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Equitable STEM Education Through Virtual Design and Construction Presented to the VDC community, East Side Union High School District

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Jonathan Lee Montoya at Saint Mary's College of California
Jonathan Lee Montoya
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Equitable STEM Education
Through Virtual Design and
Construction
March 15, 2025
Jonathan Lee Montoya, Ph.D.
Presented to the VDC community, East Side Union High School District
Outline
Where is SMC?
Who am I?
My Research
Questions
Where is SMC?
Go to jlmontoya.llc
Who am I ?
Who am I ?
Who am I ?
My Work Examines Equitable Pathways into STEM
●STEM pathways: from
elementary computer
science to post secondary
civil engineering
(Photo SAUSD)
(Photo Montoya)
10
●Utilize Ethnographic
Action Research
(Hartmann et al.,
2009)
●Through Research
Practice
Partnerships
(Gutiérrez, and
Penuel, 2014)
11
Previous Work- My contributions
STEM Graduate Education
(Hill ...Montoya..et al., 2024)
Secondary Engineering
(Montoya et al., 2021; 2020 )
Intersectional Computer Science Identities
(Jacob & Montoya et al., 2024;
Jacob, Montoya et al., 2022;
Jacob, et al., 2021)
The Setting
●Two Community Colleges
●Four High Schools
●CIFE(Stanford)
●Virtual (Zoom)
San José
Research Practice Partnership.
13
(Montoya et al., 2020)
Industry Mentors
Employers
Mentor thread
Flow of students
Public Policy Mentors
VDC certificates (CEU’s)
Lecturers and Mentors
Academy Mentors
Instructors and
Mentors
Academy Mentors
Research Collaborators
5 PBL
Problem-, Project-, Product-,
Process-, People-based Learning
(5-PBL)
(Fruchter and Lewis, 2003)
14
(Photo PBL Lab)
VDC Description
Virtual Design and Construction
(VDC)
(Fischer et al., 2017)
(Montoya)
15
(Montoya et al., 2018)
Research Questions and Directions
●Can a learner-centered Virtual
Design and Construction
Project-Based Learning (VDC-PBL)
intervention help break down
hegemonic masculinity barriers in
secondary STEM classrooms?
16
●How do students in
undergraduate engineering
degree programs perceive
emerging technologies (ET)
concerning their educational
and career plans?
●Using quantitative ethnography and
epistemic network analysis to
enhance a qualitative research design,
researchers found that
constructivism, critical pedagogy, and
interdisciplinary collaboration can
positively impact the experience,
participation, and critical
consciousness of students and
educators in a CTE building and
construction pathway.
17
19
20
21
22
Teaching for Equity
Why?
●Equitable Teaching
●Dominant ways of
knowing
●Hidden Curriculum
24
Guess What’s in My Head
25
(Brown, 2019; Lythcott-Haims, 2018;
Tuck & Yang, 2018)
Thank you!
jlm128@stanford.edu
jlm53@stmarys-ca.edu
jlmontoya.llc
Questions
References
Brown, B. A. (2019). Science in the city: culturally relevant Stem education. Harvard Education
1-11). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Fischer, M. (2006). Formalizing construction knowledge for concurrent performance-based design. In I. F. C. Smith (Ed.),
Intelligent computing in engineering and architecture (pp. 186–205). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/11888598_20
Fruchter, R., & Lewis, S. (2003). Mentoring models in support of P^ 5BL in architecture/engineering/construction global
teamwork. International Journal of Engineering Education, 19(1), 53–61.
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Penuel, W. R. (2014). Relevance to practice as a criterion for rigor. Educational Researcher, 43(1), 19–23.
https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X13520289
Hartmann, T., Fischer, M., & Haymaker, J. (2009). Implementing information systems with project teams using
ethnographic-action research. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 23(1), 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2008.06.006
Hill, R. J., Djokic, M. A., Anderson, A., Barbour, K., Coleman, A. M., Guerra, A. D., Hunt, C., Jolly, A., Long, J. J., Manley, K.
T., Montoya, J. L., Norlen, C. A., Nugent-Suratt, A., Washburn, K., Weber, S., Welch, A., Wong, C., & Allison, S. D. (2024).
From ridge 2 reef: An interdisciplinary model for training the next generation of environmental problem solvers. PLOS ONE,
19(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314755
Jacob, S. R., Montoya, J., Yenda Prado, Y., Beak, C.,& Warschauer, M. Universal Design for Learning and Computational
Thinking for Multilingual Students (2024). [Paper Presentation]. AERA 2024 Philadelphia, PA. https://doi.org/10.3102/2103118
Jacob, S. R., Bailey, A., Bers, M., Burke, Q., Denner, J., Franklin, D., Garcia, L., Gomez-Zwiep, S., Hoadley, C., Hopkins, M.,
Howard, K., Howard, N., Israel, M., Kafai, Y. B., Lee, O., Montoya, J., Parker, M., Pozos, R., Proctor, C., Richardson, D.,
Saito-Stehberger, D., Twarek, B., Vee, A., Vogel, L., Weddle, H., & Warschauer, M. (2021). Computer science for multilingual
students: Report of the AERA Educational Research Conference. American Educational Research Association.
https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.33417.83043
References
Lundell, R., Montoya, J., & Nava, P. (2024). Work-In-Progress: Integrating Critical Pedagogy with Project- Based Learning.
https://doi.org/10.25740/XH545NS9605
Lundell, R., Montoya, J., Peterson, F., Kinslow, A. II., Fruchter, R., Fischer, M., Bustamante, A., & Nava, P. (2022). Looking
Beyond Fiddlers Green College: Social Justice in Workforce Engineering Education Pathways. International Association for
Continuing Engineering Education, Buffalo, NY. https://doi.org/10.25740/zs024qg9992
Montoya, J., Lundell, R., Nava, P., Tan, A.,& Eagan, B. (December, 2024). Using Quantitative Ethnography to Explore
Interdisciplinary Collaboration in a CTE Building and Construction Pathway: CTE Research and Professional Development
Conference. [Poster]. Association for Career and Technical Education Research, San Antonio, Texas.
Montoya, J., Peterson, F., & Bonilla, S. (2020). Opportunity Gap and Women in the Energy Infrastructure Workforce. In the 8th
International Research Symposium on PBL (IRSPBL), Aalborg, Denmark. https://doi.org/10.25740/pm007md6862
Montoya, J., Lundell, R., Peterson, F., Tarantino, S., Ramsey, M., Katz, G., Baldini, R., Fruchter, R., & Fischer, M. (2018).
Building Sustainable Communities: A Project-based Learning Approach to Modify Student Perceptions of the Building Industry.
ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA.
https://doi.org/10.25740/tr806nn5051
Montoya, J., Peterson, F., Kinslow II, A., Fruchter, R., Fischer, M., & Bustamante, A. S. (2021). Fiddlers Green College:
Looking for Equitable Workforce Pathways in Silicon Valley. Journal of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education, 9(1).
https://doi.org/10.5278/OJS.JPBLHE.V9I1.6440
Perry, A. and Montoya, J. What’s the value? Motivations to pursue secondary computing CTE concentrations (2024).
[Roundtable Session]. AERA 2024 Philadelphia, PA. https://doi.org/10.3102/2110681
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2018). Toward What Justice? https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351240932
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
From Ridge 2 Reef: An interdisciplinary model for training the next generation of environmental problem solvers
Article
Full-text available
Regional and global environmental challenges have become increasingly complex and require broader solutions than a single discipline can provide. Although there is a growing need for interdisciplinary research, many graduate education programs still train students within the confines of a particular discipline or specialty. The Ridge 2 Reef research traineeship program at the University of California, Irvine, aimed to provide transferable and interdisciplinary skill training to prepare graduate students from different disciplines to address current and future environmental challenges. The program achieved its goals through a ‘culture of improvement’ that ensured trainee needs shaped program management and curriculum. Due to trainee feedback and leaders dedicated to program improvement, there was a complete course overhaul during the first two years of the program, resulting in a final curriculum structure that was more effective and aligned with revised program goals. Program evaluations suggest that the flexibility of the program, diversity of training, overhauled courses offered, and partnership-focused opportunities contributed to more confident graduate students who were more broadly trained and better prepared in their chosen environmental career paths. Based on evaluation surveys, graduate students reported significant gains in scientific, technical, and career knowledge as well as transferrable skills in communication, data analysis, leadership, mentoring, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The structure and evolution of the Ridge 2 Reef traineeship can provide a framework for other graduate education programs to better incorporate interdisciplinary training and student feedback, ultimately improving programs and preparing scientists for the 21st century workforce.
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What's the value? Motivations to pursue secondary computing CTE concentrations
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Apr 2024
Computing is the most popular secondary CTE concentration yet it is offered and taken in patterns unrelated to their utility value. Given the broad applicability of computing relative to other CTE concentrations, there is little evidence to guide policy-makers and researchers to design and investigate inclusive computing education pathways. This study applies Situated Expectancy Value Theory to examine students’ motivations to take secondary computing CTE courses. The findings suggest student motivations are unrelated to their math and science expectancy beliefs and values. Some computing topics may better match workforce needs and student interests in the context of other CTE career clusters and STEM disciplines. These approaches will ensure that schools can design systems providing all students access to computing education.
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Work-In-Progress: Integrating Critical Pedagogy with Project- Based Learning
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Jun 2023
The separation of disciplines in secondary education is an inherent obstacle to project-based learning (PBL): educators go years without meaningful collaboration, critical feedback, or self-reflection (Jacobs, 2010). As a result, many inhabit an isolated bubble where no space is given to interdisciplinary collaboration; this isolation limits the authenticity of the projects students can produce. Compounding the dilemma is neoliberal logic, which disseminates the model of the market to all domains and activities (Brown, 2017). The curriculum is depoliticized; students are motivated to excel academically so they can compete in the market rather than work towards more societal equity. Additionally, marginalized groups are tracked into vocational pathways that focus only on basic skills training and give no space to critical thinking, which hurts the worker’s ability to confront and transform inequitable neoliberal policies (Darder, 2017). While PBL in STEM and vocational pathways have positive impacts on teaching and learning outcomes, implemented without a critical pedagogy framework, PBL has not been shown to increase critical consciousness (Montoya et al., 2018). This research aims to discover how PBL and an interdisciplinary curriculum (Montoya et al., 2020) implemented through a framework of critical pedagogy can impact the critical consciousness of students and teachers.
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LOOKING BEYOND FIDDLERS GREEN COLLEGE: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN WORKFORCE ENGINEERING EDUCATION PATHWAYS
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Jul 2022
Too often, research into postsecondary workforce and engineering education focuses solely on curricula and ignores student matriculation to high-skill high-wage careers. The purpose of this study is to investigate this subject through dual ethnographies in Project-Based Learning (PBL) Career and Technical Education (CTE) workforce pathways in Silicon Valley. This study looks to better explain functioning pathways. The authors take inspiration from three publications: past research found that seven PBL essentials form good learning outcomes [1]; a measurable outcome of PBL is higher attendance [2]; to which Applied STEM CTE (AS-CTE) [3] framed attendance as a predictor metric of the efficacy of a workforce pathway. We ask which metrics help explain successful workforce CTE pathways. Our ethnography uncovers two distinct postsecondary PBL pathways and explores a new predictive metric of social mobility, which helps to reveal the pathways' struggle to support marginalized students' mobility into the high-skill high-wage building workforce. Despite these challenges, a Labor-Union-administered apprenticeship pathway showed promise in aiding social mobility. The authors uncovered early evidence that social mobility may be added as a metric to a predictive ontology framework of pathway success.
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Computer Science for Multilingual Students Report from the AERA Educational Research Conference
Technical Report
Full-text available
  • Sep 2021
As advances in computational technologies are changing the fabric of society, computational thinking (CT) is increasingly seen as a fundamental skill that all students should learn. While the bulk of research on CT has focused on its integration into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content, there is a growing body of scholarship that focuses on the relationship between CT, language, and literacy (Bers et al., 2019; Jacob & Warschauer, 2018; Kafai et al., 2019; Vogel et al., 2020), and the roles that language and literacy play in developing students’ CT skills (Bers et al., 2019; Jacob & Warschauer, 2018; Proctor & Blikstein, 2019). In 2021, approximately 50 researchers and practitioners in the fields of computer science, language and literacy, and STEM education attended the AERA conference on Computational Thinking for Multilingual Students to discuss two major associated topics: (1) computing and literacy and (2) computing and second language learning. The purpose of this conference was to develop a shared vision of the conceptual relationship of computing to language and literacy development and of evidence-based perspectives on how to support multilingual students in learning computer science. This report reflects that shared vision, focusing on three interrelated aspects: (1) the relationship between CT and language, literacy, and equity; (2) CT and the teaching of language arts and writing; and (3) methods for teaching CT to multilingual learners.
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Fiddlers Green College: Looking for Equitable Workforce Pathways in Silicon Valley
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2021
Often, research on the efficacy of postsecondary workforce programs does not convey their impact on true social mobility. The purpose of this study is to investigate project-based Career and Technical Education (CTE) workforce pathways in Silicon Valley. 1 This study takes a step towards better understanding what constitutes the metrics that explain functioning pathways. In contributing to Project-Based Learning (PBL) theory, Amaral et al. (2015) found that seven PBL essentials form good learning outcomes; Creghan and Adair-Creghan (2015) then showed a measurable outcome of PBL is higher attendance, to which Plasman and Gottfried (2020), using a case of Applied STEM CTE (AS-CTE), framed attendance as a predictor of the efficacy of a workforce pathway. Recommendation: Through ethnography, the investigators observed that when social mobility was added as a metric of high quality PBL with AS-CTE in a predictive ontology framework of education success, an improved level of attendance was observed. The authors conclude that using the seven essentials and social mobility as a metric of PBL helps explain the observation of PBL's improved efficacy. Hence, social mobility should be a metric of PBL AS-CTE program outcomes.
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Opportunity Gap and Women in the Energy Infrastructure Workforce
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Aug 2020
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts above-average employment growth for jobs in the construction industry. And despite the majority of entry-level jobs in construction requiring a high school diploma or less, median annual wages in the industry are over 8,000 dollars higher than other industries (Torpey 2018). Despite this growth and relatively high wages, women are severely underrepresented; just 3.5 percent of workers in the construction occupations are women while women make up 47 percent of the labor force. Career and Technical Education (CTE) in high school can provide an avenue for increasing the participation of young women. Through a Researcher Practitioner Partnership (RPP), a team of teachers, trades educators, and administrators from high schools, community colleges, and apprenticeship centers sought to increase access through a virtual design and construction STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) career pathway program. The team explored if a Project-based Learning (PBL) approach in Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) is a feasible method for woman-focused CTE. We found evidence that targeted recruiting through a feminist positive pathway to create a critical mass of female participants in conjunction with PBL can offer an opportunity for women to enter a traditionally male-dominated field. Furthermore, our study calls for continued theory development into and provides evidence that higher concentrations of women has the potential to increase the industry’s focus on safety, environmental protection, and labor standards. We argue that the lack of female representation is due to an opportunity gap for young women to learn about and join high-skill high-wage occupations.
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Building sustainable communities: A project-based learning approach to modify student perceptions of the building industry
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Aug 2018
The building industry has experienced a paradigm shift with increased use of data for collaboratively designing, building, and operating sustainable, socially conscious, energy-efficient projects; this shift has resulted in a theory called virtual design and construction (VDC). Secondary education provides students few opportunities to explore these methods. However, project-based learning (PBL) has shown success in VDC education at a graduate level; though scarce in low-income schools due to a discrepancy called the 'opportunity gap.' The opportunity gap creates a perception that the building industry does not lead to advanced STEM degrees-which students otherwise discover through courses like VDC. That perception forms a resistance to building industry entrance pathways such as building trade apprentice programs. That resistance then hinders achieving the social mandate to include underrepresented demographics such as women in high paying STEM fields such as apprenticed building trades. As a result, it is a male-dominated pathway. Leveraging California Proposition 39 funding, the authors developed a PBL education platform to integrate VDC students from the secondary, apprentice, undergraduate, and graduate levels. The purpose of this research was to discover to what degree underrepresented youth perceive the building industry as a career if given an opportunity to learn VDC through PBL. The VDC curriculum was piloted as a course that encompassed topics of sustainability, environmental justice, and energy efficiency. A mix of community-based participatory research (CBPR), ethnography, and surveys were utilized to gather content. Data were gathered from three secondary institutions, including an all-girls school and an underrepresented community with one-tenth the admission rate to top-tier universities of Palo Alto high school (selected as a generic benchmark for comparison). Through CBPR the authors show that VDC-PBL 1) narrows the opportunity gap 2) teaches virtual design and construction, and 3) explores careers in sustainability and topics of environmental justice.
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9 EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER Relevance to Practice as a Criterion for Rigornet/subscriptions Subscriptions:net/permissions Permissions:net Downloaded from
Article
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The authors argue for a reconceptualization of rigor that requires sustained, direct, and systematic documentation of what takes place inside programs to document how students and teachers change and adapt interventions in interactions with each other in relation to their dynamic local contexts. Building on promising new programs at the Institute of Education Sciences, they call for the formulation of collaborative research standards that must require researchers to provide evidence that they have engaged in a process to surface and negotiate the focus of their joint work, and to document the ways participation in this process was structured to include district and school leaders, teachers, parents, community stakeholders, and, wherever possible, children and youth. They close by describing how this new criterion—“relevance to practice”—can ensure the longevity and efficacy of educational research.
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