Page 78 - Standards for K-12 Engineering Education

Standards for K-12 Engineering Education?

APPENDIX B 63

and engineering education, with support from business and industry, could provide leadership by
providing a contemporary vision of STEM (Sanders, 2009).
Another opportunity is implied in a current theme and the stated outcomes of education—
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the development of 21 century skills. The National Research Council has presented a summary
of those skills (see Table 3). Based on this list, K–12 activities that center on engineering design
could substantially contribute to students’ development of these skills. In this case, this may be a
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three-for-one opportunity. Students have opportunities to: (1) develop 21 century skills;
(2) make connections to other STEM subjects; and (3) learn about careers in engineering.
Overall, experience with engineering design would probably raise the level of students’
understanding of engineering and, by so doing, expand their interest and motivation, so that
many of them may one day pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.

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Table 3 Examples of 21 Century Skills*
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Research indicates that individuals learn and apply broad 21 century skills within the context of
specific bodies of knowledge (National Research Council, 2008a, 2000; Levy and Murnane, 2004). At
work, development of these skills is intertwined with development of technical job content knowledge.
Similarly, in science education, students may develop cognitive skills while engaged in study of specific
science topics and concepts.
1. Adaptability: The ability and willingness to cope with uncertain, new, and rapidly-changing
conditions on the job, including responding effectively to emergencies or crisis situations and
learning new tasks, technologies, and procedures. Adaptability also includes handling work
stress; adapting to different personalities, communication styles, and cultures; and physical
adaptability to various indoor or outdoor work environments (Houston, 2007; Pulakos, Arad,
Donovan, and Plamondon, 2000).
2. Complex communications/social skills: Skills in processing and interpreting both verbal and
non-verbal information from others in order to respond appropriately. A skilled communicator is
able to select key pieces of a complex idea to express in words, sounds, and images, in order to
build shared understanding (Levy and Murnane, 2004). Skilled communicators negotiate positive
outcomes with customers, subordinates, and superiors through social perceptiveness, persuasion,
negotiation, instructing, and service orientation (Peterson et al, 1999).
3. Non-routine problem solving: A skilled problem-solver uses expert thinking to examine a broad
span of information, recognize patterns, and narrow the information to reach a diagnosis of the
problem. Moving beyond diagnosis to a solution requires knowledge of how the information is
linked conceptually and involves metacognition—the ability to reflect on whether a problem-
solving strategy is working and to switch to another strategy if the current strategy isn’t working
(Levy and Murnane, 2004). It includes creativity to generate new and innovative solutions,
integrating seemingly unrelated information; and entertaining possibilities others may miss
(Houston, 2007).
4. Self-management/Self-development: Self-management skills include the ability to work
remotely, in virtual teams; to work autonomously; and to be self motivating and self monitoring.
One aspect of self-management is the willingness and ability to acquire new information and
skills related to work (Houston, 2007).

5. Systems Thinking: The ability to understand how an entire system works, how an action,
change, or malfunction in one part of the system affects the rest of the system; adopting a “big
picture” perspective on work (Houston, 2007). It includes judgment and decision-making;

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