Paired peer learning through engineering education outreach

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate education incorporating active learning and vicarious experience through education outreach presents a critical opportunity to influence future engineering teaching and practice capabilities. Engineering education outreach activities have been shown to have multiple benefits; increasing interest and engagement with science and engineering for school children, providing teachers with expert contributions to engineering subject knowledge, and developing professional generic skills for engineers such as communication and teamwork. This pilot intervention paired 10 pre-service teachers and 11 student engineers to enact engineering outreach in primary schools, reaching 269 children. A longitudinal mixed methods design was employed to measure change in attitudes and Education Outreach Self-Efficacy in student engineers; alongside attitudes, Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy and Engineering Subject Knowledge Confidence in pre-service teachers. Highly significant improvements were noted in the pre-service teachers’ confidence and self-efficacy, while both the teachers and engineers qualitatively described benefits arising from the paired peer mentor model.

KEYWORDS:

• Active learning
• teacher training
• women in engineering
• peer learning/teaching
• science education

Acknowledgements

Our acknowledgement is given to Professor Penelope Harnett and Dr Catherine Hobbs for their help in planning this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Laura Fogg-Rogers is a Research Fellow in Science Communication at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE). Her research brings together engagement, involvement, and learning through evaluating outreach and communication interventions. Laura previously worked as a journalist in the BBC and latterly as the Communications and Liaison Manager for the Centre for Brain Research, a neuroscience research centre at The University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Fay Lewis obtained a Ph.D. in Phytopathology before becoming a primary school teacher for 15 years. During this time she led STEM subjects and projects in a variety of settings and delivered training to teaching practitioners. She is now a senior lecturer in Science, Maths and Design Technology Education in the Department of Education at UWE where she leads and develops STEM training.

Juliet Edmonds is a senior lecturer in Science Education in the Department of Education at UWE. She was an evaluator on the EU ‘ENGINEER’ education outreach project. She has been a Science and Technology educator for Primary and Early Years trainees for 20 years at Brunel University and UWE. Juliet has previously worked on a number of science curricula innovation projects.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Engineering Professors’ Council Public Engagement Awards.