Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Industrial Teacher Education

Volume

46

Issue

2

Publisher

National Association of Industrial and Technical Teacher Educators

Publication Date

2009

First Page

6

Last Page

25

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the topic of engineering design for technology education. At the 2007 and 2008 International Technology Education Association (ITEA) conference held in San Antonio, over 80 presentations were related to engineering topics. Further evidence of the influence and impact of engineering design content comes from the large number of well documented curriculum projects designed to infuse engineering content into technology education such as Engineering by Design; Project ProBase; Project Lead the Way, and Introduction to Engineering (Dearing & Daugherty, 2004). Likewise, state curriculum standards exist for the teaching of engineering design in technology education (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2001, Advisory Committee on Engineering and Technology Education in Georgia. (2008). Moreover, authors in the field of technology education have provided a strong rationale for engineering design to be the focus for technology education (Hill, 2006; Lewis, 2004; Wicklein, 2006). In a very short time, the field has moved from “coming to terms” with engineering design (Lewis, 2005) to research studies that suggest the technology education teachers value this focus and are already on the move towards infusing engineering design into technology education (Dearing & Daugherty, 2004; Gattie &Wicklein, 2007; Kelley, 2008). Based on these efforts to infuse engineering practices within the technology education curriculum it is appropriate to now investigate how technology education teachers are assessing engineering design activities within their classrooms. This research study was guided by the following questions:

1. To what degree do current assessment practices of secondary technology educators reflect engineering design concepts?

2. What are the similarities and differences of assessment practices of secondary technology educators when grouped by traditional and block schedules?

3. What are the greatest and least emphasized engineering design assessment practices by secondary technology education teachers?

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