Wint, Natalie;
Direito, Ines;
(2024)
(Re)Defining Engineers' Resilience: An Exploratory Study into How Engineering Students Understand Resilience (Research).
In:
Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI).
(pp. 1-12 [AAM]).
SEFI
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Abstract
In recent years ‘resilience’ has increasingly been framed as contributing towards success within higher education (HE), particularly within engineering degrees which prepare students for a profession and thus place emphasis on graduate attributes. Engineering degrees are commonly associated with heavy workloads, high rates of attrition and, increasingly, with growing concerns about student mental health. This raises questions regarding the degree to which a focus on resilience can help students manage the pressures associated with their study, whilst also preparing them for the rate of technological advancement and societal change they will experience as graduates. There is currently a lack of research which focuses on how students perceive this apparent need for them to demonstrate and develop resilience. In this work we thus take a qualitative approach to understanding how engineering students conceptualise resilience. In so doing, we make use of data collected from semi-structured interviews with twenty-three engineering students at one UK-based university. Interview transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (RTA). Students described resilience and their resilient responses. Workload, the freedom of university, and peers were seen as the biggest threats to resilience, with teamwork being the most frequently cited learning experience in which resilience was required and developed. Participants primarily focused on the need for a plan and goals to aid motivation. Findings may be used to inform future interventions.
| Type: | Proceedings paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | (Re)Defining Engineers' Resilience: An Exploratory Study into How Engineering Students Understand Resilience (Research) |
| Event: | The 52nd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) 2024 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://sefi2024.eu/ |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Resilience, student development, thematic analysis, professional skills |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > STEaPP |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10199235 |
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