Board 167: Exploring Elementary Pre-service Teachers’ Personal Engineering Efficacy and Engineering Teaching Efficacy in a Science Methods Course Incorporating Engineering Design Activities (Work in Progress)

Abstract

The recent incorporation of engineering in state and national standards requires elementary teachers to teach engineering within their science curricula. However, few elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) feel confident about incorporating engineering into their science curricula. Research on how to support effective engineering design instruction in PSTs' elementary education programs is sparse. The present study investigated the impact of engaging 170 elementary PSTs in a K-8 science methods course that incorporated several engineering design activities on their engineering design efficacy (EDE) and engineering design teaching efficacy (EDTE). Students completed pre and post surveys of the of the Engineering Design Self-Efficacy Instrument (EDSI) to measure their EDE. They also completed the M-EDSI (a modified version of the EDSI) to measure their EDTE. Results from the pre-test (M = 49.6, SD = 22.9) and post-test (M = 82.0, SD = 13.1) indicate that PSTs' participation in an engineeringfocused K-8 science methods course significantly improved their EDE, t(169) = 19.7, p < .05. Similarly, there was a statistically significant increase in PSTs' EDTE after participating in the course (M = 83.0, SD = 13.3) compared to before (M = 42.5, SD = 25.2), t(169) = 21.0, p < .05. The findings suggest that exposing elementary PSTs to multiple engineering design activities within science methods courses improves their EDE and EDTE. Implications of the results and future research plans are discussed in the paper.