Work in progress - Instructional strategies for pre-college engineering education

Infusing engineering instruction into pre-college education has been the focus of a number of outreach programs, such as the Infinity project, which have primarily focused on curriculum development. In contrast, our goal is to provide a set of guidelines for the design of engineering instruction that promotes problem solving skills and cognitive flexibility in pre-college engineering education programs. Based on the existing educational psychology theories and engineering education research, we have identified four high priority research areas that need to be addressed for systematically building up a fundamental understanding of effective instructional design for pre-college engineering education: 1) Representations of engineering concepts, worked examples, and practice problems that promote students' problem solving and cognitive flexibility, 2) Problem-solving practice designs that promote students' learning, 3) Peer-model pedagogical agents, and 4) Examination of the role of spatial abilities, prior knowledge, and gender on the strategies examined in the preceding three areas.