The study of grit in engineering education research: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Research on the role of gritdefined as both perseverance and passion for long-term goalson human performance has been conducted for the past decade. It has been suggested that this non-cognitive factor is a better predictor of students' retention than traditional academic measures. These findings hold relevance for engineering education research but studies on this area are still scarce. This paper provides a systematic review of the current state of research on grit and its correlates in engineering higher education research. Publications were identified using three types of databases specific to engineering education; a final set of 31 relevant records was analysed by type of population, methods, research topics and main results. Most of the reviewed studies implemented quantitative methodologies to assess grit and also used one of the two versions of Duckworth's Grit scale. Key findings are that in engineering education research, both the conceptualisation of grit and research reporting procedures have been inconsistent. Such inconsistency hinders interpretation of the impact of grit in engineering education. In response, new research avenues and best practices for reporting are proffered.

Developing growth mindsets in engineering students: a systematic literature review of interventions

“…The application of educational and positive psychology in engineering education for over two decades (e.g. Baillie and Fitzgerald 2000;Alpay and Ireson 2006;Sheu et al 2018;Direito, Chance, and Malik 2019) reflects the growing awareness of how psychological factors affect how engineering students think, feel and act (e.g. Rohde et al 2019;Yadav, Alexander, and Mehta 2019).…”

Engineering students' noncognitive and affective factors: Group differences from cluster analysis

“…We use grit in this study to understand its role and to link to current literature which indicates that grit may be correlated, although weakly, with student success. In a more recent study of grit in engineering education, Direito et al (2019) called for more consistent conceptualizations of grit and further research on the consistency of interest dimension, which we investigate in this study.…”

What’s wrong with grit? – Considerations and Better Alternatives for Engineering Education Research

“…1. Construct validity: Grit is most commonly measured through survey instruments, frequently following the instruments created by Duckworth andcolleagues (2007, 2009) (Credé et al, 2017;Direito et al, 2021). However, there have been methodological disagreements about the structure (construct validity) of grit.…”

“…In short, establishing construct validity is critical to ensure that the concepts researchers theorise align with the empirical measures they use. Duckworth andcolleagues (2009, 2007) define grit as composed of two sub-constructs, continuity of interest (CI) and persistence of effort (PE), which they define as the ability to hold the same interests over time and to work hard toward a goal, despite difficulties or setbacks, respectively (Direito et al, 2021). Duckworth and Quinn (2009) argue that the questions in their instrument measure (or load onto) the CI and PE sub-constructs, which themselves load onto an overall grit construct, and they provide results to establish validity of this construct structure.…”

“…(Although not every hit in this search refers to the psychological construct of grit, the rise in those that do is telling). There has now been enough engineering education research on the topic that a systematic literature review was recently published (Direito, Chance, & Malik, 2021). The term is even making its way into recruitment and promotional materials.…”