How Do Youth Engage in Engineering Literacies?: A Study of Literacy Learning in Middle and High School Engineering design

Abstract

Motivated by a desire to maintain national competitiveness in mathematics and the sciences, education reformers have advocated for the teaching and learning of engineering K-12. Advocates of engineering education argue that teaching engineering K-12 will result in a more informed public as well as increase the ability of students to acquire the most competitive jobs in STEM fields. Engineering education research and reform agendas have united around the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in engineering, a policy initiative that sets expectations for engineering learning K-12. However, the NGSS set goals for learning but do not explain how to reach these goals, leaving teachers with little guidance to design and implement units of engineering study. Specifically, the NGSS stress the importance of engaging students in the practices of engineers (such as “asking questions and defining problems,” “designing solutions,” and “engaging in argument from evidence”). Yet, very little research exists that explains how young people develop the ability to engage in these practices throughout the grade span or what kind of knowledge and skills will best support student engagement in these inquiry practices. This dissertation study adopts the position that reading and writing are tools of inquiry. That is, engineers follow the cultural norms of the field of engineering to read and write to engage in the inquiry practices of their field and that students also should learn these language tools to support their engagement with engineering practices. Operating from this stance, this study sought to understand the engineering reading and writing knowledge, skills, and practices that supported middle and high school students across three classrooms to engage in the engineering design cycle. The study focused on a group of 12 focal students, four from each classroom (one eighth grade science classroom, one high school engineering design classroom, and one high school biomedical engineering classroom) as they worked through engineering design challenges. Data included fieldnotes, transcripts, interviews (general and think-aloud), and artifacts from 36 days of focal observation during the design challenges as well as contextual data (fieldnotes, videos, teacher interviews, and artifacts) from 45 days of instruction before and after design challenges. Findings showed that students read and wrote across text to create (or attempt to create) an intellectual product—a warrant— for their design solution. They did this by reading across text to collect evidence that the design worked efficiently and met a user need. The findings also showed that students did not always use textual evidence to inform their design choices because they were not aware that text could help them or because they lacked the literacy knowledge and skill to know how to use text to create or improve a design solution. Together, the findings of this study show that attention to disciplinary literacy teaching and learning in engineering design projects can engage students in deep learning of engineering concepts and practices.