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