Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

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present at the event took the opportunity to contextualise the Engineering project into
other aspects of the curriculum. Whilst this appeared on the whole to be successful,
informal interviews with the teachers suggested that many are frustrated that such a
project was generally labelled ‘extra-curricula’ and as such did not capture all of the
children.
For the teachers interviewed, one major concern is the transition between primary and
secondary education. This was identified as being manifested by a decline in interest in
science education. Given the perceived drop in interest in science between primary and
secondary education, the need to spark children’s interest in Engineering during primary
education is particularly important. Likewise, the need to extend the children’s exposure
to Engineering beyond the project and the competition was raised by many teachers who
noted that although the competition had created interest, that interest needed to be
sustained and built upon.
Conceptual Framework
One major issue faced by the researchers in conducting this study is that with one or two
notable exceptions (see for example English et al, 2009), there is a lack of previous
empirical investigation in this area. In the UK in particular, the researchers have found
themselves on new ground. The lack of previous empirical research in this area, combined
with the sporadic nature of the current provision, makes the need to clarify the key
conceptual, theoretical and practical groundings of the subject of great importance. In
order to provide such clarity a conceptual framework has been developed utilizing the
findings of the research thus far. This is displayed in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Primary Engineering Education: A Working Conceptual Framework
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011