Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 644 de 957
Starting young: Learning outcomes of a developmentally appropriate PreK
engineering curriculum
Aikaterini Bagiati
Abagiati@purdue.edu
Purdue University, West Lafayette
United States of America
Demetra Evangelou
evangeloud@purdue.edu
Purdue University, West Lafayette
United States of America
Abstract: Engineering education for the pre-college years is a developing
discipline. To date there are no curricula available for the preschool level. Focus
of this study is on the development of an early engineering curriculum that will
complement the traditional emphasis on developing basic literacy, numeracy,
and science along with social, emotional, and motor skills, while retaining high
fidelity of the early engineering content addressed. Current work presents a
qualitative case study examining the developmental appropriateness of the
curriculum and reports on effect on children’s learning. Setting is a university
campus-based child care program in the Midwestern U.S. Participants is 11
children, their parents and the teacher. Data include researcher’s field-notes;
teacher’s notes, weekly journal, and exit interview; records of children’s work;
and parents’ questionnaires and letters. Children’s learning is analysed based on
the categories of knowledge, skills, dispositions, and feelings. Findings support
the developmental appropriateness of the early engineering curriculum, along
with the feasibility and the necessity of the implementation.
Introduction
The most recent calls for reform in engineering education began a decade ago and have
been acknowledged and supported by many engineering professional societies,
organizations, and scholars. A brief review of the history of the calls reveals that it began
with recognition of changes in global demand and a wish to keep the US competitive
(National Academy of Engineering, 2004; Haghighi, 2005; Augustin, 2007). Until recently,
most of the efforts concentrated on reforming engineering education at the college level.
The fact that engineering is known as a formal post secondary discipline limited the
conversation to the question of how to best educate engineers and what research must be
carried out to inform that question. However, it has become apparent that engineering
education is more than just the education of engineers and that the discipline must also be
concerned with what happens before and after formal college level engineering education
(Brophy and Evangelou, 2007; Bagiati and Evangelou, 2009; ).
Introducing engineering into pre-college education appears so far to be following a 12-K
approach. Effort is mainly centred on high school and middle school students, and some
programs have been developed for the upper elementary grades. However, in early
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011