Understanding the Conceptions of Engineering in Early Elementary Students

There is a demand for more STEM professionals. Early elementary students’ conceptions about engineering can influence whether or not they explore STEM career paths and ultimately select an engineering career. This study examined the conceptions elementary students have regarding the work that engineers perform. The research questions were the following: (1) what images do early elementary students associate with engineering and engineers, (2) do these associations vary from grade to grade, (3) are there gendered differences in these associations, and (4) how do the associations from this sample compare with the associations from the broader (grades one–five) Cunningham, Lachapelle, and Lindgren-Steider (2005) sample? Survey data from 1811 students in grades one–three were analyzed by comparison analysis and cluster analysis and then compared to the initial Cunningham et al. (2005) study. The results indicate two ways elementary students envision engineering: (a) creating designs or collecting and analyzing data, and (b) utilizing equipment to build and improve things. Comparison with the Cunningham et al. (2005) study suggests that there may be shifts in the way elementary students perceive engineering. Since these shifts could be attributed to a variety of factors, future work that determines what learning experiences might be contributing to students’ conceptions about engineering is recommended.

Development and Initial Validation of the Early Elementary Writing Rubric to Inform Instruction for Kindergarten and First-Grade Students

This article describes the development of the Early Elementary Writing Rubric ( EEWR), an analytic assessment designed to measure kindergarten and first-grade writing and inform educators’ instruction. Crocker and Algina’s (1986) approach to instrument development and validation was used as a guide to create and refine the writing measure. Study 1 describes the development of the 10-item measure (response scale ranges from 0 = Beginning of Kindergarten to 5 = End of First Grade). Educators participated in focus groups, expert panel review, cognitive interviews, and pretesting as part of the instrument development process. Study 2 evaluates measurement quality in terms of score reliability and validity. Data from writing samples produced by 634 students in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms were collected during pilot testing. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the EEWR. A one-factor model fit the data for all writing genres and all scoring elements were retained with loadings ranging from 0.49 to 0.92. Internal consistency reliability was high and ranged from .89 to .91. Interrater reliability between the researcher and participants varied from poor to good and means ranged from 52% to 72%. First-grade students received higher scores than kindergartners on all 10 scoring elements. The EEWR holds promise as an acceptable, useful, and psychometrically sound measure of early writing. Further iterative development is needed to fully investigate its ability to accurately identify the present level of student performance and to determine sensitivity to developmental and instruction gains.

Contributions of Oral Narrative Skills to English Reading in Spanish–English Latino/a Dual Language Learners

Purpose: The study examined the contributions of Spanish and English oral narrative skills to English reading among 95 early elementary dual language learners (DLLs) from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States. This sample of first- and third-grade DLL children attended Spanish–English dual language immersion programs and received language and literacy instruction in both English and Spanish. Method: All participants completed a storytelling task in both languages and two English reading tests in decoding and reading comprehension. The story narratives were analyzed for microstructures (number of different new words, lexical diversity [D], mean length of utterance, subordination index [SI]) using the Computerized Language ANalysis program. The narrative samples were also evaluated for macrostructures (i.e., discourse-level features) using the Narrative Scoring Scheme. Results: Grade, English D, and Spanish SI significantly predicted English reading. Grade level was the strongest predictor of the three for both decoding and comprehension. However, Spanish SI was more robust than English D for decoding whereas English D was a stronger predictor than Spanish SI for comprehension. Conclusions: Young DLL children's oral narrative skills in English as well as in their home language Spanish contributed to their English reading outcomes. The study further specified the contributions of narrative elements to different reading skills. Microstructural elements appeared to play a stronger role in English reading than macrostructural elements for DLLs in dual language programs in early elementary grades. The results provided support for the simple view of reading and the linguistic interdependence hypothesis . The results also implicated that maintaining young DLL children's home language skills may be beneficial, rather than harmful, to their English reading development.