Initiative and Perseverance in Engineering Education 

This chapter examines initiative and perseverance as essential but often underdeveloped competencies in engineering education. Initiative refers to self-starting and proactive behaviour, while perseverance is the ability to sustain effort in the face of setbacks, uncertainty, and failure. Using self-regulated learning as a framework, we describe how these qualities develop through cycles of planning, action, monitoring, and reflection. We also draw on studies of perfectionism to demonstrate how personal motivations and traits influence students’ ability to act and persist in their academic pursuits. Engineering education culture, characterised by heavy workloads, rigid grading, time pressures, and perfectionist expectations, creates conditions that can both encourage and hinder these qualities. Case studies demonstrate how active and experiential pedagogies, combined with reflective practice, offer students opportunities to develop initiative and perseverance. We recommend that educators create feedback-rich, autonomy-supportive environments, while ensuring that their modules and interventions align with students’ personal motivators and mitigate perfectionist tendencies. By combining cultural, personal, and pedagogical perspectives, engineering education can better prepare students to become adaptable and resilient engineers who are able to meet uncertainty with creativity and persistence.