Page 88 - Standards for K-12 Engineering Education

Standards for K-12 Engineering Education?

APPENDIX B 73

the materials and forces for the benefit of mankind (Gomez et al., 2006). The research
team focused specifically on the study, expertise, and practice specific to engineering
education and experience.
• Concepts: abstract labels; organizing ideas; typically represented with one or two words;
take on meaning in the knowledge-rich contexts in which they are applied (Erickson,
2002; Hiebert and Lefevre, 1986; Sigel, 1983; Tennyson and Cocchiarella, 1986). The
research team concentrated on the robustness and complexity of ideas, where the ideas
could be “unpacked,” and where they extended well beyond procedural matters.
• Core: The center of an object; a small group of indispensable things; and the most
essential or most vital part of some idea or experience (Wordnet, 2009).

Focus Groups
In addition to the review of documents, the researchers conducted three focus group
sessions with engineering educators and practicing engineers. The purpose of these sessions,
which was closely aligned with the document-based review, was to capture participants’ thinking
about engineering concepts distinct from the process and interpersonal aspects of engineering.
Several factors contributed to the importance of the focus groups. First, very few, if any, of the
documents reviewed were specifically designed to identify engineering concepts. As a result, the
synthesis involved “teasing” concepts from materials developed for other purposes. Second, the
focus groups gave the researchers a chance to probe the thinking of individuals with
demonstrated ability to think broadly and conceptually about engineering practice and
engineering education. In contrast to the more indirect approach in the document review, the
focus groups provided a structured, direct approach to identifying concepts.

The focus groups consisted of engineering education faculty and practicing engineers
from selected departments of engineering and local engineering firms. A point person at each
university familiar with the issues involved in secondary level engineering education identified
individuals to participate in the focus groups based on guidance from the research team. The goal
was to identify individuals with a recognized interest and expertise in broad, conceptual aspects
of engineering as well as an interest in secondary level education. The faculty selected to
participate in the focus groups taught entry level, orientation-type engineering courses, which
were designed to be general and did not focus on content specific to any one engineering
discipline. Practicing engineers were selected based on their ability to think broadly about
engineering education. One focus group session was held at Colorado State University, and two
were held at Virginia Tech University.
The focus group sessions were held concurrent with the analysis of the philosophical
documents. To facilitate the discussions, the researchers used an affinity group process
technique, which consists of three steps. First, participants were provided with an orientation to
characterize engineering concepts and explain how they differ from process and interpersonal
skills. Each individual was then given five minutes to identify and write concepts onto sticky
notes (one concept per sticky). The notes were then placed on a large wall for display and
review, and the group was led through a process of clustering concepts into categories, which
was followed by naming each category by group consensus. As a group, the participants then
eliminated redundancies by placing duplicates on top of each other to retain frequencies. Second,
the group classified concepts into three columns: (a) core concepts of engineering; (b) concepts

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