ABSTRACT As elementary schools across the U.S. continue to adopt new science education reform, attention is needed to understand how teachers make sense of using engineering design to teach science in their classroom settings. This study examined fourth-grade teachers’ sense-making with learning to integrate engineering design-based science instruction and the impact their instruction had on student learning. Participants included four grade 4 classroom school teachers and 93 students. Using a mixed-methods approach, data collection entailed semi-structured interviews with teachers prior to and after implementation of multiple design tasks and daily classroom observations of each implementation. Student data collection included identical pre- and post-science content assessments. Interview and observation data were analyzed using open coding. Basic descriptive statistics were calculated for the content assessments for the overall sample and by classroom. Results indicated that elementary teachers in this study who demonstrated relatively high fidelity of implementation of design-based instructional strategies had students who performed well on corresponding knowledge assessments. Additional interpretation of data suggested that teachers’ experiences with teaching design, attentiveness to student engagement, and perception of the nature of design tasks may have influenced how and what instructional moves teachers prioritized and how students performed. Implications for examining the adaptive nature of engineering design-based science instruction, continuous teacher sense-making, and student learning are discussed.

中文翻译：

---

小学科学教师通过学习实现工程设计的意义感及其对学生科学成绩的影响

摘要随着美国各地的小学继续采用新的科学教育改革，需要注意了解教师如何在课堂环境中使用工程设计来教授科学。本研究考察了四年级教师在学习整合基于工程设计的科学教学中的意义以及他们的教学对学生学习的影响。参与者包括四名四年级课堂教师和 93 名学生。使用混合方法，数据收集需要在实施多个设计任务之前和之后与教师进行半结构化访谈，以及每个实施的日常课堂观察。学生数据收集包括相同的科学前和科学后内容评估。使用开放编码分析访谈和观察数据。对整个样本和课堂的内容评估计算了基本描述性统计数据。结果表明，本研究中对基于设计的教学策略的实施表现出较高保真度的小学教师，其学生在相应的知识评估中表现良好。对数据的额外解释表明，教师在教学设计方面的经验、对学生参与的关注以及对设计任务性质的看法可能影响了教师优先考虑的教学活动的方式和内容以及学生的表现。讨论了检查基于工程设计的科学教学的适应性性质、持续的教师意义建构和学生学习的意义。