A First Experience of Using Failure Report as a Reflective Tool in Engineering Education

Ahmad Salahuddin Mohd Harithuddin

doi:10.3991/ijet.v16i18.24271

Abstract

The paper reports the first use of failure report as a reflective learning tool in engineering education from a university in Malaysia. Failure Report is a document that publishes and discusses failures as part of a reflective learning process for students. This reflective learning method attempts to encourage students to actually learn from failure and to take negative experiences as a learning opportunity. This paper describes the experience of introducing Failure Report as a means for engineering students to reflect their learning after completing an engineering de-sign project. The Gibbs’ Reflective Learning Model is used as the base of the reflective work. This introductory study reveals some findings on how students view and reflect on their failures and setbacks during the project work. It is noted that this was their first ever experience in doing a reflection study. Most of the students’ writing revolves around interpersonal skills like teamwork and communication. The element of ‘blame game’ is prevalent in their reports. In addition, based on this first experience, we provide several principles to follow to replicate the Failure Report activity and further recommendations for future failure reflection work.

Highlights

Trial-and-error is a fundamental process of learning and discovery
The role of teachers – and their learning institutions – is to prepare a safe space and opportunity that allows for failures
This paper describes our first experience in introducing the Failure Report format as a reflective learning tool for engineering students

Summary

Introduction

Trial-and-error is a fundamental process of learning and discovery. The ‘error’ part is rarely looked at and left out in the process of learning. The need to learn from failure is incontestable, the ‘f’ word is stigmatized. Learning from failure is often encouraged in words, but rarely students were given the chance to practice. This work attempts to formalize learning-from-failure as a learning activity and observe students’ response when asked to reflect on their negative experiences in learning. Failure is part of the process whether it is an engineering design process or the learning itself. The ability to learn from failure, especially where creativity elements are involved, is a common wisdom but iJET ‒ Vol 16, No 18, 2021

Results

Discussion

Conclusion