Engineering Teacher Pedagogy: Using INSPIRES to Support Integration of Engineering Design in Science and Technology Classrooms

National college and career readiness standards call for integrating engineering practices into science and mathematics instruction. Very few models for doing this have been implemented and studied. This Engineering Teacher Pedagogy project implements and assesses the promise of an extended professional development model coupled with curriculum enactment to develop teacher pedagogical skills for integrating engineering design into high school biology and technology education classrooms. Professional development is provided to twenty high school biology teachers and twenty technology education teachers in the Baltimore County Public Schools.

The professional development consists of two five day sessions in two consecutive summers and follow up in two academic years as the teachers learn content, pedagogical content knowledge and classroom management skills. The project investigates the teachers' learning trajectories using validated instruments. A longitudinal study investigates teachers' change in practice and its role on student learning through classroom observations and examination of student artifacts. The study also investigates whether the change in practice persists over time and the extent to which the change in practice transfers to other learning environments. This study should elucidate the issues of teaching science concepts through the use of science and engineering practices.