165: Evaluating Fidelity of Teaching in Pre-College Engineering: A Case Study of Curriculum Implementation

Pre-college engineering affects students’ attitudes toward future STEM learning. More specifically, teachers’ classroom practices and effectiveness influence students’ engineering learning experiences. Engineering for US All (e4usa) is a research-based program offering professional learning for high school teachers to prepare more students for future careers in engineering. In the 2022-2023 academic year, we conducted classroom observations as teachers implemented the e4usa course and collected evaluation data about curriculum implementation. This poster presents a case study evaluating the “Fidelity of Curriculum Implementation” by one science teacher. The study found that while “Fidelity to Procedure” declined with teaching experience, “Fidelity to Goal” increased. This work offers insights into a science teacher’s implementation of an engineering curriculum. There are implications for pre-college engineering educators, evaluators, and developers to support teachers in building classroom confidence and leadership and foster a positive teaching community to overcome engineering teaching barriers.

Jialing Wu; Stacy Klein-Gardner; Medha Dalal