2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This research paper is a systematic literature review of pre-college engineering education that includes practitioner and research articles at the middle school level from 2012 - 2022. The inclusion of engineering in the Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS, 2013) and the release of the Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning (FPEL) developed in partnership with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE & AE3, 2020) provide different approaches to the inclusion of engineering in K-12 settings. In order to provide more clarity on the learning goals for engineering education, this paper uses a directed content analysis design to identify the alignment of research and practitioner articles to the learning goals promoted in the NGSS (2013) and FPEL (2020). With a focus on formal middle school classrooms in the United States, this study addresses the following research questions: 1) What are the trends in articles being published?; 2) How are the FPEL learning goals reflected in the literature?; 3) How are the NGSS learning goals reflected in the literature? The search strategy resulted in 102 studies. The findings highlight the significant influence of the NGSS, which focuses on engineering practices as a context for science learning. However, interventions were not well aligned with middle school expectations. For example, NGSS expects students to use a systematic and iterative approach to design (MS-ETS1-2), but only 15% of articles promoted this learning goal despite 75% including a design activity. When considering the learning goals promoted by the FPEL, few studies reflected the view of engineering to be taught as a stand-alone discipline with little emphasis on engineering-related topics outside of design practices. Gaps in the literature and recommendations are discussed.