The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Education FAILURE IS AN OPTION: REACTIONS TO FAILURE IN ELEMENTARY ENGINEERING DESIGN PROJECTS A Dissertation in Curriculum and Instruction by Matthew M. Johnson © 2016 Matthew M. Johnson Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2016 ii The dissertation of Matthew M. Johnson was reviewed and approved* by the following: William S. Carlsen Professor of Science Education Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Education, C&I Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Gregory J. Kelly Professor of Science Education Associate Dean for Research, Outreach, and Technology Scott P. McDonald Associate Professor of Science Education Director, Krause Innovation Studio Dan Sykes Senior Lecturer Director of Analytical Laboratory Instruction Christine M. Cunningham Special Member Founder and Director, Engineering is Elementary Vice President, Museum of Science, Boston, MA *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Recent reform documents in science education have called for teachers to use epistemic practices of science and engineering researchers to teach disciplinary content (NRC, 2007; NRC, 2012; NGSS Lead States, 2013). Although this creates challenges for classroom teachers unfamiliar with engineering, it has created a need for high quality research about how students and teachers engage in engineering activities to improve curriculum development and teaching pedagogy. While framers of the Next Generation Science Standards (NRC, 2012; NGSS Lead States 2013) focused on the similarities of the practices of science researchers and engineering designers, some have proposed that engineering has a unique set of epistemic practices, including improving from failure (Cunningham & Carlsen, 2014; Cunningham & Kelly, in review). While no one will deny failures occur in science, failure in engineering is thought of in fundamentally different ways. In the study presented here, video data from eight classes of elementary students engaged in one of two civil engineering units were analyzed using methods borrowed from psychology, anthropology, and sociolinguistics to investigate: 1) the nature of failure in elementary engineering design; 2) the ways in which teachers react to failure; and 3) how the collective actions of students and teachers support or constrain improvement in engineering design. I propose new ways of considering the types and causes of failure, and note three teacher reactions to failure: the manager, the cheerleader, and the strategic partner. Because the goal of iteration in engineering is improvement, I also studied improvement. Students only systematically improve when they have the opportunity, productive strategies, and fair comparisons between prototypes. I then investigate the use of student engineering journals to assess learning from the process of improvement after failure. After discussion, I consider implications from this work as well as future research to advance our understanding in this area. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures………………………………………………………………………..….vii List of Tables………………………………………………………...…………………viii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….….x Chapter 1 - Introduction ...................................................................................................1 Autobiographical Sketch ..............................................................................................3 Engineering Design in Elementary Schools ..................................................................4 Failure in Engineering Design ......................................................................................7 Failure Types ...............................................................................................................8 Goals of the Research ................................................................................................ 11 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 - Literature Review ........................................................................................ 13 Engineering Education ............................................................................................... 13 Motivation ............................................................................................................. 14 Learning Science and Engineering ......................................................................... 15 Project-Based Learning .......................................................................................... 15 Cognitive Load ...................................................................................................... 16 Iteration ................................................................................................................. 17 Failure ................................................................................................................... 18 Failure and Human Response ..................................................................................... 19 Failure in Engineering ............................................................................................ 19 Resilience .............................................................................................................. 21 Explanatory style ................................................................................................... 24 Attribution Theory ................................................................................................. 25 Feedback ................................................................................................................... 26 Attributional Feedback ........................................................................................... 27 Praise ..................................................................................................................... 28 Studies of Science-in-the-Making .............................................................................. 29 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................. 31 Chapter 3 - Design and Methodology............................................................................. 34 Choice of Research Tradition ..................................................................................... 34 Educational Context ................................................................................................... 37 Description of Engineering is Elementary .............................................................. 38 Description of Engineering 4 Children ................................................................... 39 Description of EiE’s To Get to the Other Side: Designing Bridges ......................... 40 Description of E4C Civil Engineering (see Table 3.2) ............................................ 41 Classroom Context and Data Sources ......................................................................... 43 Data Analyses ........................................................................................................ 44 Preventing Researcher Bias/Increasing Validity ..................................................... 46 Chapter 4 - Analysis of the Control Curriculum (E4C) ................................................... 48 Context of the Study .................................................................................................. 48 Analysis of Classroom Video ..................................................................................... 49 Failure Types ......................................................................................................... 51 Teacher Reactions to Failure .................................................................................. 54 v Causes of Failure ................................................................................................... 62 Obstacles to Improvement ...................................................................................... 67 Summary of Analysis of Classroom Video ............................................................. 73 Analysis of Engineering Journals ............................................................................... 74 Comparison of student journals with event maps .................................................... 75 Summary of Analysis of Engineering Journals ....................................................... 79 Summary of the Analysis of the Control Curriculum .................................................. 79 Chapter 5 - Analysis of the Experimental Curriculum (EiE) ........................................... 83 Context of the Study .................................................................................................. 83 Analysis of Classroom Video ..................................................................................... 84 Failure Types ......................................................................................................... 86 Teacher Reactions to Failure .................................................................................. 88 Causes of Failure ................................................................................................... 98 Obstacles to Improvement .................................................................................... 105 Patterns of interaction between constructs