The Influence of a Pre-Methods Course on Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Self-Perceptions and Abilities for Engineering Instruction

The inclusion of engineering in science learning standards draws attention to the need to support pre-service teachers’ ability to teach engineering to young learners. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of two courses on pre-service elementary teachers’ self-perceptions of their ability to teach engineering and on their design of engineering activities. We explored whether adding engineering into a science methods course was sufficient and whether experiencing engineering in an Inquiry and Design Course (IDC) first was consequential. Despite the absence of pedagogical instruction in the Inquiry and Design Course, the pre-service teachers’ self-perceptions improved significantly. This shift carried into the methods course where a comparison group of pre-service teachers demonstrated major shifts but not to the same extent as the Inquiry and Design Course participants. Similar differences were seen between the two groups’ engineering activities created at the end of the methods course. This study suggests that first learning to engage in engineering, separately and before learning to teach engineering, is an important opportunity that many pre-service elementary teachers are missing.