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Abstract BackgroundElementary educators are increasingly asked to teach engineering design, motivating study of how they learn to teach this discipline. In particular, there is a need to examine how teachers reason about pedagogical situations and dilemmas in engineering—how they draw on their disciplinary understandings, attention to students' thinking, and pedagogical practices to support students' learning. Purpose/HypothesisThe purpose of our qualitative study was to examine elementary teachers' pedagogical reasoning in an online graduate program. We asked: What stances do teachers take toward learning and teaching engineering design? How do these stances shift over the course of the program? Design/MethodWe identified two teachers, Alma and Margaret, who exhibited productive shifts in their pedagogical reasoning during the program. Drawing on interviews and videos of their teaching, we developed case studies characterizing their stances toward teaching and learning engineering. ResultsAlma shifted in her reasoning about teaching the design process, from treating it as linear, discrete steps to recognizing the dynamic, overlapping nature of design practices. Similarly, Margaret shifted in how she reasoned about failure and iteration, recognizing the need to help students analyze unexpected design performances to learn from and iterate on their designs. For both teachers, these shifts were dynamic and nonlinear, reflecting both context‐sensitivity and growing stability in their reasoning. ConclusionsEngineering teacher educators should provide opportunities for teachers to reason about the specific pedagogical dilemmas in engineering and consider how teachers integrate disciplinary understandings with attention to students' reasoning and actions and pedagogical practices.
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This content will become publicly available on April 18, 2026
Teachers’ experiences with taking an open-ended approach in teaching labs in high school physics classes
Although most teachers recognize the importance of taking investigative, open-ended approaches to students’ learning experiences, implementing them in high school classes can be challenging for teachers. In this work, we analyzed data from multiple sources from a teaching Community of Practice (CoP) to investigate (a) barriers to taking an open-ended approach in teaching labs in physics classes, (b) shifts in teachers’ beliefs about taking an open-ended approach during their engagement in a physics teaching CoP in a partnership program, and (c) a case study of one teacher whose shifts in perceptions about taking an open-ended approach in teaching labs led to her successful implementation in her class. The findings confirm the existence of well-known psychological and structural barriers that can prevent teachers from adopting investigative approaches in teaching physics labs. Moreover, we learned how the interaction of these barriers further complicates the adoption of open-ended approaches in physics classes. The study also revealed a significant gap between teachers’ current practices and their desired methods of conducting labs, particularly in terms of structured versus open-ended approaches. The case study offered deeper insights into how shifts in teaching practices occur through changes in perceptions within a supportive CoP.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2010188
- PAR ID:
- 10615526
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Physical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Physical review Physics education research
- Edition / Version:
- 1
- Volume:
- 21
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2469-9896
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: 688KB Other: pdf
- Size(s):
- 688KB
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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