The Effects of Integrated Science, Technology, and Engineering Education on Elementary Students' Knowledge and Identity Development

Abstract

This study examines the effects of integrated science, technology, and engineering (STE) education on second-, third-, and fourth-grade students' STE content knowledge and aspirations concerning engineering after validation of the measures. During the 2009-2010 school year, 59 elementary school teachers, who attended a week-long engineering teacher professional development (TPD) program, implemented STE integrated lessons in schools in a large, southcentral U.S. school district. At the beginning and end of the school year, the Student Knowledge Tests (SKTs) and the Engineering Identity Development Scale (EIDS) were administered to 831 students either in classrooms with the STE integrated lessons (treatment) or without (control). Item and confirmatory factor analyses provided sufficient reliability and validity evidence of the SKTs. Significant differences between treatment and control groups for all three grades on the post-SKTs indicate the impact of STE integration on students' content knowledge. The EIDS showed no significant group differences on the academic subscale, while the engineering career subscale showed that treatment group students scored significantly higher than control group students in all three grades. Those significant changes in the treatment group in knowledge and aspirations are strong evidence for the potential impact of STE integration. 380 Volume 114 (8) Effects of Integrated STEM Education on Students School Science and Mathematics 381 Effects of Integrated STEM Education on Students

Fen-teknoloji-mühendislik-matematik entegrasyonunun (STEM) 5. sınıf öğrencilerinin kavramsal anlamalarına ve mesleklerle ilgili görüşlerine etkisi

“…Birçok araştırmada fen alanındaki başarı, kavramsal anlama, içerik bilgisi adı ile STEM'in veya mühendislik tasarım uygulamalarının bu değişkene etkisinin olumlu yönde olduğu belirtilmiştir. Mühendislik tasarım uygulamalarının (Apedoe, Reynolds, Ellefson ve Schunn, 2008;Doppelt, Mehalik, Schunn, Silk ve Krysinski, 2008;Ercan ve Şahin, 2015;Ernst, Bottomley, Parry ve Lavelle, 2011;Green, 2012;Lachapelle, Cunningham, Lee-St. John, Cannady ve Keenan, 2010;Marulcu, 2010;Mehalik, Doppelt ve Schuun, 2008;Mercan Höbek, 2014;Mooney ve Laubach, 2002;Reisslein, Moreno ve Ozogul, 2010;Riskowski, Todd, Wee, Dark ve Harbor, 2009;Wendell ve Rogers, 2013;Zeid, Chin, Duggan ve Kamarthi, 2014), probleme dayalı öğrenme stratejilerinin (Lou, Shih, Diez ve Tseng, 2011;Otoupal-Hylton ve Hylton, 2011), STEM ile ilgili entegre programların (Barrett, Moran ve Woods, 2014;Ceylan, 2014;Cotabish, Dailey, Robinson ve Hughes, 2013;Jeong ve Kim, 2015, Lam, Doverspike, Zhao, Zhe ve Menzemer, 2008Olivarez, 2012;Rehmat, 2015;Robinson vd., 2014;Vollstedt, 2005;Yoon, Dyehouse, Lucietto, Diefes-Dux ve Capobianco, 2014) fen alanındaki kavramsal anlama, içerik bilgisi veya başarıyı geliştirdiği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Bununla beraber alan yazında mühendislik uygulamalarının (Barth, 2013;Schnittka, 2009) ve STEM etkinliklerinin (Kutch, 2011 fen başarısı üzerine anlamlı etkisinin olmadığını belirten araştırmalar da bulunmaktadır.…”

Fundamental Research: Developing a Rubric to Assess Children's Drawings of an Engineer at Work

“…Certainly, elementary classroom teachers themselves may hold some of these same conceptions. As Yoon et al 27 learned, teachers need to find a level of comfort in subjects that they do not know well. Figure 1.…”

Selecting and Designing Assessment to Measure Early Engineering Curriculum Impact on Application of Engineering Design and Attitudes Toward STEM

“…However, there is limited data which empirically links the impact of engineering integrated education with improved learning and achievement in STEM (Yoon, Lucietto, Capobianco, Dyehouse, & Diefes-Dux, 2014;Wendell & Rogers, 2013). Coupled with the lack of data is the additional challenge that there are a limited number of research validated assessment tools designed to measure the learning outcomes of these types of environments.…”

“…However; the difference in specific assessment outcomes made these tools impractical for evaluating the research questions of study. Construction of engineering design-based activities and assessments used in these studies were important in informing development of the new instruments in areas of concept to task alignment, use of combinations of objective and constructive-response types of questions, use of drawings as an idea-eliciting task, and use of task-design approaches (Capobianco, Diefes-Dux, Mena, & Weller, 2011;Capobianco, Yu, & French, 2015;NAEP, 2015;Yoon, Lucietto, Capobianco, Dyehouse, & Diefes-Dux, 2014). …”