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Full-Text Articles in Education

Supporting Mechanistic Reasoning In Domain-Specific Contexts, Paul J. Weinberg Dec 2017

Supporting Mechanistic Reasoning In Domain-Specific Contexts, Paul J. Weinberg

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Mechanistic reasoning is an epistemic practice central within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Although there has been some work on mechanistic reasoning in the research literature and standards documents, much of this work targets domain-general characterizations of mechanistic reasoning; this study provides domain-specific illustrations of mechanistic reasoning. The data in this study comes from the Assessment of Mechanistic Reasoning Project (AMRP) (Weinberg, 2012), designed using item response theory modeling to diagnose individuals’ mechanistic reasoning about systems of levers. Such a characterization of mechanistic reasoning illuminates what is easy and difficult about this form of reasoning, within the subdomain of …


Latinx And Caucasian Elementary School Children’S Knowledge Of And Interest In Engineering Activities, Gamze Ozogul, Cindy Faith Miller, Martin Reisslein Oct 2017

Latinx And Caucasian Elementary School Children’S Knowledge Of And Interest In Engineering Activities, Gamze Ozogul, Cindy Faith Miller, Martin Reisslein

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Ethnic minorities, such as Latinx people of Hispanic or Latino origin, and women earn fewer engineering degrees than Caucasians and men. With shifting population dynamics and high demands for a technically qualified workforce, it is important to achieve broad participation in the engineering workforce by all ethnicities and both genders. Previous research has examined the knowledge of and interest in engineering among students in grades five and higher. In contrast, the present study examined elementary school students in grades K–5. The study found that older students in grades 4 and 5 had both greater knowledge of engineering occupational activities and …


Approaches To Integrating Engineering In Stem Units And Student Achievement Gains, Elizabeth A. Crotty, Selcen S. Guzey, Gillian H. Roehrig, Aran W. Glancy, Elizabeth A. Ring-Whalen, Tamara J. Moore Sep 2017

Approaches To Integrating Engineering In Stem Units And Student Achievement Gains, Elizabeth A. Crotty, Selcen S. Guzey, Gillian H. Roehrig, Aran W. Glancy, Elizabeth A. Ring-Whalen, Tamara J. Moore

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This study examined different approaches to integrating engineering practices in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum units. These various approaches were correlated with student outcomes on engineering assessment items. There are numerous reform documents in the USA and around the world that emphasize the need to incorporate engineering into science education. The authors of this study contend that different approaches to integrating engineering in STEM units correlate to larger student achievement gains in engineering, based on assessment items developed from the Framework for Quality K–12 Engineering Education (Moore, Glancy, Tank, Kersten, & Smith, 2014). The goal of this work …


Anticipating Change: An Exploratory Analysis Of Teachers’ Conceptions Of Engineering In An Era Of Science Education Reform, Tesha Sengupta-Irving, Janet Mercado Aug 2017

Anticipating Change: An Exploratory Analysis Of Teachers’ Conceptions Of Engineering In An Era Of Science Education Reform, Tesha Sengupta-Irving, Janet Mercado

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

While integrating engineering into science education is not new in the United States, technology and engineering have not been well emphasized in the preparation and professional development of science teachers. Recent science education reforms integrate science and engineering throughout K–12 education, making it imperative to explore the conceptions teachers hold of engineering as a discipline, and as an approach to teaching. This analysis draws on focus group interviews with practicing secondary teachers (n = 12) conducted during a professional development seminar. The goals of the seminar were to present engineering as a heterogeneity of practices and inquiries organized to …


Teachers’ Incorporation Of Argumentation To Support Engineering Learning In Stem Integration Curricula, Corey A. Mathis, Emilie A. Siverling, Aran W. Glancy, Tamara J. Moore Jun 2017

Teachers’ Incorporation Of Argumentation To Support Engineering Learning In Stem Integration Curricula, Corey A. Mathis, Emilie A. Siverling, Aran W. Glancy, Tamara J. Moore

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

One of the fundamental practices identified in Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is argumentation, which has been researched in P-12 science education for the previous two decades but has yet to be studied within the context of P-12 engineering education. This research explores how elementary and middle school science teachers incorporated argumentation into engineering design-based STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) integration curricular units they developed during a professional development program. To gain a better understanding of how teachers included argumentation in their curricula, a multiple case study approach was conducted using four STEM integration units. While evidence of argumentation …


Students’ Successes And Challenges Applying Data Analysis And Measurement Skills In A Fifth-Grade Integrated Stem Unit, Aran W. Glancy, Tamara J. Moore, Selcen Guzey, Karl A. Smith Jun 2017

Students’ Successes And Challenges Applying Data Analysis And Measurement Skills In A Fifth-Grade Integrated Stem Unit, Aran W. Glancy, Tamara J. Moore, Selcen Guzey, Karl A. Smith

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

An understanding of statistics and skills in data analysis are becoming more and more essential, yet research consistently shows that students struggle with these concepts at all levels. This case study documents some of the struggles four groups of fifth-grade students encounter as they collect, organize, and interpret data and then ultimately attempt to draw conclusions or make decisions based on these data. The activities in which the students engaged were part of an integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) unit that had students collecting and analyzing data both in the context of learning science concepts and in the …


Perspectives On Failure In The Classroom By Elementary Teachers New To Teaching Engineering, Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Elizabeth A. Parry Jun 2017

Perspectives On Failure In The Classroom By Elementary Teachers New To Teaching Engineering, Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Elizabeth A. Parry

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This mixed methods study examines perspectives on failure in the classroom by elementary teachers new to teaching engineering. The study participants included 254 teachers in third, fourth, and fifth grade who responded to survey questions about failure, as well as a subset of 38 of those teachers who participated in interviews about failure. The study first examines the literature about failure in the contexts of engineering and education. Failure is positioned as largely normative and expected in engineering, whereas in education, learning and failure have a more tenuous relationship. Identity, failure avoidance, failure as part of the learning process, growth …


Undergraduate Engineers And Teachers: Can Students Be Both?, Malinda S. Zarske, Maia L. Vadeen, Janet Y. Tsai, Jacquelyn F. Sullivan, Denise W. Carlson Jun 2017

Undergraduate Engineers And Teachers: Can Students Be Both?, Malinda S. Zarske, Maia L. Vadeen, Janet Y. Tsai, Jacquelyn F. Sullivan, Denise W. Carlson

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Today’s college-aged students are graduating into a world that relies on multidisciplinary talents to succeed. Engineering college majors are more likely to find jobs after college that are outside of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, including jobs in healthcare, management, and social services. A survey of engineering undergraduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder in November 2012 indicated a desire by students to simultaneously pursue secondary teacher licensure alongside their engineering degrees: 25 percent ‘‘agreed’’ or ‘‘strongly agreed’’ that they ‘‘would be interested in earning grades 7–12 science or math teaching licenses while [they] earn [their] engineering …


Elementary Teachers’ Reflections On Design Failures And Use Of Fail Words After Teaching Engineering For Two Years, Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Elizabeth A. Parry Jun 2017

Elementary Teachers’ Reflections On Design Failures And Use Of Fail Words After Teaching Engineering For Two Years, Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Elizabeth A. Parry

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This mixed-methods study examines how teachers who have taught one or two units of the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum for two years reported on: students’ responses to design failure; the ways in which they, the teachers, supported these students and used fail words (e.g. fail, failure); and the teachers’ broad perspectives and messages to students about failure. In addition, the study explores how strategies, perspectives, messages, and fail word use may change after two years of engineering instruction. This study builds on previous work about elementary teachers’: perspectives on failure prior to teaching engineering, and responses to and perspectives …


Disciplinary Differences In Out-Of-School High School Science Experiences And Influence On Students’ Engineering Choices, Allison Godwin, Gerhard Sonnert, Philip M. Sadler Jan 2017

Disciplinary Differences In Out-Of-School High School Science Experiences And Influence On Students’ Engineering Choices, Allison Godwin, Gerhard Sonnert, Philip M. Sadler

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Participation from a variety of students is important to the long-term growth of the engineering field. Much of the research on engineering recruitment or career choice has focused on engineering as a whole, even though engineering disciplines are varied in student participation and focus. This work examines how students’ out-of-school interests and experiences in high school predict the likelihood of choosing a career in a particular engineering discipline. Out-of-school experiences offer more unstructured ways for students to meaningfully engage with science and engineering outside of the confines of the classroom. These experiences offer opportunities to spark particular science interests not …