Longitudinal evaluation of project-based Professional Development Institute: Mixed method assessment with MBTI types correlations

摘要

The Design Technology and Engineering for All Children (DTEACh) Professional Development Institute (PDI) at The University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering seeks to provide K-12 teachers with engineering design pedagogy and design-based, project-based, hands-on activities for teaching applied mathematics and science. Over the past 18 years, more than 700 educators and 60,000 students have been impacted by the program, which features integration of engineering design challenges into other disciplines of learning from literature to science and mathematics to art. For the past 12 years, DTEACh has focused on teaching automation and control concepts with robotics as the medium. This paper describes an evaluation of recent modifications to the institute implementation and advancements in the design methodology. In particular, changes to the institute feature: (1) contextualization of the design problems within the 21 Century Engineering Grand Challenges; and (2) increased focus on the pedagogy of design-based teaching and learning. These changes were implemented in response to: (1) research that shows females and other traditionally underrepresented groups are more attracted to and interested in design challenges that have a relationship to broader impacts on humanity and (2) indications that participants need more insight into how engineering can be integrated into their classrooms. A main goal of evaluating the evolution and impact of this program on STEM education is to understand the effect of the changes in content and approach in relation to the improved efficacy of the teachers. The evaluation is based on teachers’ responses to daily surveys on the design-based/project-based aspects of the PDI. The evaluation also includes open-ended question assessment throughout the institute and end-of-institute assessment. The mixed-methods evaluation methodology includes correlation of responses with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality types of the participants, which is used in the institute to help form design teams. Data for the 2010 institute were collected using the same instrument employed in the 2004 institute, allowing a longitudinal analysis of the effects of changes to the institute. The analysis indicates that the modifications to PDI have had meaningful impacts across MBTI personality types. The teachers, on average and across the all MBTI types, mostly agreed or totally agreed that the instruction and laboratory aspects of the PDI were relevant to them each day. Multiple teachers commented that they enjoyed the “tag-team” effort of multiple instructors with different specialties. Our results indicate that other PDI developers should consider the NAE Grand Challenges to provide context and relevance to their offerings.