Cognitive Research: Transferring Theories and Findings to K-12 Engineering Educational Practice

Engineering design is increasingly viewed as highly beneficial to K-12 education. As a result, engineering continues to be implemented in technology and engineering education classrooms alongside the recent inclusion of engineering within the Next Generation Science Standards. In turn, use of engineering has raised a number of concerns as to what the true intent is and how research can be used for K-12 educational practice. One concern is the identification of engineering content for grades K-12 and how it aligns with professional engineering preparation. Secondly, how can the growing body of engineering design cognition research be used to impact student learning outcomes. As cognitive research in K-12 engineering is being conducted more frequently, it is important to examine the methodologies used, distinguish the proper coding schemes, and develop ways in which the findings of these studies guide educators in the planning of instruction and designing of curricula. Consequently, the article focuses on the influx of K-12 design cognition research related to engineering design. The outcome of this paper is to ground K-12 engineering design cognition research, by making connections with goals of K-12 education.