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Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Trajectories for Appropriating Engineering Design–Based Science Teaching

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Abstract

Learning to teach science using engineering design is a complex endeavor for elementary preservice teachers (PSTs). This entails helping PSTs understand students as sense makers and recognizing ways to notice, respond, and leverage their students’ ideas throughout the design process. In this study, we follow a cohort of elementary PSTs through a 16-week method course including a related field experience in a local STEM intermediate school (grades 5–6) to better understand how they organize, plan for, and attempt to integrate engineering design–based science teaching. Data were gathered through interviews, lesson plans, reflective narratives, and classroom observations. Data were analyzed using open coding, document review, and cross case analysis. Results indicated that PSTs demonstrated three different ways they began to appropriate elements of engineering design–based science teaching, including adaptive approximations and compartmentalization of core practices as well as the replication of delivery pedagogies as practiced by school-based mentors. Recommendations for science teacher educators and instructors of science interested in integrating engineering design–based science teaching across contexts are provided.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #1626197.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Brenda M. Capobianco

  2. Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department, SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY, USA

    Jeffrey Radloff

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  1. Brenda M. Capobianco
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  2. Jeffrey Radloff
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Correspondence to Brenda M. Capobianco.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 3 List of PSTs’ lesson plan objectives and related science standards
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Capobianco, B.M., Radloff, J. Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Trajectories for Appropriating Engineering Design–Based Science Teaching. Res Sci Educ 52, 1623–1641 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-021-10020-y

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