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Board 168: Exploring K-12 S,T,E,M Teachers’ Views of Nature of Engineering Knowledge (Work-in-Progress)

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Poster Session

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

18

DOI

10.18260/1-2--42524

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/42524

Download Count

127

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Paper Authors

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Jeffrey D. Radloff SUNY Cortland Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-2625-6963

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Dr. Jeffrey Radloff is an assistant professor in the Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department at SUNY Cortland, where he teaches elementary science methods, STEM foundations, and critical media literacy courses. He has a background in biology and pre-college engineering education, and he received his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Purdue University. Dr. Radloff’s interests are in understanding how to best support pre- and in-service teachers’ integration of interdisciplinary STEM instruction, as well as exploring related instructional variation across classrooms. His current work focuses on chronicling this variation and fostering the development of teachers’ computational thinking using robotics and applications of artificial intelligence.

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Allison Antink-Meyer Illinois State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-8969-1263

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Allison Antink-Meyer is a professor and pre-college science and engineering educator at Illinois State University.

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Ryan Brown Illinois State University

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Ryan Brown is Professor in Secondary Education at Illinois State University

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Ibrahim H. Yeter Nanyang Technological University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-0175-2306

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Ibrahim H. Yeter, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education (NIE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He is an affiliated faculty member of the NTU Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE) and the NTU Institute for Science and Technology for Humanity (NISTH). Additionally, he is the Director of the World MOON Project, the Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Education, and the upcoming Program Chair-Elect of the PCEE Division at ASEE. His current research interests include STEM+C education, specifically artificial intelligence literacy, computational thinking, and engineering.

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Dominick Fantacone

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Abstract

Current K-12 science reform advocates for the interdisciplinary infusion of engineering within the context of collaboratively engaging learners in real-world problems. As such, K-12 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers need adaptable conceptual and epistemic understandings of engineering as a set of discrete disciplinary knowledge, skills, and career paths. They should also understand engineering as a highly contextual, socially and culturally bound, and solutions- and goal-based endeavor. Yet, research has repeatedly revealed gaps in teachers’ understandings: the same reservoirs of knowledge used by teachers to make instructional decisions in their classrooms. As such, attention is needed to both explore and provide targeted support for teachers’ epistemic understandings of engineering. If teachers cannot understand the nature, scope or validity of engineering knowledge, they may not be able to authentically portray or enact engineering with their learners. Using a mixed methods approach, this proposal seeks to identify and characterize K-12 S,T,E, and M teachers’ (≥5 years STEM teaching) views of the nature of engineering knowledge. These teachers represent experienced practitioners in their fields who offer essential insights into learning how to support teachers’ epistemological understandings. Participants included 23 elementary (n = 7), middle (n = 8) and high school (n = 8) S,T,E, and M teachers who were part of a university-school partnership geared towards developing and implementing a multi-day standards-based STEM task in their classrooms. Data included participants’ responses to a previously validated Views of Nature of Engineering Knowledge (VNOEK) survey and researcher-developed STEM pre-survey. The VNOEK is comprised of 13 open-ended prompts centered on examining and optimizing a community-wide water filtration system. Data analysis consisted of independently coding and corroborating data using validated procedures with a focus on teachers’ VNOEK, and teachers’ responses were categorized as “Informed”, “General”, “Emergent”, “Problematic”, or “Absent”. Preliminary findings revealed that: (i) participants held largely emergent but contextually responsive epistemic understandings and (ii) unearthed potential differences in these understandings when compared across teachers’ grade bands and disciplines (e.g., S, T, E, or M). Additionally, teachers appeared to focus on the personal and community-based nature of the engineering problem, suggesting a clear entry point for bolstering their views. Findings suggest the need for additional exploration and comparison of teachers’ VNOEK across contexts (e.g., grade levels; experience; discipline) and provide concrete directions for further engineering education research.

Radloff, J. D., & Antink-Meyer, A., & Brown, R., & Yeter, I. H., & Fantacone, D. (2023, June), Board 168: Exploring K-12 S,T,E,M Teachers’ Views of Nature of Engineering Knowledge (Work-in-Progress) Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42524

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