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Background: Teaching engineering at a high school level has been a subject of substantial concern during recent curriculum reforms. Many countries are increasingly including engineering-focused subjects in their technology curriculum guidelines. However, technology teachers face challenges regarding the optimal implementation of an engineering-focused curriculum. It is essential to understand technology teachers' perceptions of and behavior in classroom practices when teaching an engineering-focused curriculum. To explore the factors influencing the effective implementation of the curriculum, this study aimed to explore the association between technology teachers' perceptions regarding curriculum guidelines (i.e., perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and beliefs) and their behavioral intentions. In addition, this study explored how these perceptions change for teachers who participated in a professional development program (PDP) for teaching an engineering-focused curriculum compared with those who did not participate in the program (NoPDP). Results: In this study, structural equation modeling was used to investigate factors potentially influencing teachers' behavioral intentions, including subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. The results showed that technology teachers' behavioral intentions were influenced by their perceptions of the curriculum's usefulness. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were also significant determinants of behavioral intentions. Moreover, the results differed between the two groups. Perceived usefulness had direct and indirect effects on the behavioral intentions of the PDP and NoPDP groups, respectively. Conclusions: We constructed a model of technology teachers' behavioral intentions to implement an engineering-focused curriculum and identified factors influencing technology teachers' behavioral intentions to implement an engineering-focused curriculum. Our conclusions are as follows: (1) the model was adequate for determining the factors influencing technology teachers' behavioral intentions; (2) in the PDP group, perceived usefulness, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were significantly associated with behavioral intentions; and (3) in the NoPDP group, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were associated with behavioral intentions and self-reported behavior only via the mediating factor of beliefs. The above influencing factors should be taken into account when planning professional development programs for pre- and in-service teachers, as these programs will have implications regarding the successful implementation of an engineering-focused curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an increased emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, educators have often adopted engineering projects for integrating interdisciplinary knowledge through engineering design process. However, there is scant research that has empirically documented the relationships among students' understanding of the knowledge and their characteristics on the design product. This study uses structural equation modeling to examine the influence of students' scientific knowledge, design process, and critical thinking on their design product of the engineering project. A theoretical model was constructed to identify the factors that affected the design product. Study data were collected from 613 high school students, aged 16–17 years, regarding their scientific knowledge, design processes, and critical thinking. The results showed that design process played a mediating role in the effects of knowledge and critical thinking on the final design product. Students who could deduce, explain, and evaluate had an increased ability to apply scientific knowledge during the design process. These results indicate that scientific knowledge has an effect on the process and products of engineering projects completed by high school students. This study also suggested that the science and technology education community should consider offering high school students learning opportunities to promote their cognitive skills and facilitate connections between knowledge and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to policy documents and research studies, one key objective of science education is to develop students' inquiry abilities; however, relatively little is known about the interplay among students' inquiry abilities, the dimensions of their engagement, and their inquiry-related curiosity. The purpose of this study is to explore how four dimensions of engagement (i.e., cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and social) were driven by inquiry-related curiosity and how they affected the students' inquiry abilities. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data collected from 605 11th graders, including their responses to items in an online questionnaire and their performances on a computer-based assessment of scientific inquiry abilities. The results showed that students' curiosity was associated with their inquiry abilities, and such an association was partially mediated by the four dimensions of engagement in science laboratory classes. Moreover, the results revealed that among the four dimensions of engagement, only cognitive and emotional engagement had significant total effects on students' inquiry abilities and that the influence of behavioral and social engagement on inquiry abilities was completely mediated by cognitive engagement. This study suggests a critical role played by emotional engagement, cognitive engagement, and curiosity in developing students' inquiry abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have investigated students’ attitudes toward engineering (ATE), but few have examined the changes in attitudes after attending an engineering design curriculum. This study analyzes these attitudinal changes in students attending an engineering-focused science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (EF-STEM) curriculum and investigates the influence and correlation between attitudes and learning performance. The participants included 364 tenth-grade students (ages 16–18 years). An 18-week experimental intervention design (2 h per week) was adopted. The Attitudes Towards Engineering Scale—Taiwan was applied before and after attending the EF-STEM course; remaining assessments were conducted post-course. The results showed that the ATE statistically decreased after attending the course, shifting from a positive attitude to a neutral-leaning attitude. Although most students appreciated the importance of engineering design, they exhibited a high degree of anxiety toward it. Moreover, their pre-ATE was significantly correlated with their perception of engineering design and learning performance. These results indicate that engineering design curricula do not necessarily have a positive effect on student ATE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]