This project describes a strategy to introduce young children to engineering in a way that develops their engineering identity. The targeted age group is 3-7 year old students because they rarely experience purposeful engineering instruction. The curriculum was designed around an engineering storybook and included interactive academic discussions as well as a creative drawing activity. Results provide evidence that students developed an engineering identity based on their illustrations of themselves working as engineers. These findings lend support to the use of engineering-centered books to improve the impact of instructional strategies that emphasize the engineering design cycle. We show how both the curricular materials and the activities can work together to develop an engineering identity in this age group.

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Background Little is understood about how kindergarten students respond to literacy‐enriched engineering activities and how engineering‐centered literature (picture and story books) can be used to support engineering engagement and content understanding. Purpose This study sought to understand the effect of engineering‐centered literature and academic conversations to enhance linguistically diverse kindergarten students' engagement with engineering content. Design/Method A withdrawal single‐case study with multiple measures was conducted to document the effects of the literacy‐enriched engineering intervention program. The frequencies of three types of engagement were recorded: behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement. Participation in discussions was also recorded to monitor academic conversations. Six female kindergarten students whose first language was not English, representing three ability levels, were targeted for data collection. Results The relative value of the types of engagement and discussion participation increased. These increases generally declined when the intervention was withdrawn. All ability levels showed significant increase during intervention. Engagement peaked during hands‐on engineering design activities for all students. A second peak occurred during the engineering picture book read‐aloud with active engagement activities. Conclusion The combination of activities in the intervention is effective for English language learners and can improve engagement for all ability levels. Academic conversations enhanced all lessons by increasing discussion participation. Results show a functional relationship between enjoying the learning activities and being motivated to participate in discussion. Taken together, engineering‐centered literature and academic conversations are effective tools for broadening meaningful participation in engineering education.

Profile analyses were used to investigate differences in the selfefficacy growth of teachers with more and less mathematics background as the teachers participated in professional development across two summers. Professional development activities were associated with increases in teachers' self-efficacy; however, without considering mathematics knowledge for teaching, teachers with more math background tended to benefit more than those with less background. Nonetheless, teachers with less math background had higher levels of teacher self-efficacy although this gap was closed by the last measurement. Such considerations are important when designing professional development as teachers may have different needs based on specific characteristics such as preparation in their teaching domain.

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Notwithstanding the historical persistence of the disproportionate representation of ethnic minority students in special education, there is a scarcity of research on factors affecting the placement of minority students in these programs. The purpose of this study was to identify placement predictors in learning disabilities (LD) programs for Latino, African-American, and Anglo students. We used 12 predictor variables from two key domains (student and family) and used placement data from a national database of eighth-grade students. We found that although some factors predicted placement in LD programs for all ethnic groups, placement predictors also varied by student ethnicity. Based on these findings, we provide implications for research and practice from a sociocultural perspective.

Past research demonstrates the critical role of the context of learning in the achievement of students. This body of work justifies research and development of more contextualized opportunity to learn (OTL) models. We expound on an OTL framework that represents contextual features that can enrich or constrain opportunities for English language learners (ELLs). Specifically, we aim to broaden the conception of OTL beyond exposure to content and begin to define the types of affordances ELLs should be provided to achieve content standards. A central argument is the integration of academic language instruction as an OTL component for examining ELL achievement.