Jessica Watkins

Examining Young Students' Problem Scoping in Engineering Design.

Problem scoping—determining the nature and boundaries of a problem—is an essential aspect of the engineering design process. Some studies from engineering education suggest that beginning students tend to skip problem scoping or oversimplify a problem. However, the ways these studies often characterize students’ problem scoping often do not reflect the complexity found in experts’ designing and rely on the number of criteria a student mentions or the time spent problem scoping. In this paper, we argue for methodological approaches that take into account not just what students name as criteria, but also how they weigh, balance, and choose between criteria and reflect on these decisions during complex tasks. Furthermore, we discuss that these problem-scoping actions should not be considered in isolation, but also how they are connected to the pursuit of a design solution. Using data from an elementary school classroom, we show how these ways of characterizing problem-scoping can capture rich beginnings of students’ engineering.

Elementary School Engineering for Fictional Clients in Children’s Literature

The stories children read in elementary school can provide rich problem spaces for engineering design. In this chapter, we present snippets from our project, Integrating Engineering and Literacy (IEL), of students in grades three through five engineering for fictional clients. Children draw from the text to identify problems their clients encounter, consider and plan possible solutions, and test and revise their ideas. One finding is that children’s interest in the characters and understanding of the stories supports their thinking as nascent engineers. They use their understanding of the world and draw on past experiences to act as engineers while attending to relevant details the story. Educators should see these as strengths and build on them, listening to students and their ideas.

Idiosyncratic cases and hopes for general validity: what education research might learn from ecology / Casos idiosincrásicos y expectativas de validez general: lo que la investigación en educación puede aprender de la ecología

Abstract We reflect on our ongoing struggles with rigour and validity in a project based on case study analyses: How can particular instances of learning, with all their idiosyncratic details and dynamics, contribute findings of lasting value to education? For this essay, we look to the field of ecology, which has faced similar challenges, for insights into the goals and methods of research.

Examining Experienced Teachers’ Noticing of and Responses to Students’ Engineering

Engineering design places unique demands on teachers, as students are coming up with new, unanticipated ideas to problems along often unpredictable trajectories. These demands motivate a responsive approach to teaching, in which teachers attend their students’ thinking and flexibly adapt their instructional plans and objectives. A great deal of literature has focused on responsive teaching in science and mathematics, but there has been little research or professional development on this approach in engineering. In this work, we conducted clinical video-based interviews with six elementary teachers experienced in teaching engineering to discuss what they noticed in their students’ thinking and how they responded. Using analytical methods based on the grounded theory approach, we identified four themes in what teachers noticed in their students’ engineering: how students (1) framed (or interpreted) the project, (2) engaged in the engineering design process, (3) exhibited informed designer patterns, and (4) communicated with each other in ways that supported their engineering. Although none of these teachers had a formal background in engineering, we show how these themes connect to disciplinary aspects of engineering design. We also identified challenges that teachers perceived facing when responding to students’ work. By showing teachers’ abilities and challenges for responsive teaching, these findings motivate a research and professional development agenda to support teachers in eliciting, noticing, and responding to their students’ engineering.