Knowledge to empathy: Shifting epistemological frames in an engineering course for preservice elementary teachers

Amy Voss Farris, Gözde Tosun

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Elementary teacher preparation commonly includes relatively few science and mathematics courses, and rarely do these have an emphasis on engineering (NRC, 2009). In this paper, we analyze data collected in an introductory engineering course for educators, taught during the Spring 2019 term. The participants are 23 preservice teachers (PSTs). We examine the changing epistemological frames (Hammer, Elby, Scherr, & Redish, 2005) through which students view their engineering work and describe how the PSTs talked and wrote about the relationships among engineering and their future practice as elementary and early childhood educators. Across the course, we see development from naïve notions of engineering's importance as “hands-on” and engaging to more robust epistemologies about engineering as design and teaching engineering as creating productive contexts for students' design processes. We focus on two students' accounts of their own experiences of the engineering design process as centrally relevant to their pedagogical practice with elementary students.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences
Subtitle of host publicationThe Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, ICLS 2020 - Conference Proceedings
EditorsMelissa Gresalfi, Ilana Seidel Horn
PublisherInternational Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS)
Pages2273-2276
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781732467286
StatePublished - 2020
Event14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences: The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, ICLS 2020 - Nashville, United States
Duration: Jun 19 2020Jun 23 2020

Publication series

NameComputer-Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, CSCL
Volume4
ISSN (Print)1573-4552

Conference

Conference14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences: The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, ICLS 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNashville
Period6/19/206/23/20

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Education

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