A Multi-institution Investigation into Faculty Approaches for Incorporating the Entrepreneurial Mind-set in First-year Engineering Classrooms

The traditional engineering design process taught in universities across the country focuses on several common design steps, although often placing little emphasis on creating value. In collaboration with KEEN, a network of thousands of engineering faculty working to unleash undergraduate engineers so that they can create personal, economic, and societal value through the entrepreneurial mindset, a large mid-western university is adding multiple entrepreneurial minded learning (EML) elements to an existing first-year course. This paper represents the first phase of a four-phase, 18-month pilot, during which we explored the impact of EML in first-year engineering classrooms on motivation and identity across multiple universities. We used a mixed methods investigation for the current practices of five KEEN-related first-year engineering programs currently incorporating EML elements into their curricula. Researchers visited each site and collected data via focus groups with first-year engineering faculty and observations of EML classrooms. The notes from the focus groups were qualitatively coded and analyzed while quantitative analysis was used for the results from the Global Real-time Assessment Tool for Enhancement (G-RATE) assessment of the classroom observations. We mapped the findings to the KEEN Framework and the Longitudinal Model of Motivation and Identity (LMMI), which combines self-determination theory with possible-selves theory. The results were used to develop a set of best practices that may be incorporated into EML projects and courses such as allowing students some type of choice in their project, whether it is open-ended or highly bounded. These best practices were leveraged during the curriculum development in subsequent phases of the pilot to encourage autonomous motivation and identity development of first-year engineering students.