Abstract
This article addresses the effects of requiring action research projects in the education of classroom teachers as mandated by a graduate program in elementary education. The Master of Arts Program in Elementary Education with a specialization in Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST), is designed for experienced elementary school teachers who seek the skills and knowledge, and attitudes and dispositions, to integrate the teaching of these areas. Technology is defined as design technology (DT), which encompasses the study of the technological world that inventors, engineers, and other innovators have created. It includes within it information technology, the integration of skills that require the use of computer applications to enhance student learning of mathematics and science. Design technology is applied to the study of elementary science and mathematics to enhance and deepen elementary school students’ conceptual understandings in these areas. Elementary school teachers are required to create and implement a unit centered on design technology that demonstrates connections among mathematics, science, and technology in their classrooms. They are then required to conduct research in their classrooms to examine the effects of implementing this unit on student learning, attitudes, and dispositions, as well as on their personal professional development. This graduate program requires that the action research initiative be documented as a culminating experience through the writing of the Masters Thesis. This interdisciplinary Masters Program challenges elementary school teachers to integrate mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and technological design (DT) in multiple curriculum areas. Elementary school students who are engaged in units centered on design are involved in project based learning where they are using science and or mathematics concepts to design and construct a solution to a problem. DT integration is a vehicle for engaging students in their own thinking and problem solving by giving them the opportunity to direct their own learning. This paper addresses the effects of requiring teachers to use
Highlights
Design technology is applied to the study of elementary science and mathematics to enhance and deepen elementary school students’ conceptual understandings in these areas
Design Technology Connecting Mathematics and Science While many teacher education programs integrate science and mathematics, few have added the component of design technology to the preparation of elementary school teachers; in New York State only two programs do so (NYSED, 2000)
An interdisciplinary approach to learning may be seen as a curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language for more than one discipline to examine a central theme, problem or experience” (Jacobs, 1989). This is an appropriate description of an elementary grades design technology (DT) unit that sets out to explore a mathematics or science topic and to intentionally connect concepts from these disciplines to a design problem
Summary
Design technology is applied to the study of elementary science and mathematics to enhance and deepen elementary school students’ conceptual understandings in these areas. Elementary school teachers are required to create and implement a unit centered on design technology that demonstrates connections among mathematics, science, and technology in their classrooms. They are required to conduct research in their classrooms to examine the effects of implementing this unit on student learning, attitudes, and dispositions, as well as on their personal professional development
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