2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

DRK-12 Examining Changes in Elementary Teachers’ Engineering Self-Efficacy Across a Year-Long Professional Learning Program

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

The ambitious vision outlined in A Framework for K-12 Science Education, which is delineated in the Next Generation Science Standards, calls for advancing engineering. Nationwide data shows that teachers report comparatively low self-efficacy for engineering, compared to other subjects (e.g., math), and elementary teachers generally report the lowest levels. Prior research shows that teachers’ self-efficacy impacts their inclusion of engineering in classrooms, and self-efficacy may be influenced by content and pedagogical knowledge among other variables. Professional learning (PL), a strategy for strengthening teachers’ knowledge, can also foster self-efficacy. This project recruited elementary teachers from four states (CA, MT, ND, and WY). Teachers received intense summer PL for five days and stayed connected through PL activities during the 2023-2024 school year. To accommodate rural teachers from multiple states, all PL activities and research were completed virtually. The online PL modeled shifts called for by NGSS and offered guidance for teachers as they introduced engineering practices into their classrooms. Likert scale surveys were administered at three time points—before and immediately after the summer PL with a delayed post-PL survey at the school year’s end. Measures captured teachers’ engineering self-efficacy and outcome expectancy, plus an array of background characteristics. Analysis explores data collected from participants who responded to all three surveys (n=111). We found improvement in teacher self-efficacy. The full paper will include descriptive and inferential statistics to investigate associations between teachers’ engineering self-efficacy and background variables (e.g., prior PL experience, years of teaching experience) and characteristics (e.g., geographic location, grade level).

Authors

Prof. Ryan G. Summers University of North Dakota [biography]

Ryan Summers is an Associate Professor of Science Education in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Professional Practice. He is the principal investigator of "Investigating how combining intensive professional development and modest support affects rural, elementary teachers' science and engineering practice" (NSF Award 2201249).
Dr. Rebekah J Hammack http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8621-1006 Purdue University at West Lafayette (PPI) [biography]

Rebekah Hammack is an Assistant Professor of K-8 Science Education at Purdue University. She served as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow in the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Learning. Dr. Hammack’s research focuses on the connection of local contexts to STEM interest and identity development in youth, particularly rural youth in elementary and middle grades, as well as how elementary teachers develop teaching efficacy and identity as STEM educators. Through her research, Dr. Hammack aims to advance understanding of how to enhance STEM education in rural schools and communities, providing opportunities to meet the unique needs of rural students.
Julie Robinson University of North Dakota [biography]

Dr. Julie Robinson is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota and the Director of UND’s Center for Engineering Education Research. Her research explores strategies for broadening access and participation in STEM, focusing on culturally relevant pedagogy in science and engineering. She also investigates strategies for increasing representation in STEM through teacher professional learning opportunities and by exploring the impact of group gender composition on girls’ motivation and engagement. Dr. Robinson is a PI and Co-PI on several NSF sponsored grant projects which focus on teacher professional learning and self-efficacy with implementing culturally relevant engineering education, connecting to place and community, and centering culture and Indigeneity within STEM education. Dr. Robinson has over twenty years of K – 12 teaching experience, including seven years as a teacher leader of professional development in the Next Generation Science Standards, the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, and in elementary science and engineering pedagogy.
Min Jung Lee University of North Dakota
Dr. Tugba Boz Indiana-Purdue University [biography]

Dr. Tugba Boz works as a postdoctoral scholar at PURDUE UNIVERSITY.
Martha Inouye University of Wyoming
Meghan Macias
Ashley Iveland

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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