Development of non-cognitive skills in first-year engineering education

Abstract This research studies the influence of non-cognitive skills (NCS) like grit and growth mindset on first-year engineering students’ academic performance and whether classroom-setting influences the development of these skills. This study is contextualized in two first year courses that follow different pedagogies: Engineering Exploration (EE) course – the course that follows project based learning (PBL) pedagogy and Mathematics course – that has lecture based pedagogy. The participants are 60 first-year students of two different divisions undergoing the courses. The scores (course project scores and internal test scores) from both the courses served as indicators for this study. The study follows a mixed-methods approach. The surveys (short online grit and 12-item mindset survey) were administered at the start and end of the courses. The deviation in grit and mindset scores obtained through the baseline and endline survey was compared for both the courses. One-One interviews were conducted for 16 students of EE course, to understand what impact the PBL approach has on the aforementioned skills. The results show that both grit and growth mindset are positively correlated to academic scores, and they can be improved by a classroom setting like PBL.