Enhancing engineering thinking skills of pre-service IT teachers through cross-cutting educational technologies and stem projects

Abstract

The skill of engineering thinking is one of the relevant and in-demand competencies of the pre-service teachers of Information Technology (IT teachers) in STEM education. The aim of the research is to develop the engineering thinking skills for pre-service IT teachers using cross-cutting educational technologies and STEM projects. The paper shows the two students’ authors` projects in which the students master engineering design and develop the teacher guide with worksheets.  Professional training skills are developed as a result of the guide enhancement. During the training, observations were carried out between the control and experimental groups to measure academic performance data and identify any differences between them. The practical teachers and the STEM experts were involved to determine the level of the acquired skills. The results showed that the students who participated in the experiment significantly improved their engineering thinking level and provided themselves with the knowledge and skills necessary for a successful career in scientific, technical and engineering fields. The research allowed determining the effectiveness of the approach based on the use of cross-cutting educational technologies in the development of the author's integrated STEM projects.