Elementary Preservice Teachers'Competence in Planning and Implementing Empathic Design in Cross-Cultural Stem Education

Soo Won Shim, Purdue University

Abstract

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) promote a new vision of K-12 science education that emphasizes the importance of integrating engineering practices into science education. Recent engineering studies have highlighted design approaches that focus on designers’ empathy, such as human-centered design (Hess & Fila, 2016a; Kouprie & Visser, 2009; Walther et al., 2017). Empathic engineering design approaches can help students understand how engineers understand various users’ contexts and develop effective design solutions. Furthermore, empathy is a key element in cross-cultural education (Gay, 2002; Webb et al., 2012) because it can help teachers create positive interactions with diverse students (Arghode et al., 2013; Warren, 2014). Empathy is an important attribute highlighted in both engineering and cross-cultural education. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to comprehend and integrate the principles of Human-Centered Design (HCD) approaches to provide more authentic and holistic engineering education.This study explored elementary preservice teachers’ competence in planning and implementing an empathic engineering design lesson plan in cross-cultural STEM education by applying a module. The module consisted of a researcher-developed elementary science methods unit on designing empathic integrated STEM instruction. Using a convergent mixed methods design (Creswell & Clark, 2018) and 16 participants, this study investigated preservice teachers’ understanding of empathic integrated STEM instruction before and after the module. This study utilized the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983) to examine preservice teachers’ levels of empathy and the Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy Scale (Yoon et al., 2014) to measure their self-efficacy. For qualitative data, reflection papers, empathic design lesson plans, and interview transcripts were collected. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) was employed to identify patterns and relationships within the data.The analysis of a paired samples t-test and a related-samples Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a significant difference between the means of preservice teachers’ self-efficacy scores before and after the module. However, there was no significant difference in the means of their empathy scores. According to qualitative data analysis, preservice teachers understood the role of empathy in both engineering and cross-cultural education. The module enhanced preservice teachers’ pedagogical strategies regarding empathic techniques and culturally and socially responsive pedagogies. Preservice teachers also discovered the benefits of empathic integrated STEM instruction including broadening one’s perspectives, understanding the value of inclusive designs, and enhancing students’ 21st century skills. After experiencing the module, they felt confident in integrating empathic integrated STEM instruction and recognizing potential challenges of implementation. The study findings show that empathic integrated STEM instruction can be a way to support preservice teachers’ understanding of engineering pedagogical strategies, culturally responsive pedagogy, and the features of integrated STEM instruction.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Guzey, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Instructional Design|Multicultural Education|Pedagogy|Teacher education|Science education|Cognitive psychology|Continuing education|Curriculum development|Design|Education|Educational technology|Elementary education|Engineering|Psychology

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