Learning from failure - Development of a Culture of Failure Scale for Higher Education

Abstract

Benefits of a failure friendly culture, e.g., learning from failure, are widely known in occupational settings. Validated scales have been developed to measure organizational failure culture and individuals' mind-sets on failure. While research on learning from failure exists in secondary education, scales for higher education are lacking. To support both higher education engineering instructors and students, this contribution aims to develop a Culture of Failure Scale to assess students' and lecturers' handling of failures in engineering higher education settings. This data-driven approach helps inform instructors about aspects of educational settings that are safe and conducive to learning and supports their students to develop a mind-set where failures are seen as a source for improvements and learning. Exemplary application of the developed scale is shown by assessing the failure culture in different groupings, e.g., gender, between two participating German and US institutions.