Using Engineering Principles of Design to Advance Teacher Education of Prospective Elementary Teachers

我们迫切需要为职前小学教师提供内容丰富的工程设计学习经验，以发展他们对STEM教学和学生学习的知识、技能和理解。在这个以研究为基础的项目中，科学、工程和教育大学的教师合作创建了一个创新的、可扩展的、可持续的小学科学教师培养模式，以解决全国范围内对培养小学科学教师从事工程实践的前所未有的需求。通过检查小学职前教师对工程实践的学习，研究人员可以发现有助于培养高质量小学STEM教师的因素，以及科学和工程教师在创建、实施和评估前沿学习材料时面临的挑战。运用设计原则促进教师教育（UPDATE）项目是一个开发、实施和教育研究项目，其目标如下：1)完善、实施和评估基于工程设计的模型对提高职前小学科学教师对工程实践理解的影响；2)研究该方法对职前小学科学教师跨多个本科理科课程学习工程实践的影响；3)传播和评估该模式在普渡大学以外的可转移性。因此，这个改善本科STEM教育（IUSE-EHR）发展和实施II级项目，在参与学生学习轨道上，将积极促进IUSE-EHR项目的目标，该项目旨在通过本科职前STEM教师的培养，确定改善K-12 STEM教育的最佳实践。该小组将根据下一代科学标准（NGSS）的目标重新设计现有的小学科学教师培养模式。UPDATE将在五年内直接与240名小学职前教师合作，通过有目的地将工程设计与五门必修的本科科学课程相结合，拓宽STEM学习领域，培养新一代高质量、堪称典范的小学STEM教育工作者。项目目标是：1)细化创新的、内容丰富的、基于工程设计的科学任务；2)将任务映射到课程目标和相关内容；3)实施基于工程设计的科学任务和教学方法；4)产生基于证据的结果，以了解职前小学教师如何学习工程实践以及如何使用工程实践教授科学；5)利用成果和教师反思不断改进实践；6)验证基于综合工程设计的科学方法对小学科学教师可转移性准备的模型。在UPDATE项目实施过程中，将调查以下研究问题：1)职前教师如何概念化工程实践？2)职前教师的工程实践知识在多大程度上随时间而变化？3)职前教师如何在各自的本科理科课程中完成工程设计任务？4)职前教师参与工程设计以何种方式影响他们对每个任务的科学概念理解？5)职前教师如何利用他们本科理科课程中基于工程设计的经验来指导他们的课程计划和实施？6)他们在方法课程的实地体验中采用了什么样的设计导向教学法？为了测量工程实践和目标科学概念的学习，研究团队将采用一种混合方法，使用清单、概念评估、访谈和课堂观察。预期的项目成果包括一个有效的、可转移的、可扩展的小学科学教师培养模型，该模型将包括一系列高质量的、基于标准和工程设计的科学任务，这些任务强调核心学科概念的应用；更新和加强本科理科课程，重点是通过设计学习科学；丰富基础科学方法课程，注重通过工程设计进行科学的学与教；测量职前小学教师工程实践学习的评估工具以及学生设计作品、笔记本和教案的范例作品集。这个项目将开发和测试的模型，以及从这个项目中产生的研究结果，可能对全国其他寻求将工程标准纳入各自项目的小学教师准备项目非常有吸引力和有用。

There is a critical need to provide pre-service elementary school teachers with content-rich engineering design learning experiences in order to develop their knowledge, skills, and understandings for STEM teaching and student learning. In this research-based project, science, engineering, and education university faculty collaborate to create an innovative, scalable, and sustainable model for elementary science teacher preparation in order to address the unprecedented need to prepare elementary science teachers to teach engineering practices nationwide. By examining elementary pre-service teachers' learning of engineering practices, researchers can uncover the factors that contribute to the generation of high quality elementary STEM teachers as well as the challenges science and engineering faculty face when creating, implementing, and assessing cutting edge learning materials. This Using Principles of Design to Advance Teacher Education (UPDATE) project is a development, implementation and educational research project with the following goals, to: 1) refine, implement and assess the impact of an engineering design-based model for enhancing pre-service elementary science teachers' understanding of engineering practices; 2) research the impact of this approach on pre-service elementary science teachers' learning of engineering practices across multiple undergraduates science course; and 3) propagate and assess the model for transferability beyond Purdue University. Thus, this Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE-EHR) Development and Implementation II tier project, in the Engaged Student Learning track, will positively contribute to the goals of the IUSE-EHR program which seeks to identify best practices to improve K-12 STEM education through undergraduate pre-service STEM teacher preparation.The team will redesign an existing elementary science teacher preparation model consistent with the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). UPDATE will work directly with 240 elementary pre-service teachers over five years to broaden the STEM learning landscape by purposefully integrating engineering design across five required undergraduate science courses and growing a new generation of high quality, exemplary elementary STEM educators. The project objectives are to: 1) refine innovative, content-rich, engineering design-based science tasks; 2) map the tasks to course objectives and related content; 3) implement the engineering design-based science tasks and pedagogies; 4) generate evidence-based outcomes for understanding how pre-service elementary teachers learn engineering practices and how to teach science using engineering practices; 5) utilize outcomes and faculty reflections to continually improve practice; and 6) validate a model for an integrated engineering design-based science approach to elementary science teacher preparation for transferability. During implementation of project UPDATE, the following research questions will be investigated: 1) How do pre-service teachers conceptualize engineering practices? 2) To what extent does pre-service teachers' knowledge of engineering practices change over time? 3) How do pre-service teachers perform on engineering design tasks within their respective undergraduate science courses? 4) In what ways does pre-service teachers' engagement in engineering design affect their science conceptual understandings relative to each task? 5) In what ways do pre-service teachers utilize their engineering design-based experiences from their undergraduate science courses to inform their lesson plans and implementation? and 6) What design-informed pedagogies do they employ in field experiences in the methods course? To measure learning of engineering practices and targeted science concepts, the research team will employ a mixed methods approach using inventories, concept assessments, interviews, and classroom observations. Anticipated project outcomes include a working, transferable, scalable model for elementary science teacher preparation that will include a collection of high quality, standards- and engineering design-based science tasks that emphasize the application of core disciplinary concepts; updated and enhanced undergraduate science courses that focus on learning science through design; enriched elementary science methods courses focused on the learning and teaching of science through engineering design; assessment tools that measure pre-service elementary teachers learning of engineering practices; and a portfolio of exemplars of student design artifacts, notebooks, and lesson plans. The model this project will develop and test, as well as the research findings that emanate from this project are likely to be very attractive and useful to other elementary teacher preparation programs across this nation that seek to incorporate engineering standards into their respective programs.