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1. Enhancing Preservice Teachers’ Intention to Integrate Engineering through a Multi-Disciplinary Partnership (Evaluation)

   Cima, F; Pazos, P; Kidd, JJ; Gutierrez, KS; Ringleb, SI; Ayala, OM; Kaipa, K (January 2021, 2021 ASEE Annual Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   Though elementary educators recognize the importance of integrating engineering in their classrooms, many feel challenged and unprepared to teach engineering content. The absence of effective engineering instruction in teacher preparation programs leaves future educators unprepared for this challenge. Ed+gineering is an NSF-funded partnership between education and engineering aimed at increasing preservice teacher (PST) preparation, confidence, and intention to integrate engineering into their teaching. Ed+gineering partners education and engineering students in multidisciplinary teams within the context of their respective university courses. As part of their coursework, the teams plan and deliver culturally responsive engineering lessons to elementary school students under the guidance of one engineering and one education faculty. This paper investigates the impact of Ed+gineering on PSTs’ knowledge of engineering practices, engineering pedagogical knowledge, self-efficacy to integrate engineering, and beliefs about engineering integration. The impact of Ed+gineering on participating PSTs was assessed using three collaborations involving students in engineering and education during Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. Preliminary results suggest that the Ed+gineering partnership positively impacted engineering-pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of engineering practices, and self efficacy for integrating engineering. The specific magnitude of the impact and its implications are discussed. 

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2. WIP: What's your major? First-year engineering students' confidence in their major choice

   Ehlert, Katherine M.; Orr, Marisa K.; Grigg, Sarah Jane (July 2018, 2018 First-Year Engineering Experience Conference Proceedings)

   null (Ed.)

   In this work-in-progress study, the engineering identities of students enrolled in a first-year engineering (FYE) program were surveyed to investigate whether students identify with engineering (in general or with a specific engineering major) during their first year and how differences in identities impact intent to persist in engineering. Literature suggests a strong engineering identity is linked to student retention and can positively impact a student’s trajectory within an engineering program. To investigate these interactions, a survey was distributed at a large public institution in the southeast at the beginning and end of the Fall semester. Most students reported they had decided on a specific engineering major even in the beginning of their first engineering course. While students are relatively confident in that major choice at the beginning of the year, their confidence increased by the end of the semester. Future work will invite students for interviews to elucidate understanding in how a student’s views of the engineering profession affect their FYE experience and the role the FYE curriculum has in their anticipated engineering major and themselves as engineers. 

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3. The Impact of Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Engineering on Their Self-Efficacy with Teaching Engineering

   Chesnutt, Betsy; Mountain, Daniel; Faber, Courtney (July 2023, ASEE annual conference exposition)

   Although engineering is becoming increasingly important in K-12 education, previous research has demonstrated that, similar to the general population, K-12 teachers typically hold inaccurate perceptions of engineering, which affects their ability to provide students with relevant engineering experiences. Studies have shown that K-12 teachers often confuse the work of engineers with that of automotive mechanics or construction workers or assume that engineering is only for “super smart” students who are naturally gifted or who come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. This indicates that many teachers do not understand the nature of engineering work and have stereotypical attitudes about who is qualified to be an engineer. These inaccurate perceptions of engineering among K-12 teachers may influence the way that teachers introduce engineering practices to their students and make connections between engineering and the other STEM disciplines. In addition, teacher self-efficacy has been shown to not only influence teachers’ willingness to engage with a particular topic, but also to have a significant influence on the motivation and achievement of their students. Research also indicates that high-efficacy teachers typically exert more effort and utilize more effective instructional strategies than low-efficacy teachers. The goal of this study was to examine the perceptions that pre-service K-12 teachers hold about engineers and engineering, and to further explore how those perceptions influence their self-efficacy with teaching engineering and beliefs about what skills and resources are necessary to teach engineering in a K-12 classroom. We first developed a survey instrument that included questions taken from two previously published instruments: the Design, Engineering, and Technology survey and the Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy Scale for K-12 Teachers. Forty-two students enrolled in an undergraduate program at {Name Redacted} in which students simultaneously pursue a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field and K-12 teacher licensure completed the survey. Based on survey responses, six participants, representing a range of self-efficacy scores and majors, were selected to participate in interviews. In these interviews, participants were asked questions about their perceptions of engineers and were also asked to sort a list of characteristics based on whether they applied to engineers or not. Finally, interview participants were asked questions about their confidence in their ability to teach engineering and about what skills and/or resources they would require to be able to teach engineering in their future classrooms. The results of this study indicated that the participants’ perceptions of engineering and engineers did impact their self-efficacy with teaching engineering and their beliefs about how well engineering could be incorporated into other STEM subjects. A recurring theme among participants with low self-efficacy was a lack of exposure to engineering and inaccurate perceptions of the nature of engineering work. These pre-service teachers felt that they would not be able to teach engineering to K-12 students because they did not personally have much exposure to engineering or knowledge about engineering work. In future work, we will investigate how providing pre-service teachers with training in engineering education and exposure to engineers and engineering students impacts both their perceptions of engineering and self-efficacy with teaching engineering. 

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4. Predicting Engineering Integration in K-12 from the Perspective of Pre-service Teachers

   Pazos, P.; Cima, F.; Kidd, J.; Gutierrez, K.; Faulkner, D.; Lee, M.; Kaipa, K. & (January 2023, IJEE International Journal of Engineering Education)

   The integration of engineering content at the pre-college level is gaining global traction as a strategy to improve learning outcomes and to promote inclusion and diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Preservice teacher programs have become natural insertion points for integration efforts by providing future K-12 teachers with the resources and preparation to teach engineering as part of their academic preparation. There is a need to understand the socio-cognitive mechanisms by which teacher preparation programs can help teachers to integrate engineering in their future classrooms. This work examines how an innovative cross disciplinary program impacted important social-cognitive drivers of engineering integration. We used mediation analysis to understand a successful pathway to engineering integration as a result of exposure to a cross-disciplinary collaboration with engineering students. This study revealed how participation in the program as part of their academic preparation increased PTSs’ confidence to teach engineering and their beliefs about the importance of engineering content, which in turn, increased their intention to integrate engineering in the classroom. 

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5. Teaching psychology to future engineers.

   https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000362  

   Roscoe, Rod D; Siegle, Robert F; Arnold, Samuel T; Clark, Ashley T (May 2023, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology)

   Human needs and goals are integral to engineering, but human-centered engineering requires understanding principles and methods from the social sciences. Instruction is needed to introduce engineering students to these concepts. This study explored (a) students’ initial attitudes toward human systems engineering (HSE) and the bridging of psychology and engineering and (b) how attitudes shifted over one semester. Undergraduate students responded to a survey of their attitudes and conceptions at the beginning (n = 215) and end (n = 146) of a semester. Students reported high perceived value for human-centered engineering, and these attitudes remained stable or increased. Students gained in their perceived understanding of psychological concepts and user-centered design, their ability to define HSE, and ability to articulate the value of human-centered engineering. Introductory coursework in Human Systems Engineering may thus help to prepare engineering students to appreciate the psychological underpinnings of their work and engage in human-centered engineering. 

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