The Effect of Grit and Mindset on Professional Pilot Student Persistence

Abstract

Due to a shortage of qualified commercial pilots and the high attrition rate of collegiate professional pilot students, increasing the number of students who successfully complete training is critical for the future success of the commercial aviation industry. The purpose of this exploratory sequential mixed methods study was to determine if Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) students who enroll and eventually graduate in the Aerospace Professional Pilot concentration and students who enroll in the Aerospace Professional Pilot concentration but subsequently switch to another Aerospace concentration differ in the noncognitive traits of grit and growth mindset. Grit is defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals (Duckworth, 2016), and growth mindset is defined as the belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be improved with effort and time. If students who are high in grit and growth mindset are more likely to complete training, identifying students who are high in these noncognitive traits and providing courses to enhance these traits may help alleviate the current pilot shortage. In the first quantitative phase of this mixed methods study, Angela Duckworth’s Grit-S Scale was used to measure grit (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009), and Carol Dweck’s mindset survey was used to measure growth mindset (Dweck, 2016) in MTSU Aerospace students who initially enrolled in the Professional Pilot concentration. Descriptive and inferential statistics were generated to see if there was a difference in grit and growth mindset between students who enrolled and persisted in the MTSU Aerospace Professional Pilot concentration and those who subsequently switched. Then a purposeful sample of four volunteers from each group was randomly selected to participate in the second qualitative phase of this mixed methods study to explain and clarify the results of the first phase quantitative results. Open ended questions were asked to determine if there is a difference in the educational experiences between the two groups of students. The first phase quantitative results found a significant difference in grit but no significant difference in growth mindset between the two groups. Answers to the open-ended questions in the qualitative second phase demonstrated that the group who enrolled and stayed in the Professional Pilot concentration were more self-motivated than students who enrolled in the Professional Pilot concentration but subsequently switched to another Aerospace concentration.