Identifying what social emotional support first-year engineering students need to overcome setbacks in lab settings: a case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Engineering has high attrition rates in the United States, especially in underrepresented subpopulations in the first year of undergraduate study. An important component of combatting attrition is better understanding what social emotional supports are needed to retain students. In this case study, five first-year engineering students were interviewed across three semi-structured sessions. Transcripts were thematically analysed using the framework developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to identify what social emotional learning (SEL) skills and forms of support are needed to overcome setbacks. Students shared that applying emotion regulation skills to manage frustration and relying on relationship skills to ask for help facilitated overcoming setbacks. Analysing the skills described and the desired supports students expressed within the context of the SEL framework provides a way to categorise and discuss how instructors can practically support their undergraduate engineering students in the classroom to better retain them.