Teaching strategies for professional development offered to secondary career and technical educators via distance education

Journal of Engineering Technology, Spring 2003 by Feldhaus, Charles

. . . the development of distance learning was one of the ten most outstanding engineering education achievements of the past century, since it assured the continuation of technical as well as professional training for practicing engineers.

Abstract

This paper describes a professional development outreach program delivered using a two-way interactive distance learning system. The purpose of this study was to explore and discover differences in the distance learning experience as perceived by participants (secondary career and technical educators) with different learning styles. Specifically, this research focused on perceived barriers to the learning process and the coping or adapting strategies used to overcome those barriers. The study found that participant learning styles were an important factor that impacted learning in a two-way interactive distance education experience. Based on the results of this research and additional research on learning styles, the Interactive Distance Education Adult Learning Strategies (IDEALS) model was developed. This model provides instructors using two-way interactive distance learning delivery systems with specific teaching strategies designed to meet various learning styles and needs so that professional development outreach programs can be successful.

Introduction

Distance learning has impacted universities in general and schools of engineering and technology in particular. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Education on distance education at postsecondary educational institutions revealed that during the 1997-98 academic year, nearly 1.6 million students were enrolled in credit-bearing distance education courses.1 According to Burnett and Greisch, the development of distance learning was one of the ten most outstanding engineering education achievements of the past century, since it assured the continuation of technical as well as professional training for practicing engineers.2 Webster and Haberstroh believe that distance learning can encourage multidisciplinary study by providing instruction in a wide variety of disciplines. Distance learning not only increases the availability of education to those who have limited access due to geographical location, job requirements, and physical disabilities, it also give students more control of the pacing, sequencing, and style of the learning process and provides them with access to the best professors and guest lecturers. Clearly, distance learning offers numerous benefits that can play a key role in maintaining America's competitiveness.3

The United States Department of Labor projects 6 million new technology jobs by 2008; however, the total number of science, math, engineering and technology (SMET) majors has been shrinking since the mid-1980s. America trails all industrialized nations in the percentage of bachelor's degrees in engineering and technology. In addition, women and minorities compose 47% of the total U.S. workforce, yet represent only 22% of workers in SMET fields.4 It remains a constant challenge for engineering and technology educators to meet the needs of modern industry and the global workforce.

There is much work to be done by schools of engineering and technology in the areas of outreach, recruitment, retention, persistence, and matriculation of America's best and brightest students, particularly women and minorities, who choose to become a part of the feeder system into SMET degree programs. Research suggests that the mythical pipeline to careers in technology and engineering begins as early as fifth grade. According to Berryman, SMET programs lack a formal presence in K-12 education and the talent pool for technical and engineering programs emerges by ninth grade and is essentially complete by twelfth grade.5 After high school, essentially all changes in the pipeline are due to emigration from, not immigration to, this pool.

One key factor contributing to the dearth of high school graduates enrolling as SMET majors is the fact that high school instructors teaching in SMET areas often are poorly trained in both content area and pedagogy. In the 1999 report Better Teachers, Better Schools published by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the message is clear: better quality teachers make a big difference.6 Recent studies find dramatic differences between the performance of K-12 students who are assigned the best teachers and those who are assigned the worst. Couple these findings with the facts that our country will need to replace an estimated 2 million K-12 teachers in the next five years and that many teachers, especially those teaching in poor and urban areas, have no major in their teaching subject, it is not surprising that SMET programs at the university level are facing difficult challenges. In addition, secondary teachers often are assigned to courses outside their main teaching field as a cost-saving measure, administrative convenience, or because of shortages in advanced subjects such as math and science. More than half of high school students studying physics have a teacher who has neither a major or minor in physics.6