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STEM-oriented engineering design practice has become recognized increasingly by technology education professionals in Taiwan. This study sought to examine the effectiveness of the application of an integrative STEM approach within engineering design practices in high school technology education in Taiwan. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to investigate the respective learning performance of students studying a STEM engineering module compared to students studying the technology education module. The student performances for conceptual knowledge, higher-order thinking skills and engineering design project were assessed. The data were analyzed using quantitative (t test, ANOVA, ANCOVA, correlation analysis) approaches. The findings showed that the participants in the STEM engineering module outperformed significantly the participants studying the technology education module in the areas of conceptual knowledge, higher-order thinking skills, and the design project activity. A further analysis showed that the key differences in the application of design practice between the two groups were (a) their respective problem prediction and (b) their analysis capabilities. The results supported the positive effect of the use of an integrative STEM approach in high school technology education in Taiwan.

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The POWERTECH contest in Taiwan was established in an attempt to promote inventiveness and technology to elementary school pupils. The POWERTECH contest is designed as a collaborative learning system for project design. Project design is comprised of technical processes, which include the construction of an artifact and improvement of its functions. Thus, pupils learn scientific and technical knowledge through a collaborative design project. The purpose of the study was to examine how collaborative learning could be facilitated in technological project design, and whether and how pupils working collaboratively were able to share their design ideas. The study was carried out by analyzing the design portfolio compiled by a team of four elementary school pupils who were engaged in a collaborative design project that focused on making a robot rat for the POWERTECH contest. A portfolio analysis was used in this study to help researchers assess the actual collaboration process among the team members. The study indicated that collaborative learning in a contest facilitated the sharing of knowledge and resources among the team members. Furthermore, reflections essential for problem-solving among the team members were often raised during the design process. These reflections were also conducive to the reduction of mistakes during the contest.Keywords Design process Á Collaborative learning Á Portfolio Á Technology contest IntroductionThe ability to work collaboratively within a team is a necessity for today's learners. Despite the need for people to work effectively in teams, many education programs tend to promote competitive behavior. This can be attributed to curriculum design, grading systems and admission policies. In contrast, project design has begun to be used as a collaborative tool for pupil design teams (Kirschman and Greenstein 2002;Lahti et al. 2004).

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