The Affordances of 3D Mixed Reality in Cultivating Secondary Students' Non-Cognitive Skills Use and Development in the Engineering Design Process

Abstract

Ascribed as skills of the 21st century or soft skills, non-cognitive skills include the ‘4Cs' of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity as well as persistence, resilience, and grit: requisite abilities for engineers of today and the future. This chapter presents a single illustrative experimental case study of 16 seventh grade students who designed boats using the engineering design process (EDP) and 3D mixed reality (a combination of virtual and augmented realities) to understand students' non-cognitive skill use and perceived growth. Qualitative data converged to suggest that critical thinking, creativity, and grit were the most salient skills used (observed) and developed (reported). Further, findings indicated that the MR technology (zSpace) was easy to use and helped students with enhanced 3D visualization (immersion) and control (interaction) of designs. Collaboration and communication were perceived as skills that had decreased and were less observed. This research provides insight to how MR elicits secondary students' non-cognitive abilities in STEM.