Presented by Ethan Geheb, Ph.D. student in STEM Education, for the School of Learning and Teaching Research Brown Bag series. This research aims to provide a systematic review of K-12 engineering education publications between 2009 and 2018 across education research fields. Whereas previous systematic reviews focus on narrow subtopics, this study reviews the K-12 engineering education field at large across a 10-year timespan, investigating the evolution of research topics, methods, and participants. We compared empirical article publications produced by two types of journals, engineering education journals (EEJ) and other science/math-related educational research journals (OEJ). The reasoning behind this classification comes from our theoretical stance and initial review of authorship, which shows two distinct, yet intersecting communities of practice (CoP) studying engineering education. A collection of 147 articles from across 21 journals were coded for topics, target populations, and methods, using qualitative constant comparative analysis method and frequency analysis. Of the 147 articles, 72 originated from EEJs such as the Journal of Engineering Education, whereas the 75 articles were spread across 19 other educational research journals, for instance, Science Education. This study will interest pre-college engineering educators looking to understand what gaps exist in engineering education studies. The CoP perspective offers a unique contribution to exploring how researchers within engineering education-specific communities can improve their collaborations with other disciplines to develop an ambitious interdisciplinary agenda for K-12 engineering education.
Virtual event. For Zoom link, please email School of Learning and Teaching director Shihfen Tu, shihfen.tu@maine.edu.