Calling all pre-service and in-service middle school science teachers. Your input is needed for a graduate research project aimed at improving the implementation of reforms outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) – specifically engineering design and practices.

Vickie Grant, a middle school STEM teacher now pursuing a doctorate in education at Piedmont College in Athens, Ga., seeks at least 400 respondents to complete her SURVEY. It should take about 28 minutes.

Your confidential results will help her hone a “reliable and effective instrument” she’s been developing – called Efficacy to Teach Engineering Practices in the Science Classroom (E2TEP) – to assess “science teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching engineering practices and applying the engineering design process in the science classroom.”

Twenty states and the District of Columbia – representing 41 percent of all U.S. students – have adopted the NGSS, which are based on a framework for revamping science education outlined in a 2011 National Academy of Sciences report. Most other states have approved similar reforms that incorporate engineering practices and design. Grant’s efforts may make it easier for schools and districts to support teachers and improve instruction.

You can access the survey here: 

https://forms.gle/WGD9RTVtjg3wWu5y7

Please review the consent form, which has details on confidentiality and contact information for Grant’s supervising faculty member.

“I love teaching,” says Grant, who teaches Advanced Physical Science in a Georgia STEM Certified Program at Marietta Middle School.  She chose her dissertation topic “because of my interest in authentically integrating engineering practices and applying the engineering design process in the middle school science classroom, despite having little training in engineering.”

Scouring the research literature, Grant analyzed the availability of “appropriate tools or instruments that school districts could possibly use to determine middle school science teachers’ self-efficacy to implement the now six-year-old reform of integrating engineering practices into the science classroom.” After reviewing some 22 teacher self-efficacy instruments and case studies, nonengineering-focused teacher self-efficacy instruments, and engineering-focused teacher self-efficacy instruments and case studies, she found none focused solely on her study’s target audience or had the same teacher self-efficacy focus and theoretical framework.

Grant who will spend much of the fall analyzing the results of her teacher survey and then writing her dissertation, already has some tips and guidance for middle school STEM teachers. First, understand the value of partnerships – which allow teachers “to extend their reach inside and outside of the classroom.” She also believes extracurricular activities for students and teachers “provide invaluable opportunities to keep students exposed and engaged.” Most of all, Grant says, “teachers must reach beyond their daily grind to read and continue growing. Being flexible is a must!”

For more information on past efforts to measure teachers’ engineering self-confidence, read a research paper presented at the American Society for Engineering Education‘s 2012 annual conference on developing a Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy Scale (TESS) by Purdue University engineering education researchers So Yoon Yoon and Johanes Strobel.

Posted 5/31/19

Filed under: For Teachers, Grades 6-8, K-12 Education News, K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features

Tags: assessment instrument, NGSS, Professional Development, research on K-12 engineering education, Research on Learning, research on STEM teaching, Teacher Training