2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

TITLE: Insights from the NanoEnvironmental Engineering for Teachers (NEET) on Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Teaching Engineering (Evaluation)

Our free 3-credit environmental engineering graduate course for educators focuses on teaching engineering through project-based learning (PBL) and engineering design activities related to water sustainability. Modeled after our university’s introductory undergraduate engineering course, teachers are placed in teams to learn and explore water sustainability challenges, and research on low-cost, high-efficiency water purification approaches. Throughout the semester-long course, teachers collaboratively design and build their prototypes using research from our nanoengineering center. Over the last six years, through this course, teacher participants have consistently improved their self-efficacy in teaching engineering. This study assesses the impact of the NEET course, delivered by various instructors and through different modes of instruction, including virtual, hybrid, and in-person. We examine how participation in the course has led to significant gains in teachers' self-efficacy related to teaching engineering concepts. Multiple instructors with diverse teaching styles and perspectives led the course at three different university campuses in multiple years via virtual, in-person, and hybrid formats. To evaluate the program's effectiveness in increasing teachers' engineering self-efficacy, we administered the teacher participants the Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy Scale (TESS) at the beginning and the end of the course. Based on the analysis of data gathered through TESS for each cohort of educators for six years, our findings revealed significant improvement in teachers' engineering self-efficacy across all years through different instructors and modes of learning. These results underscore the program curriculum’s effectiveness and potential to impact K-12 teachers' engineering pedagogy substantially. This paper explores the program, offering valuable insights for educational institutions seeking to enhance their teachers' self-efficacy in teaching engineering.