A Review of the NAE Report, Engineering in K‐12 Education

Abstract

Engineering in K-12 Education, the report recently released by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and National Research Council (NRC), takes on the difficult challenge of trying to capture and present the widely varied and scattered field of K-12 engineer- ing education, a discipline that has been growing locally for the past 15 years with very limited coordination, standards, or program ex- pectations. The product of two years of effort by the Committee on K-12 Engineering Education, the report presents an initial compila- tion of a range of K-12 engineering education programs, their defin- itions of engineering, and the curricular practices embodied across them. The report also provides a summary of current research on how students learn engineering concepts. The value and importance of K-12 engineering education programs and learning opportunities for all students is clearly laid out by the authors, who persuasively argue that engineering is a critical component to developing a citi- zenry and workforce that understands the technical nature of our human-made world. While we applaud the work this report repre- sents, we also highlight in this review several attributes of engineer- ing education not addressed by the report that are critical to practi- tioners, researchers, and policy makers as the United States expands efforts to bring engineering into K-12 classrooms. While the report includes substantial discussion of engineering education research, the issues of implementation receive less attention. As we bring en- gineering into the K-12 setting, teacher training (both in-service and pre-service), curricular models, and even parent education are required for system reform. We present our review in three sections: a review of the engineering education research, some thoughts on successful implementations not addressed in the report, and consid- erations of what it takes to bring engineering into K-12 at the state level through the Massachusetts case study.