Teaching engineering-focused STEM curriculum: PCK needed for teachers

Abstract

The core value of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is to provide the balanced opportunities of hands-on and minds-on learning. Engineering design is recognized as a core approach for implementing engineering-focused STEM curricula. This raises a need for science and technology teachers to develop pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching engineering-focused STEM curricula. This chapter consists of four sections. First, to form the theoretical foundation of engineering-focused STEM curricula, literature related to STEM education is reviewed. Second, design modules for engineering-focused STEM curriculum are discussed. Third, the PCK needed for science and technology teachers to teach engineering-focused STEM curricula are discussed. Fourth, a summary of issues and misconceptions of teaching engineering-focused STEM curricula are discussed, which provides useful guidelines on how to teach the curriculum.