The Student Flight Data Recorder – Building a culture of learning from failure

This paper presents the results of a collaborative project initiated by first year teaching staff and study counsellors within the Aerospace Engineering Bachelor’s programme at Delft University of Technology aimed at tackling the challenge of stimulating critical self-reflection and coping with failure. This project took the concept of a study planner and reflection journal and turned it into a symbol synonymous with learning from failure – the aircraft Flight Data Recorder. This symbol was combined with animated storytelling to introduce and explain the purpose and function of the Student Flight Data Recorder (SFDR), after which the usage of the resource was scaffolded by student mentors. Acknowledging that some students would not feel compelled to use a resource that was not required, a moment of intervention was offered at the completion of the first academic quarter after the first round of final exams. Overall, the project team has observed that the project has created more awareness and discussion about these topics within the student population. The next step in the project is to add an educational researcher to the project team with the intent of carrying out quantitative research into the effectiveness of the tool.