Anticipating Change: Secondary Teachers' Beliefs About Engineering, Students, and Science Reforms

• In Event: 49.048 - Integrating Engineering Experiences in Science Education

Abstract

Science education reforms in the United States include the first-ever articulation of pre-college engineering standards. This analysis draws on focus group interviews in a case study of professional development for secondary math/science teachers designed jointly by a School of Education and Engineering. Twelve teachers working with students underrepresented in STEM were selected to learn engineering design from engineers. We examine teachers’ beliefs about engineering and its anticipated impact on students. We found teachers recognize engineering as interdisciplinary but underestimate the intellectual complexity of design. They also anticipate design will invert achievement hierarchies rather than dismantle them. For reforms to actualize justice for non-dominant youth, identifying and addressing teachers’ conceptions of what engineering involves and who achieves at it, is critical.

Authors

• Tesha Sengupta Irving, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College

• Janet Mercado, University of California - Irvine