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Session 1630

Encouraging Engineering Students to Become Teachers Gary Benenson, James L. Neujahr, Herbert Seignoret, Ed Goldman

City College of New York (CCNY)/ CCNY/ CCNY/ Brooklyn Technical High School

A great divide exists between the dominance of technology in society and its nearly total eclipse as a topic of general study. Technology as a subject is basically non-existent in elementary education, and reserved largely for specialized students in the secondary grades. Although educational reformers and standards writers generally recognize the importance of technology in the curriculum, progress has been very slow in implementing programs in the schools. A major impediment is the lack of qualified technology teachers, or even of teacher education programs which could develop the next generation. This paper proposes a solution to this dilemma: preparing and certifying engineering students for careers in K-12 education. It describes a pilot project at the City College of New York (CCNY) which is encouraging engineering students to consider teaching as career. Finally, the paper outlines efforts to develop new pathways to teacher certification designed specifically for recent engineering graduates, as well as engineers returning from industry to education.

WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION?

The importance of technology is widely recognized by the standards which are now emerging at both state and national levels. Starting from the premise that “Science as inquiry is parallel to technology as design” (National Research Council, 1996, P.24) The National Science Education Standards call for the integration of the two types of activities. A similar point is made in Technology for All Americans, an effort to develop standards for technology education: “To meet the challenges of our technological world, individuals and society must achieve a basic level of ...technological competence [which] goes beyond understanding to include the ability to create, use, manage and assess technology.” (International Technology Education Association, 1995, P.9).

Several common themes emerge from these standards, as well as other documents, such as (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993, P. 42), Banks (1994), Raizen, et al, (1995), Department of Education and Science (1994) and New York State Education Department (1994):

t Technology is broadly defined to include the entire array of artifacts, systems, activities and processes which constitute the designed — as opposed to the natural — world. Computers are only one example of technology.

t Children should learn to analyze existing technologies, and to develop, build and test their own designs. In doing so they should consider personal and social outcomes of technological decisions.

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Neujahr, J. L., & Seignoret, H., & Benenson, G., & Goldman, E. (1997, June), Encouraging Engineering Students To Become Teachers Paper presented at 1997 Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 10.18260/1-2--6533