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Using Disciplinary Literacies to Enhance Adolescents' Engineering Design Activity
Author(s) -
Wilson Amy Alexandra,
Smith Emma,
Householder Daniel L.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of adolescent and adult literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1936-2706
pISSN - 1081-3004
DOI - 10.1002/jaal.302
Subject(s) - literacy , mathematics education , discipline , engineering design process , coding (social sciences) , pedagogy , psychology , process (computing) , engineering education , computer science , engineering , sociology , engineering management , mechanical engineering , social science , operating system
This comparative case study describes the literacy practices of two groups of adolescents as they sought to solve authentic problems through engineering design processes. Three types of data were collected as the groups addressed these problems: video‐ and audio‐recordings of their conversations; adolescent‐generated products; and pre‐ and post‐challenge interviews. The authors used existing coding schemes of engineering design activity to identify when the adolescents enacted different stages of engineering design, as well as a modified form of constant comparative analysis to identify the literacy practices that corresponded with each stage. The analysis indicates that applications of literacy practices at each stage of the engineering design process enhanced the adolescents' overall design activity, whereas the absence of literacy practices often impeded the viability of their final designs. The authors suggest implications for high school engineering and science teachers who seek to enhance their students' design activity through literacy instruction.