Fundamental: Analyzing the Effects of a Robotics Training Workshop on the Self-efficacy of High School Teachers

Abhidipta Mallik; Sheila Borges Rajguru; Vikram Kapila

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: Robotics
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 23
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--30548
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/30548
Download Count: 857

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Paper Authors

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Abhidipta Mallik New York University

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Abhidipta Mallik received his B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata, India, and M.Tech. degree in Mechatronics from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, West Bengal, India. He has one year and ten months of research experience at the CSIR-CMERI, India. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, where he is serving as a research assistant under an NSF-funded ITEST project.

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Sheila Borges Rajguru New York University orcid.org/0000-0003-3152-1565

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Dr. Sheila Borges Rajguru is the Assistant Director at the Center for K12 STEM Education, NYU Tandon School of Engineering. As the Center's STEM Educator and Researcher she works with engineers and faculty to provide professional development to K12 science and math teachers. In addition, she conducts studies that looks at embedding robotics and technology in K12 schools. As a former Adjunct Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and biomedical scientist in Immunology, Dr. Borges balances the world of what STEM professionals do and brings that to STEM education in order to provide PD that aligns to The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Since 2008 she has provided teacher PD to science teachers in the tri-state area, including international visiting teachers and scholars. Dr. Borges’ research interests include: building STEM professional-teacher relationships, diversity and equity, and enhancing urban science teaching and learning.

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Vikram Kapila New York University orcid.org/0000-0001-5994-256X

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Vikram Kapila is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering (NYU Tandon), where he directs a Mechatronics, Controls, and Robotics Laboratory, a Research Experience for Teachers Site in Mechatronics and Entrepreneurship, a DR K-12 research project, and an ITEST research project, all funded by NSF. He has held visiting positions with the Air Force Research Laboratories in Dayton, OH. His research interests include K-12 STEM education, mechatronics, robotics, and control system technology. Under a Research Experience for Teachers Site, a DR K-12 project, and GK-12 Fellows programs, funded by NSF, and the Central Brooklyn STEM Initiative (CBSI), funded by six philanthropic foundations, he has conducted significant K-12 education, training, mentoring, and outreach activities to integrate engineering concepts in science classrooms and labs of dozens of New York City public schools. He received NYU Tandon’s 2002, 2008, 2011, and 2014 Jacobs Excellence in Education Award, 2002 Jacobs Innovation Grant, 2003 Distinguished Teacher Award, and 2012 Inaugural Distinguished Award for Excellence in the category Inspiration through Leadership. Moreover, he is a recipient of 2014-2015 University Distinguished Teaching Award at NYU. His scholarly activities have included 3 edited books, 9 chapters in edited books, 1 book review, 61 journal articles, and 140 conference papers. He has mentored 1 B.S., 26 M.S., and 5 Ph.D. thesis students; 47 undergraduate research students and 11 undergraduate senior design project teams; over 480 K-12 teachers and 115 high school student researchers; and 18 undergraduate GK-12 Fellows and 59 graduate GK-12 Fellows. Moreover, he directs K-12 education, training, mentoring, and outreach programs that enrich the STEM education of over 1,000 students annually.

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Abstract

The NGSS are national standards developed by educators, teachers, and scientists across the nation to address and enhance STEM education. NGSS highlights the importance of including science and engineering practices in K-12 classrooms. However, teacher certification and professional development (PD) programs require significant support to facilitate integration of engineering and technology in K-12 schools. Many teachers report having low self-efficacy in their ability to teach science, which in turn affects students’ science learning. The development of self-efficacy relies on four key components, viz., performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. To address teacher self-efficacy, we designed a hands-on, summer STEM PD workshop. Our effort included the development of an NGSS-aligned robotics curriculum, its delivery, and refinement during the PD workshop. In this study, we investigated teachers’ robotics self-efficacy and content knowledge as they learned robotics and whether our robotic PD workshop was effective in increasing their self-efficacy and understanding of content principles.

Our PD workshop was a four-week summer program consisting of a two-week guided training and a two-week collaborative robotic-product development. The workshop was attended by 18 teachers and 33 high students from 10 inner-city high schools located in an urban environment. This paper is devoted to analyzing the self-efficacy and content learning outcomes for the teachers of our PD workshop. Surveys and a technical quiz are used to examine whether the PD workshop contributes to any changes in the teachers’ self-efficacy, knowledge, and familiarity vis-à-vis robotics. The following preliminary pre-/post-test results are indicative of the workshop’s impact: the teachers’ familiarity with robotics devices improved from an average of 1.74 to 3.37 on a scale of 1 to 5; their robotics self-efficacy improved from an average of 58.97 to 68.63 on a scale of 100; and their average score on a technical quiz improved from 14.39 to 18.17 on a scale of 30. A complete description of the workshop content, hands-on activities, and full analysis of survey and technical quiz results will be presented in the final paper. A complete description of the workshop content, hands-on activities, and full analysis of survey and technical quiz results are provided in the subsequent sections of the paper.

Citation
Format

Mallik, A., & Borges Rajguru, S., & Kapila, V. (2018, June), Fundamental: Analyzing the Effects of a Robotics Training Workshop on the Self-efficacy of High School Teachers Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30548

TY - CPAPER
AB - The NGSS are national standards developed by educators, teachers, and scientists across the nation to address and enhance STEM education. NGSS highlights the importance of including science and engineering practices in K-12 classrooms. However, teacher certification and professional development (PD) programs require significant support to facilitate integration of engineering and technology in K-12 schools. Many teachers report having low self-efficacy in their ability to teach science, which in turn affects students’ science learning. The development of self-efficacy relies on four key components, viz., performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. To address teacher self-efficacy, we designed a hands-on, summer STEM PD workshop. Our effort included the development of an NGSS-aligned robotics curriculum, its delivery, and refinement during the PD workshop. In this study, we investigated teachers’ robotics self-efficacy and content knowledge as they learned robotics and whether our robotic PD workshop was effective in increasing their self-efficacy and understanding of content principles.

Our PD workshop was a four-week summer program consisting of a two-week guided training and a two-week collaborative robotic-product development. The workshop was attended by 18 teachers and 33 high students from 10 inner-city high schools located in an urban environment. This paper is devoted to analyzing the self-efficacy and content learning outcomes for the teachers of our PD workshop. Surveys and a technical quiz are used to examine whether the PD workshop contributes to any changes in the teachers’ self-efficacy, knowledge, and familiarity vis-à-vis robotics. The following preliminary pre-/post-test results are indicative of the workshop’s impact: the teachers’ familiarity with robotics devices improved from an average of 1.74 to 3.37 on a scale of 1 to 5; their robotics self-efficacy improved from an average of 58.97 to 68.63 on a scale of 100; and their average score on a technical quiz improved from 14.39 to 18.17 on a scale of 30. A complete description of the workshop content, hands-on activities, and full analysis of survey and technical quiz results will be presented in the final paper. A complete description of the workshop content, hands-on activities, and full analysis of survey and technical quiz results are provided in the subsequent sections of the paper.
AU - Abhidipta Mallik
AU - Sheila Borges Rajguru
AU - Vikram Kapila
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Fundamental: Analyzing the Effects of a Robotics Training Workshop on the Self-efficacy of High School Teachers
UR - https://peer.asee.org/30548
DO - 10.18260/1-2--30548
ER -