How the application of coping strategies can empower learning

In order to perform well, an engineer has not only to solve a task but also cope with the environment. This is very important in military operations, where underperforming might have fatal consequences. As a military academy, we have developed ten coping strategies that we use to increase students' ability to perform in military situations. These strategies have been introduced in the education, but not yet scientifically evaluated. This year, inspired by Peter Shull's FIE Workshop 2014 [1], we focused on the strategies also in engineering subjects. The usage of the strategies in different situations was evaluated by short questionnaires. The results show that all strategies are actively used in military context, and that they are also applicable in engineering subjects, having a positive effect on performance. However, the substance of the strategies in an academic perspective was not as clear as it was in military. In order to benefit from the strategies in engineering subjects the substance of the strategies needs to be discussed with the students. We also found that, the “ability to control”, alone had high influence to performance through military and engineering events indicating that this strategy might be the dominant strategy to achieve good performance.