Sources of Self-Efficacy in an Engineering Professional Development Program for In-Service Teachers

• In Event: Examining Professional Learning in the Context of Engineering Instruction

Abstract

The Next Generation Science Standards (2013) call for teachers to integrate engineering into their science programs. However, a significant number of elementary teachers do not feel confident in teaching engineering. In this sense, we developed a professional development program focusing on engineering integration to increase practicing teachers’ engineering teaching self-efficacy. We conducted a qualitative study to examine what factors associated with the professional development program helped them improve their confidence. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 in-service teachers to explore the sources of engineering teaching efficacy. The findings indicated that the improved engineering conceptual knowledge, engineering teaching pedagogical approaches, learning from a student perspective and collaborative work among teachers were important factors improving their engineering teaching efficacy.

Authors

• Ezgi Yesilyurt, Weber State University

• Hasan Deniz, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Erdogan Kaya, George Mason University