Tampa, Florida
June 15, 2019
June 15, 2019
June 19, 2019
Pre-College Engineering Education
Diversity
23
10.18260/1-2--32784
https://peer.asee.org/32784
766
Hoda is a Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering Education, Purdue. She received her B.S. in mechanical engineering in Iran, and obtained her M.S. in Childhood Education and New York teaching certification from City College of New York (CUNY-CCNY). She is now a graduate research assistant on STEM+C project. Her research interests include designing informal setting for engineering learning, and promoting engineering thinking in differently abled students in informal and formal settings.
Undergraduate Student in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University
Monica E. Cardella is the Director of the INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering and is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University.
Ibrahim H. Yeter is a Postdoctoral Researcher in his second year in the INSPIRE-Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He completed his PhD degree majoring in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Engineering Education and minoring in Educational Psychology as well as an MS degree in Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech University. He also obtained an MEd degree from Clemson University. His research interests focus on teacher education and students learning issues within Engineering Education/Pedagogy and Computational Thinking/Pedagogy field of studies. He received national and international recognitions including an Early Career Researcher award from European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) and a Jhumki Basu Scholar award from National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). In addition, he is one of two scholarship recipients awarded by NARST to attend the ESERA summer research program in České Budějovice, Czech Republic in 2016. He can be reached at iyeter@purdue.edu.
Computational Thinking (CT) is an often overlooked, but important, aspect of engineering thinking. This connection can be seen in Wing’s definition of CT, which includes a combination of mathematical and engineering thinking required to solve problems. While previous studies have shown that children are capable of engaging in multiple CT competencies, research has yet to explore the role that parents play in promoting these competencies in their children. In this study, we are taking a unique approach by investigating the role that a homeschool mother played in her child’s engagement in CT. This qualitative case study of a homeschool family is comprised of a mother and her six-year-old daughter. They engaged in two STEM+C activities designed by our research team. The parent first utilized the integrated STEM+C+literacy curriculum at home, and then visited a local science center. During their visit, both the parent and child interacted with an exhibit designed to promote engineering and computational thinking among children. Their engagement in both activities was video- and audio-recorded. Interviews regarding their experience were also conducted at the end of each activity (curriculum and exhibit participation). In this study, we employed a video analysis approach to examine child-parent interactions and utilized a thematic analysis approach to analyze the interviews. Our findings suggest that homeschool parents are integral to supporting children’s understanding of CT.
Ehsan, H., & Rehmat, A. P., & Osman, H., & Ohland, C., & Cardella, M. E., & Yeter, I. H. (2019, June), Examining the Role of Parents in Promoting Computational Thinking in Children: A Case Study on one Homeschool Family (Fundamental) Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32784
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