Date of Award:

5-2010

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Applied Sciences, Technology, and Education

Department name when degree awarded

Engineering and Technology Education

Committee Chair(s)

Edward M. Reeve (Committee Co-Chair), Sherry Marx (Committee Co-Chair)

Committee

Edward M. Reeve

Committee

Kurt Becker

Committee

Sherry Marx

Committee

Don Maurizio

Committee

Gary Stewardson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of professional development (PD) on the infusion of engineering design into high school curricula. Four inservice teachers with backgrounds in physics, chemistry, industrial education, math, and electrical engineering participated in the 2006 National Center of Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE)-sponsored PD workshops at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) and provided three sources of data that were used to answer the research question, "What are the effects of PD on infusing engineering design into high school science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula"?

Three major themes emerged from the data. They were (a) incorporation of PD content, (b) challenges with incorporating PD content, and (c) benefits of incorporating PD content. It was shown that the effect that the NCETE PD had on the infusion of engineering design into high school curricula varied among each of the four teachers due to their subject area, educational backgrounds, and experiential knowledge. Implications of these findings may be used to inform the design and delivery of future STEM PD efforts.

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60584c5af07090c47647efd604e8c405

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