The Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Teaching Engineering Curriculum to Dominican Republic Junior High and High School Students

Over the past several years, a teacher education program in a university in the Western United States has worked in collaboration with a non-profit organization in the Dominican Republic to develop, implement, and evaluate engineering and technology curriculum for Dominican junior high and high school students. This paper will present a summary of the curriculum development process, including challenges and successes of developing and implementing curriculum in a new culture and in a different language. Additionally, a summary of the development of the educational program in the Dominican Republic, including organization of content, selection and admission procedures and the general goals of the program will be presented. Finally, data based on a pre post survey instrument evaluating students’ engineering self-efficacy and understanding and interest in engineering content and concepts, future educational and career opportunities, as well as satisfaction of the program will be presented. Additional data regarding the tracking of those Dominican students who have graduated from the program will also be shared to highlight the potential benefits of building a similar program. General findings include that Dominican students participating in the program had better concepts of and definitions of engineering to include terms such as creativity, innovation and design and that engineering was closely associated mathematics, science and technology. In regard to interest and future employment preferences, pre post data indicated a major positive shift in students interest in engineering, science and technology subjects with a decrease in math and language related subjects. Finally, data collected from students that have completed the three-year program indicate that a majority of these students are majoring in engineering and technology or have completed technical courses at the post-secondary level.