R&D: Quality Cyber-Enabled, Engineering Education Professional Development to Support Teacher Change and Student Achievement (E2PD)

工程学的学习可以提高所有学生的问题解决能力和批判性思维能力，为他们进入技术工作场所做好准备。早期接触工程原理可能会增加所有学生对STEM领域的兴趣，而在社会问题中嵌入问题可能有助于将代表性不足的群体招募到STEM企业。灵感计划将这些想法付诸实施，并测试它们对学习和教学的影响。普渡大学启蒙计划中使用的面对面研讨会通过网络基础设施扩展，使用基于视频的实时指导和异步学习体验。一个视频和音频网络将小学教师与普渡大学的研究人员和教育工作者联系起来，形成一个致力于在小学年级实施工程教育的实践社区。为提高小学教师在课堂上适应和提炼工程学习材料的能力，开发了一种基于工程是初级和启发模型的数学材料的学习进度。将根据需要修订现有的评估工具，并开发新的评估工具，以衡量包括工程在内的专业发展对教师、学生、管理人员和家长关于工程和工程教育的知识、态度和行为的影响。研究计划确定了教师和学生知识的变化，引入工程学所产生的能力和行为，以及面对面和网络支持的教师专业发展和社区建设的属性，这些属性可以将教师转变为小学学生工程教育的主要用户和设计者。这项研究涉及三个队列组的大约120名教师。

The study of engineering can advance the problem solving and critical thinking ability of all students and prepare them for the technological workplace. Early exposure to engineering principles may increase all students' interest in STEM fields, while embedding problems in social issues may aid in the recruiting of underrepresented groups to the STEM enterprise. The INSPIRES program implements these ideas and tests their impact on learning and teaching. The face-to-face workshops used in the INSPIRES program at Purdue are extended through cyber-infrastructure with the use of video-based mentoring in real time and an asynchronous learning experience. A video and audio network links elementary school teachers with researchers and educators at Purdue to form a community of practice dedicated to implementing engineering education at the elementary grades. A learning progression, based on the Engineering is Elementary and model-eliciting mathematics materials, is developed for elementary school teachers to increase their ability to adapt and refine engineering learning materials in their classrooms. Existing assessment instruments will be revised and new ones developed, as necessary, to measure the impact of the professional development that includes engineering on teacher, student, administrator and parent knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about engineering and engineering education. The research plan identifies the changes in teacher and student knowledge, the abilities and behaviors resulting from the introduction of engineering, and the attributes of face-to-face and cyber-enabled teacher professional development and community building that can transform teachers into master users and designers of engineering education for elementary learners. The study involves about 120 teachers in three cohort groups.