Explore-Create-Share Study

Doctoral research on teachers as curriculum Innovators in engineering education.

 

  • Challenge

    Engineering education is an effective way to teach project-based learning and interdisciplinary learning. The problem is teachers don’t feel prepared to teach engineering, have limited competencies, and lack access to curriculum and other resources.

  • Approach

    Evaluate the effectiveness a teacher professional development program that trains teachers in engineering concepts and curriculum development. It was a mixed method study including teacher interviews, surveys, and evaluation of curriculum.

  • Results

    Teachers scored high ratings for the program, increased engineering competencies. They also had positive attitudes towards the instructional design model and viewed the curricula approach as an effective model to implement curricula that benefits teachers, students, and aligns to education standards.

 

Evaluating teacher professional development efficacy

The research study was conducted on the STEM Certificate Program, a teacher professional development program. The program included a foundational phase aimed at teaching engineering concepts and an authoring phase where teachers learned how to implement the Explore-Create-Share model. More info.

 
 
 

Research question

What is the impact of a curriculum design-based (CDB) professional development on teachers’ capacity to integrate engineering education in the classroom?

ECS curriculum model

The Explore-Create-Share (ECS) model is an instructional design model that draws best practices from project-based learning, engineering design, and industry product development. It organizes engineering projects into three learning phases. First is the explore phase when students are introduced to the design challenge. Then they dive into the subject-matter to understand the problem, technology features, and related subject-matter concepts. Second is the Create phase when students brainstorm ideas, create concepts, and then build out prototypes using various development methods from simple craft and paper techniques to more advanced approaches like 3D design and robotics kits. Third is the share phase when students create a unique artifact relevant to an industry persona such as blog post (journalist), business proposal (entrepreneur) or marketing flyer (artist). This model was designed, tested, and refined based on the inputs from teachers, curriculum designers, and professional engineers.

Study One

What is the impact of the program on teachers’ engineering knowledge, attitudes, and practices?

 

Participants

Study One included 24 participants. They were highly educated, 80% held a Master’s Degree, and 42% had prior experience teaching engineering.

 
 
 
 

Methods

This study used a pre/post survey method to measure teacher attitudes and a curriculum evaluation tool to measure engineering integration in classroom curriculum.

Results

Teachers felt more confident about their engineering subject-matter expertise. One highlight is teachers felt like they built competencies that enabled them to connect engineering process to their teaching area such as science and mathematics. This builds on the existing research literature, which states that engineering projects provide a rich medium to apply STEM and other concepts in the classroom.

Teachers built ECS curriculum with various degrees of proficiencies. Teachers were particularly strong in aligning content to standards and imbuing lessons with student research, modeling, and review activities. On the other hand, teachers struggled with creating authentic design challenges, collaborative engagements, and articulating methods for students to report their results.

“Prior to this course I hesitated to incorporate engineering concepts into my lessons due to time restrictions. Now, seeing the benefits, I will try my best to incorporate at least a little, and feel better prepared to deal with barriers such as lack of general engineering knowledge.”

— Teacher participant

 
 

Study Two

What are teachers’ perceptions of using the ECS instructional model and how well can they design curricula using this tool?

 

Participants

Study Two included 62 participants. Teachers primarily worked in elementary and middle school settings. Most teachers had 3+ years teaching experiences in a STEM subject.

 
 
 
 

Methods

This study used a post-program survey design to evaluate teacher attitudes towards the ECS model and a curriculum model to evaluate ECS curricula design by teachers.

Results

Teachers embedded concepts in their ECS curricula that teach guiding principles, or what is also called enduring understandings or big ideas. These guiding principles describe how systems and situations work, and are transferable to multiple context.

 

Teachers exhibited a strong capacity to align ECS curricula with K-12 educational standards, a key requirement in classroom teaching. Of note is 75% or more of the teachers targeted at least a STEM and ELA standard in their curricula.

 

Teachers reported several benefits of using the ECS model. The top three were teaching alignment, engineering integration, and instructional design knowledge.

“The three part project based approach is one that I hope to make a regular part of my planning. The opportunity for students to take control of their own learning and creativity is so positive. …The establishment of the Guiding Principal is the one large take-away from this whole thing.”

— Teacher participant

 
 

Study Three

What benefits, challenges, and solutions do teachers associate with implementing ECS units in the classroom?

 

Participants

Study Three included thirty-one teachers. 90% were science and tech/engineering teachers, and more than 2/3 of the population taught elementary or middle school.

 
 
 
 

Methods

An open-ended survey was administered asking teachers to share their thoughts on benefits, challenges, and proposed improvements to the ECS model. The Inductive Method was used to evaluate these qualitative responses.

Results

Student benefits were the most frequently cited themes. At the top were content knowledge, student engagement, and real world connections. The student as creator emerged as an overarching benefit (e.g. real world connections, active learning, creative thinking, interdisciplinary learning).

 

Participants also noted teacher benefits. The top themes focused on instructional design best practices such as curriculum coherence and student-centered instruction.

 

The biggest challenges to implementing ECS curricula were instructional time and resourcing. This is a common theme in STEM education. Project-based and creative learning require investments to create rich, learning experiences for students.

 

In order to overcome ECS implementation challenges, teachers identified timetable changes as well as instructional design methods. For example, creating dedicated work stations for each part of the ECS model so students could get the materials and instructions they needed in a modular fashion; this also benefits teachers by having a structured space to plan and teach each part of the curriculum.

“I purchased more materials and set up more stations for hands-on mini-labs so that I could rotate students through more quickly…I also set a timer for stations, to help students manage their time better. Spread out into the library for both Explore phase mini-labs and Create phase optimization”

— Teacher participant

 

Artifacts created:

 

  • Explore-Create-Share model

  • Literature review

  • Mixed method study

  • Research instruments

  • Program evaluation

  • Doctoral Defense

  • Research publications