Standards for K-12 Engineering Education? (2010) / Chapter Skim
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4 Conclusions and Recommendations
4 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 37-46
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From page 37... ...
Instead, several steps should be taken to increase the presence and improve quality and consistency of engineering education for K–12 students in the United States. Step 1: Reach Consensus on Core Ideas in Engineering To take full advantage of the infusion and mapping approaches discussed in Chapter 3 and to support curriculum development, teacher professional development, and assessment in K–12 engineering education, the committee concludes that it is necessary to first identify the most important concepts, skills, and habits of mind in engineering.
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From page 38... ...
• K–12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education associations • The career technical-education community • Organizations with a history and interest in development of K–12 education standards • K–12 teacher accreditation bodies • States that include or have attempted to include engineering in their K–12 standards • Developers of K–12 student assessments • Developers of K–12 curricula, instructional materials, and textbooks • Organizations interested in college and workforce readiness
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From page 39... ...
. The purpose of the guidelines would be to improve the quality of engineering education materials, accelerate their development, and increase the number of individuals and groups that can use them, without developing actual standards.
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From page 40... ...
Step 3: Boost Research on Learning Developing consensus on core concepts, skills, and dispositions in K–12 engineering education and creating guidelines for the development of instructional materials will be important steps toward more consistent and higher quality K–12 engineering education. However, the committee believes that continuous improvement will require ongoing research to answer fundamental questions about how young people learn and understand engineering.
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From page 41... ...
FINDINGS FROM THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES The guidelines should summarize some of the most significant findings from the cognitive sciences, both about learning in general and about learning engineering specifically. In engineering, for example, we know that engineering design activities must allow sufficient time for purposeful iteration and redesign for them to have an impact on conceptual learning, DIVERSITY The guidelines should emphasize the need for engineering education materials that appeal to diverse student populations, point out language and images that are known to discourage interest among these populations, and provide representative examples of instructional materials designed to appeal to students of all backgrounds.
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From page 42... ...
The survey should encompass formal and informal education, including after-school initiatives; build on data collected in the recent National Academies report on K–12 engineering education; and be conducted by an experienced education research organization. The survey should be periodically repeated to measure changes in the quality, scale, and impact of K–12 engineering education, and it should specifically take into account how the recommended practices of infusion and mapping, consensus on core ideas in engineering, and the development of guidelines for instructional materials have contributed to change.
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From page 43... ...
Limited but intriguing evidence suggests that engineering education can not only improve students' understanding of engineering but also stimulate interest and improve learning in mathematics and science. Currently there are no content standards, the traditional tool for guiding curriculum development, teacher education, and learning assessment, for engineering.
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From page 44... ...
This is the environment in which the committee attempted to determine the need for content standards for K–12 engineering education. Although we conclude that such standards are not now warranted, this in no way diminishes our enthusiasm for the potential value of engineering education to our country's young people and, ultimately, to the nation as a whole.
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From page 45... ...
Principle 2. K–12 engineering education should incorporate important and developmentally appropriate mathematics, science, and technology knowledge and skills.
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