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Enabling Factors and Barriers for Adopting Engineering Curricula in High Schools: School, District, and State Administrator Perspectives (Fundamental)

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Pre-College Engineering Education Division Technical Session 10

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37029

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37029

Download Count

401

Paper Authors

biography

Medha Dalal Arizona State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5705-1800

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Medha Dalal is a postdoctoral scholar in the Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She received her Ph. D. in Learning, Literacies, and Technologies with an emphasis on engineering education from the Arizona State University. Her research interests lie at the intersections of engineering, technologies, and education focusing on ways of thinking, online learning and democratization of K-12 engineering education.

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biography

Adam R. Carberry Arizona State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-7060

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Dr. Adam Carberry is an associate professor at Arizona State University in the Fulton Schools of Engineering, The Polytechnic School. He earned a B.S. in Materials Science Engineering from Alfred University, and received his M.S. and Ph.D., both from Tufts University, in Chemistry and Engineering Education respectively. His research investigates the development of new classroom innovations, assessment techniques, and identifying new ways to empirically understand how engineering students and educators learn. He currently serves as the Graduate Program Chair for the Engineering Education Systems and Design Ph.D. program. He is also the immediate past chair of the Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN) and an associate editor for the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE). Prior to joining ASU he was a graduate student research assistant at the Tufts’ Center for Engineering Education and Outreach.

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Abstract

Pre-college engineering education has been on a sharp rise in the United States. Numerous schools offer some variation of an engineering curricula, but challenges remain regarding socio-cultural perceptions of engineering, teacher training, curricular alignment with state standards, and policy decisions. Many past studies have examined students’ and teachers’ knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs regarding pre-college engineering instruction. Few studies have investigated the viewpoints of school administrators, or state and district personnel. This qualitative study investigated perspectives of three such administrators in a southwest US public high school. The school was one of nine pilot locations offering a new engineering course designed to ‘demystify’ engineering for high school students and teachers from all walks of life. Results converged around four major themes: 1) relevance and current state of pre-college engineering education, 2) teacher certification and professional development, 3) industry connections, and 4) expectations of pre-college engineering curricula. The resulting themes shed light on long standing issues affecting adoption of engineering at the pre-college level and highlight a few areas that upcoming pre-college engineering education programs could focus on.

Dalal, M., & Carberry, A. R. (2021, July), Enabling Factors and Barriers for Adopting Engineering Curricula in High Schools: School, District, and State Administrator Perspectives (Fundamental) Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37029

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