Teacher Perceptions of Developing Engineering Talent in Low-Income Young Children Through Evidence-Based Curriculum

• In Event: 25.058 - Challenging All Advanced Learners: Research Insights From Projects Funded by the Jacob K. Javits Program

Abstract

The current study is embedded in a demonstration project which scales up a previous Javits project that produced science-focused STEM learning gains in identified gifted students (XXXX, 2014), general education students (XXXX, 2013), and teachers (XXXX, 2011). The purposes of the current study are to investigate teacher perceptions of their ability to implement an engineering intervention in elementary schools serving high numbers of low-income children and to explore their reported reasons for nurturing talent among underrepresented students. The theoretical framework of using rigorous curriculum designed for high ability learners to encourage talents to emerge in children (Gallagher & Gallagher, 2013; XXXX, 1990; VanTassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2006) guided the study reported in this poster session proposal. While the curricular approach has been investigated in core academic domains such as mathematics and the language arts, the arrival of the Next Generation Science standards with their focus on engineering practices and cross-cutting concepts has opened a new academic domain once thought the purview of college-age students and practicing professionals to the elementary classroom (Cunningham & Carlsen, 2014). Engineering provides a curricular platform with the depth, complexity, and creativity to engage teachers in the development of talents in young low-income learners (XXXXX, forthcoming). The self-efficacy that teachers report for teaching a new, complex, and unfamiliar domain are mediators of student success and are therefore of interest in the development of academic talents in the classroom. In terms of methods, the field study design randomized at the school level. Study participants are grade 1 general education teachers and grade 2 through 5 teachers with gifted education licensure (N = 105) from 13 experimental and 10 comparison schools. Data sources are both quantitative and qualitative and include self-report measures of teacher self-efficacy for teaching engineering (TESS), for teaching and student learning of science (PASTeL), and prevalence data augmented by teacher explanations from “talent-spotting” nominations of grade 1 students for gifted and talented services. Results indicate that teachers who have the opportunity for intensive professional development on specific engineering curricular units and who are coached in its implementation throughout the school year report increased self-efficacy in their ability to deliver engineering instruction to their students and for their students to learn engineering and are able observe academic talents among low-income children particularly when they implement engineering design challenges in the classroom. The significance of the study focuses on the efficacy of a professional development intervention to change perceptions of generalist elementary teachers concerning their ability to teach and for their students to learn in a domain generally reserved for university professors of engineering. In addition, the significance of the study adds to the growing literature on the use of complex and creative curriculum in the early grades as a platform for and an alternative pathway to academic and creative talent-spotting in low-income children.

Authors

• Ann E. Robinson, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

• Kristy Kidd, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

• Jill Adelson

• Christine Deitz, Little Rock School District

• Monica Meadows, University of Arkansas at Little Rock