The Effect Of A Teacher Professional Development Integrated Curriculum Workshop On Perceptions Of Design, Engineering, And Technology Experiences

The goal of a professional development workshop on the use of DET activities in the classroom was to provide middle-and high-school level teachers (n=80) with the content knowledge and pedagogical skills to engage students in solving authentic, multi-disciplinary problems in a relevant context of sustainability engineering. Multi-disciplinary teams of teachers representing mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, and technology participated in a two-week summer workshop, follow-up sessions and an online professional learning community. Teacher teams experienced and developed cross-disciplinary, problem-based learning modules that correlated with state standards (e.g., design of a windmill). The teachers produced interdisciplinary engineering units that contained language art, social studies, technology, science and math content (this is a novel approach to professional development). Through various assessments, participants were encouraged to reflect on their own practice and use of DET activities to make effective choices regarding students' learning. The purpose of this study was to understand teachers' perceptions of the value and use of design, engineering, and technology (DET) activities in integrating science, mathematics, language arts, social studies, and technology in K-12 education.