Engineering Related Activities Using Digital Fabrication in an Instructional Technology Course For Preservice Elementary Teachers

This study focused on ways in which an instructional technology course featuring engineering related activities using digital fabrication impacted (1) preservice elementary teachers' efficacy beliefs about teaching science, and (2) their attitudes and understanding of effective approaches to integrating technology and digital fabrication into teaching science. The research compared two intervention sections integrating digital fabrication activities, with a third section without digital fabrication activities. Data collected for analysis included the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument and the preservice elementary teachers' answers to open-response questions about technologies they plan to use in their subsequent teaching. The results indicated the importance of: (1) additional collaboration from educators interested in creating more specific lessons that are designed for their own particular content areas; (2) provision of hardware and software for digital fabrication activities made available to schools; and (3) peer-mentoring of teachers who are not early adopters of innovative technology by other teachers that have become early adopters of digital fabrication activities. Introduction Elementary teachers in the United States have reported believing that they lack sufficient science content knowledge, and confidence in teaching science concepts and this issue impacts not only inservice teachers -preservice elementary teachers have also reported low future science teaching self-efficacy beliefs. In one study, preservice teachers had more negative beliefs towards science and other STEM topics than the middle school students. Teacher beliefs towards STEM topics are relevant because they can sometimes affect pupils' attitudes towards the same STEM topics. Part of the difficulty with increasing students' science achievement develops from the attitudes of both teachers and students towards the subject. Teachers’ low self-efficacy for STEM subjects can have lasting impact on students, for example students of these teachers might avoid high school or college STEM courses later in their education. Recognizing the importance of preservice elementary teachers' efficacy beliefs for teaching science, the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) was developed by Enoch and Riggs in 1990. Enoch and Riggs created the STEBI based upon Bandura's self-efficacy theory, believing that remediation of low science teaching efficacy beliefs was key to effective elementary teacher preparation programs. Since its creation, the STEBI has been used to measure preservice elementary teachers efficacy beliefs regarding teaching science. One potential avenue for addressing this issue is the use of digital fabrication for supporting science pedagogy. P ge 23517.2