Cultivating Character Through Student-Centered and Mastery-Based Learning: A Case Study in a Thermal Fluids Engineering Course

This research-to-practice full paper describes an investigation connecting a student-centered learning environment, grounded on mastery-based learning, to the cultivation of character (e.g. resilience, humility, courage, honesty, etc.). The evidence in support of student-centered pedagogies in the engineering classroom is overwhelming and many engineering programs have been promoting such pedagogies to not only improve learning but also to create more welcoming and inclusive classroom cultures. When combining student-centered pedagogies with motivation theories - like achievement goal orientation - the outcomes are even greater. In fact, engineering education research has demonstrated how student-centered pedagogies combined with motivational theories support not only learning and competencies, but also student engagement, motivation, identity development, belonging, and retention. Mastery-based learning is one student-centered pedagogical approach grounded on achievement goal theory and that supports many of these positive student aspects. In this paper, we will discuss not only the unique mastery-based learning model applied in a flipped classroom collaborative learning format used in a sophomore-level thermal-fluids engineering course, but also present evidence on how this pedagogical approach supports the cultivation of character. Virtue ethics lays the foundation for cultivating character. We discovered that promoting mastery approaches to learning empowered the learners to take ownership of their learning and to also cultivate character strengths like resilience, humility, courage and other virtues. Asking students about their learning gains within a mastery-based learning classroom environment, we have gained new perspective around the additional benefits of student-centered pedagogies grounded on motivation and cultivation of character. In this paper, we discuss classroom structures, learning structures, reward structures, etc. Assessment results showcase student responses to the learning environment and character cultivation. The implications for engineering and STEM educators are many. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first publication to show links between student centered learning environments, such as mastery-based learning, and character cultivation.