Inservice Teachers and the Engineering Design Process

Erin Cejka

Funded by The National Science Foundation

Goals:

The goal of this project was to investigate the design processes used by teachers in a professional development workshop. My research questions are:

1. What approaches do Massachusetts inservice teachers, grades 3 thru 8, take to solving open-ended engineering design problems presented within a professional development setting?
2. In what ways will their personal design processes change with varied exposure to the model of the engineering design process provided by the Massachusetts Frameworks?
3. What kinds of concerns do these teachers have about engaging their students in open-ended engineering design projects and how can these concerns be minimized?

The Engineering Design Process

Outcomes:

Teachers emerged as either ‘builders’ or ‘programmers’, favoring one part of the design process over another. However, experience and discussion about the nature of design led to self-reported increases in comfort with building, programming, designing and teaching design.

A teacher's program outline

Research Design:

Study participants attended a professional development workshop in February 2004. During the workshop, teachers were given hands-on design challenges. Each workshop session was videotaped. The teachers also answered surveys after each session. I was interested in the design process of each teacher, and how this process evolved over the course of the workshop. Additionally, I was interested in exploring teachers’ concerns about implanting engineering design in their classrooms.

A robotic cat created during the workshop.

Results:

Discussion of the engineering design process helped teachers from feeling ‘lost’ during the creation of their projects. While teachers were initially concerned about knowing the right answer to all of their students’ questions, these concerns were alleviated after the workshop. One teacher said the engineering design process helped “wrap my mind around it all,” a thought that was echoed by several others. The results of this study are discussed further in “Inservice Teachers and the Engineering Design Process”, presented at the American Society of Engineering Education’s 2005 Conference as well as my master's thesis.

Related Literature:

Though there has been much research done about students engaging in open-ended engineering design problems (for example (McRobbie, Norton, & Ginns, 2003; Roth, 1995, 1997; Welch, 1999)) and some research about preservice teachers (McRobbie, Ginns, & Stein, 2000; McRobbie, Stein, & Ginns, 2001), there seems to be no research about inservice teachers in this area. Campbell McRobbie, Sarah Stein, and Ian Ginns’ (2000, 2001) research with preservice teachers provides the most useful insights for the proposed research. Preservice teachers defined their tasks and stuck with their general plan throughout the activity (McRobbie et al., 2001). This is in contrast to younger students that other research has shown do not adhere to a single plan (Roden, 1999; Welch, 1999). Additionally, the preservice teachers used systematic testing procedures to optimize their solutions (McRobbie et al., 2001), while younger students have a harder time making the transition away from trial and error (Welch, 1999). These differences in tacit strategies may prove to be important for teachers to understand when engaging their students in design challenges. Additionally, there may be differences between preservice and inservice teachers that are not yet know because of the lack of research dealing with inservice teachers. This research will attempt to address this gap.

To review my bibliography, click here.

To download my master's thesis, click here

Links:

www.ceeo.tufts.edu – Tufts University’s Center for Engineering Educational Outreach main page.

http://www.ceeo.tufts.edu/robolabatceeo/ - The CEEO’s Robolab page for curriculum, activities, tips, tricks and more.

http://www.tuftl.tufts.edu - The Tufts University Future Technologies Lab main page.

http://www.tuftl.tufts.edu/files/ecejka/donotedit/ecejka.shtm - Erin’s academic homepage.

www.tufts.edu/~ecejka01 – Erin’s personal webpage.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0307656. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Last Updated Summer 2006