2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In engineering education, professional learning (PL) is crucial for enhancing educators’ capacity to deliver rigorous, relevant, and engaging instruction, especially for high school teachers without formal engineering training. PL initiatives focus on content knowledge, pedagogical strategies, and teacher self-efficacy, but their effectiveness depends on teachers’ ability to translate new learning into sustained classroom practice. This is especially challenging when the content is novel and complex, as in integrating biologically inspired design into engineering curricula. This qualitative case study applies Clarke and Hollingsworth’s Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth to examine a high school engineering teacher’s transformation during the implementation of a BID-integrated engineering curriculum. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and enactment surveys. Thematic analysis mapped teacher growth across the model’s four domains, highlighting the roles of reflection and enactment in professional learning and instructional change. Findings revealed a progression from initial uncertainty to confident implementation of engineering instruction, supported by scaffolded curriculum resources and immersive PL experiences. These experiences reshaped the teacher’s beliefs and identity, leading to more flexible, student-centered instructional practices and increased student engagement in engineering design.