium for Engineering Education, The University of

Sheffield, UK, July 2016

Engineering’s employment problem

Its not just a ‘leaky pipeline’ -

It’s that the tap isn't fully turned on!

Employability – skill or disposition?

CRL’s Habits Of Mind And Transferable Skills For Employability (City & Guilds, 2016, Table 7, p.31)

Engineering Habits of Mind

CRL’s six EHoM (Royal Academy of Engineering, 2014, p.29)

Habits and their formation – what research says

3 core features

• Automatic response

• Response to a cue or trigger

• They bring rewards

3 ways to cultivate

• Constant repetition

• A stable context to practice

• Provision of a reward

Habit formation is a slow process

Habits can change at transition points

However

Research Design

Which pedagogies

support EHoM?

Methodology: Evaluate teachers’

classroom interventions using action research Appreciative Inquiry

Individual interviews

Focus groups Document analysis Member checking

meetings

Ethical approval and

BERA Guidelines

A Partnership Project

8 Secondary schools

2 Primary schools

1 FE College

33+/- teachers,

9 schools in Scotland

Science & Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub

12 schools in Greater Manchester

Four pedagogic principles for cultivating a habit of mind

1. Understand the habit 2. Create the climate for the habit to flourish

3. Use teaching methods which facilitate practice and transfer

4. Build learner engagement

How did our teachers develop EHoM?

2. Create climate and reward Prizes

Reward Postcards

Accept failure as opportunity to improve, encourage risk-taking

Careful use of praise for process

4. Student Ownership

Students develop a ‘growth mindset’; mentor each other

Industry endorsement helps

Student journals

Involve parents

1. Build understanding Visual: EHoM Icons and MEMES

Constant repetition by teachers

Whole-school assemblies

Build FE students’ understanding of engineering before tackling EHoM

3. Teach it Signature pedagogies; Projects designed with industry; use of ‘engineering wheel’; Tinkering Specific strategies taught to students Teacher modelling, Flipped learning

How did our teachers teach EHoM?

Further education ‘When I introduced the project and changed things around from the way I would normally have done [used practice before giving theory], one of the students said ‘Oh, I like this method because it works more by doing the things.’ And then somebody else said ‘This is how it works and then I can actually see it in front of me.’ It sort of motivated more.’

Secondary

‘This is a model that is accepted and therefore rather than reinventing something, why don't we use this one? So we started off by teaching the SCAMPER skills’

Primary ‘We have weekly sessions across the school, in every single year group, every Wednesday morning. We’ve got rid of our usual literacy, math, science, IT lessons, and we’ve integrated it all into STEM lessons’

Plus Minus Interesting

Teachers think all EHoM relevant

GCSE - content driven BTEC - ‘tick box’

Leadership at top and middle levels

Year 7-9 – good! Time Habit change is for all

Many pedagogies Commitment Systems thinking is hard

Rewards, incentives, role models

Training Practice to Theory (Tinkering)

Works best in schools & college teaching

dispositions

Timetabling Employee engagement is 2 way

FE reorganisations Credible examples

No STEM qualification where most needed

It takes time! • Brazil • China • Finland • France • India • Italy • Hungary • Netherlands • Russia • Slovakia • Spain • Thailand • USA • Wales

Teaching engineering habits of mind

Thank you for listening Any questions?

www.winchester.ac.uk/realworldlearning

www.raeng.org.uk/thinkinglikeanengineer

www.expansiveeducation.net