Instructional Dilemmas and Decisions: Transforming Engineering Contexts to Integrated Science and Engineering Learning Opportunities

• In Event: Equity in Engineering, STEM, and STEAM

Abstract

The research presented explores the instructional dilemmas and decisions that unfold as one elementary teacher attempted to facilitate an integrated science and engineering unit. Using a collective case study approach, we examined three activities to understand the dilemmas that occurred when planned disciplinary goals were at odds with students’ engagement, and the instructional decisions that followed in an attempt to reach instructional success (i.e., students’ engagement was aligned and stables with the teacher’s disciplinary goals). We found that dilemmas followed from students’ engagement in engineering resulted in three instructional decisions including presses, leverages, and pivots. This work suggests that science and engineering integration takes great care and requires that we understand the decisions that teachers make to support integration.

Authors

• Jennifer Schellinger, Florida State University

• Sherry A. Southerland, Florida State University

• Lama Ziad Jaber, Florida State University