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A Closer Examination of Earth and Life Science Teachers’ Science and Engineering Integration

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Journal of Science Education and Technology
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This research investigated how middle school science teachers integrated engineering into their planned science instruction and the extent to which they conceptually linked science to engineering following participation in a professional development program. Video recordings of six teachers’ classroom implementation of teacher-designed units were the main data sources (i.e., more than 3000 min). Additionally, the integrated STEM unit plans were used as a secondary source. A deductive analysis of the data showed that the extent and timing of engineering integration and the extent of conceptual connections between science and engineering varied in six teachers’ classrooms. All teachers started the instruction with an engineering design challenge. However, only two teachers integrated engineering throughout the unit. Five out of six participants identified opportunities for students to redesign their engineering solutions both in the unit plan and their unit implementation, whereas one teacher gave students a chance to redesign but it was not stated in the unit plan. Regarding science and engineering integration during the unit implementations, two teachers made topical connections, and only one teacher established deep conceptual connections. The findings of the study reported the difficulty of engineering integration both in earth and life science content domains and showed an urgent need for further teacher professional development programs that explicitly focus on how engineering and science are conceptually linked.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Science Education and Technology
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-024-10161-5
A Closer Examination ofEarth andLife Science Teachers’ Science
andEngineering Integration
SevgiAydin‑Günbatar1 · NilayOzturk2 · GillianH.Roehrig3
Accepted: 30 September 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2024
Abstract
This research investigated how middle school science teachers integrated engineering into their planned science instruction
and the extent to which they conceptually linked science to engineering following participation in a professional development
program. Video recordings of six teachers’ classroom implementation of teacher-designed units were the main data sources
(i.e., more than 3000min). Additionally, the integrated STEM unit plans were used as a secondary source. A deductive
analysis of the data showed that the extent and timing of engineering integration and the extent of conceptual connections
between science and engineering varied in six teachers’ classrooms. All teachers started the instruction with an engineering
design challenge. However, only two teachers integrated engineering throughout the unit. Five out of six participants identi-
fied opportunities for students to redesign their engineering solutions both in the unit plan and their unit implementation,
whereas one teacher gave students a chance to redesign but it was not stated in the unit plan. Regarding science and engineer-
ing integration during the unit implementations, two teachers made topical connections, and only one teacher established
deep conceptual connections. The findings of the study reported the difficulty of engineering integration both in earth and
life science content domains and showed an urgent need for further teacher professional development programs that explicitly
focus on how engineering and science are conceptually linked.
Keywords Integrated STEM education· Engineering design-based science teaching· Professional development· Science
and engineering integration· In-service teachers
Introduction
The release of the Framework for K-12 Science Education
(National Research Council (NRC), 2012) and the NGSS
with explicit engineering integration into science teaching
catalyzed changes to science standard documents all around
the world (Ekiz-kiran & Aydin-Gunbatar,2021; Moore etal.,
2015). Indeed, research reports a positive influence of engi-
neering integration on developing learners’ problem-solving
skills (Brophy etal., 2008), science achievement, and concep-
tual understanding (Mathis etal., 2018; Wendell & Rogers,
2013), 21st-century skills (Stehle & Peters-Burton, 2019),
and awareness of STEM careers (Colston etal., 2017).
Among the STEM disciplines, engineering is the “new-
comer” to which most of the science teachers are not famil-
iar. Additionally, both science teachers and learners have a
limited understanding of what engineers do and how they
do it (Cunningham & Carlsen, 2014; Pleasants & Olson,
2019). Given teachers’ unfamiliarity with engineering,
how teachers integrate engineering into science classrooms
deserves attention due to teachers’ essential roles in success-
ful engineering integration (Al Salami etal., 2017; Cassidy
& Puttick, 2022). Furthermore, the literature reveals teach-
ers’ challenges in implementing engineering design-based
STEM units (Ozturk etal.,2023; Pleasants etal., 2021, Xie
etal., 2018). One of the challenges reported is teachers’ lack
of or limited encouragement of the use of science concepts
for informed design decisions (Capobianco & Rupp, 2014;
Dare etal.,2018; Guzey etal.,2014; Xie etal., 2018). The
* Sevgi Aydin-Günbatar
sevgiaydin@yyu.edu.tr
1 Department ofMathematics andScience Education, Faculty
ofEducation, Van Yuzuncu Yil University, Van65100,
Turkey
2 Faculty ofEducational Sciences, BAUSTEM, Bahcesehir
University, Istanbul34353, Turkey
3 STEM Education Center, University ofMinnesota, Learning
and Environmental Sciences 320, 1954 Buford Ave., St.Paul,
MN55108, USA
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