The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of professional development (PD) on the infusion of engineering design into high school curricula. Four inservice teachers with backgrounds in physics, chemistry, industrial education, math, and electrical engineering participated in the 2006 National Center of Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE)-sponsored PD workshops at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) and provided three sources of data that were used to answer the research question, "What are the effects of PD on infusing engineering design into high school science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula"? Three major themes emerged from the data. They were (a) incorporation of PD content, (b) challenges with incorporating PD content, and (c) benefits of incorporating PD content. It was shown that the effect that the NCETE PD had on the infusion of engineering design into high school curricula varied among each of the four teachers due to their subject area, educational backgrounds, and experiential knowledge. Implications of these findings may be used to inform the design and delivery of future STEM PD efforts.

The purpose of this correlational research study was to determine if students’ academic success was correlated with: (a) the student change in achievement during an engineering design challenge; and (b) student change in mental motivation toward solving problems and critical thinking during an engineering design challenge. Multiple experimental studies have shown engineering design challenges increase student achievement and attitude toward learning, but conflicting evidence surrounded the impact on higher and lower academically achieving students. A high school classroom was chosen in which elements of engineering design were purposefully taught. Eleventh-grade student participants represented a diverse set of academic backgrounds (measured by grade point average [GPA]). Participants were measured in terms of achievement and mental motivation at three time points. Longitudinal multilevel modeling techniques were employed to identify significant predictors in achievement growth and mental motivation growth during the school year. Student achievement was significantly correlated with science GPA, but not math or communication GPA. Changes in achievement score over time are not significantly correlated with science, math, or communication. Mental motivation was measured by five subscales. Mental focus was correlated with math and science GPA. Mental focus increases over time were negatively correlated with science GPA, which indicated that the initial score differential (between higher and lower science GPA students) was decreased over time. Learning orientation and cognitive integrity were not correlated with GPA. Creative problem solving was correlated with science GPA, but gains over time were not correlated with GPA. Scholarly rigor was correlated with science GPA, but change over time was not correlated with GPA. (284 pages)

A qualitative case study method was used to discover the factors involved with the longevity of the Technology Education program at Utah State University. The problem was that while there were studies reporting the many Technology Education programs that have been closed there had been no studies on individual programs that have remained open. This study also contains a consolidation of relative information on the program. The primary data was obtained from interviews with the professors involved with the program during the timeframe of the study. The data obtained from the interviews was evaluated and set into themes. The factors were derived from the themes. The many factors presented in this study are evidence of the need to do this holistic study of the problem. The findings from this study provide a basis for study of other successful Technology Education programs.

There exists a need to promote better Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) education at the high school level. To satisfy this need a series of hands-on laboratory assignments were created to be accompanied by 2 educational trainers that contain various electronic components. This project provides an interdisciplinary, hands-on approach to teaching C programming that meets several standards defined by the Tennessee Board of Education. Together the trainers and lab assignments also introduce key concepts in math and science while allowing students hands-on experience with various electronic components. This will allow students to mimic real world applications of using the C programming language while exposing them to technology not currently introduced in many high school classrooms. The developed project is targeted at high school students performing at or above the junior level and uses the Arduino Mega open-source Microprocessor and software as the primary control unit.

Today, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a growing interest, concern, and need for technological literacy. To this end, the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) through the Technology for All Americans Project, has developed and promulgated the Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology. This effort is part of the ongoing initiative to develop technology standards on a national level, and to focus on what every student in grades K-12 should know and be able to do in order to achieve technological literacy (ITEA, 2000). The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived knowledge, use, and acceptance of national content standards by industrial technology education teachers in the state of Arizona. This study used a descriptive survey design in which self-reported perceptional and demographic data were obtained from industrial technology education teachers in Arizona. The survey was delivered via the web for expediency and reduced cost in collecting the data. Due to the relatively small size of the population and historically low response rate from teachers in the field, a census study was conducted (Creswell, 2002). The instrument was adapted from a survey questionnaire developed through Utah State University after a review of the literature failed to reveal any validated instrument that could be used to collect the requisite data. In addition to investigating the perceived level of knowledge, use, and acceptance of national content standards, the study also investigated the perceptions of industrial technology teachers as to the importance of the content standards with regard to their students and to classroom instruction. Frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, and correlational analyses were performed on the data. Results of the study showed that in spite of a low percentage of membership in either the state or international governing organizations, the majority of industrial technology education teachers in Arizona endorsed all of the national content standards presented in the Standards for Technological Literacy. This is in contrast to an historic lack of acceptance of technology education by industrial arts teachers. The study also revealed that the majority of technology education teachers in Arizona perceived they would benefit from additional training on all of the standards.

For teaching to be successful, teachers must be well-educated and have knowledge in many different fields. With a combination of solid subject knowledge, good teaching skills and the ability to balance these qualities, teachers can support students’ learning. However, Swedish compulsory school technology teaching does not always meet the requirements for a desired learning environment.   This thesis aims to extend our knowledge of how teachers perceive the subject of technology, its content and purpose and our understanding of how the teachers develop this knowledge. Two sets of data have resulted in three separate studies. Study 1 (paper 1) focus on experienced technology teachers’ views of their own teaching. Study 2 and 3 (paper 2 and 3 respectively) concern the views of novice technology teachers. Different theoretical frameworks enable understanding of the analysis. The pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) framework is applied on in-depth interviews. Theories about curriculum emphases together with a conceptual framework for technology concerning the subjects’ content were applied on the short-answer interviews about purpose and content of the subject. Findings show that experienced technology teacher highlight different purposes for technology education (depending on background) but agree upon that teaching must be student-active. They emphasize the design process as important and specific for the subject and that technology teaching requires various support structures for learning to take place. The novice teachers describe the subject as being hard to grasp with a difficult to understand syllabus. They express uncertainty about planning, implementing, and assessing teaching in relation to certain content as well as practical activities.     The three studies, separately and together, point to the importance of subject knowledge. Understanding of the technology subject seems to be the first step towards grasping how the subject should be taught. Future training of technology teachers must focus on knowledge of the subject's characteristics and understanding the subject’s purpose and content. A greater effort is also needed for everyone involved to create a common vision concerning the nature, purpose, and place of the technology subject in Swedish schools that contributes to pupils' understanding of the world around them while laying a good foundation for their further studies / Undervisning i skolämnet teknik behöver, precis som alla skolämnen, ha välut­bild­ade lärare med såväl breda som djupa kunskaper inom ämnet. Kombinationen goda ämnes­kun­skaper, goda pedagogiska färdigheter och förmågan att balansera dessa till­sammans möjliggör för läraren att stödja elevernas lärande och få till en miljö som möjliggör inlärning. Dock har det visat sig att teknikundervisning i grundskolan inte alltid lever upp till kraven och att teknikundervisning därmed riskera att inte knytas till teknikämnets syfte och innehåll.    Denna uppsats syftar till att ge ökad kunskap om hur lärare uppfattar ämnet teknik, dess innehåll och syfte, samt att förstå hur lärarna utvecklar sin kunskap inom skolämnet teknik. Två datainsamlingar har resulterat i tre delstudier. Studie 1 fokuserar på erfarna tekniklärare och deras beskrivningar av sin egen under­visning. Studie 2 och 3 utgår empirin från blivande tekniklärares utsagor. Insamlad data utgår från kortare eller längre intervjuer med deltagande lärare. Olika teoretiska ramar möjliggör förståelse av den insamlade empirin där pedagogiska ämneskunskaper (PCK, pedagogical content knowledge) tillämpas på materialet från de genomförda längre intervjuerna. Teorier som utgår från kunskapsemfaser för de naturvetenskapliga ämnena samt teknik tillsammans med ett konceptuellt ramverk för teknikämnet som rör kunskapsinnehållet tillämpades på de kortare inter­vjuerna utifrån ämnets syfte och innehåll.       Resultaten visar att erfaren tekniklärare lyfter fram olika syften (beroende av bakgrund) för teknik­undervisningen men är överens om att undervisningen måste vara elevaktiv. De betonar designprocessen som viktig och specifik för ämnet och att teknikunder­visningen kräver olika stödstrukturer för att lärandet ska kunna ske. De blivande lärarna beskriver ämnet som svårt att greppa med en svår­för­ståelig kursplan. De uttrycker osäkerhet om planering, implementering och be­döm­­ning av under­visning i relation till visst ämnesinnehåll samt kring praktiska aktiviteter.                  De tre studierna pekar alla på vikten av goda ämneskunskaper och en förståelse för teknik­ämnet karaktär. Dessa kunskaper utgör ett första steg mot att förstå hur ämnet kan undervisas. Utbildning av tekniklärare framöver behöver även fokusera på förståelse av ämnets syfte och innehåll för att undervisning i teknik ska kunna bidrar till att utveckla elevernas förståelse för omvärlden och samtidigt lägger en god grund för deras vidare studier.                     Nyckelord: teknikundervisning, tekniklärare, grundskola

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