Developing Transmedia Engineering Curricula Using Cognitive Tools to Impact Learning and the Development of STEM Identity

Abstract

is a Professor of Engineering at Smith College who teaches courses in engineering science and methods for teaching science and engineering. He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and Operations Research from Princeton University. The winner of numerous teaching and research awards, Dr. Ellis received the 2007 U.S. Professor of the Year Award for Baccalaureate Colleges from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. His research focuses on creating K-16 learning environments that support the growth of learners' imaginations and their capacity for engaging in collaborative knowledge work.

Cultivating Leadership Imagination with Cognitive Tools: An Imagination-Focused Approach to Leadership Education

“…To date, the use of IE has been most thoroughly developed and researched in the context of education. A range of empirical, peer-reviewed research in K-12 and post-secondary learning contexts indicates how this pedagogy increases learners’ engagement and supports learning (e.g., Ellis et al, 2015, 2020; Emjawer & Al-Jamal, 2016; Hadzigeorgiou, 2016; Hadzigeorgiou et al, 2012; Hagen, 2015; Hrennikoff, 2006; McAuliffe et al, 2011; McKellar, 2006; Pearson, 2009; Stewart, 2014). Application of IE’s cognitive tools to the context of leadership is new and offers many opportunities for future research.…”

Educating Perfinkers: How Cognitive Tools Support Affective Engagement in Teacher Education

“…A wide range of research conducted in primary through post-secondary level educational contexts and across disciplines reveals how IE pedagogy emotionally engages learners (e.g., Ellis et al, 2020;Ellis et al, 2015;Emjawer & Al-Jamal, 2016;Hadzigeorgiou, 2016;Hadzigeorgiou et al,, 2012;Hagen, 2015;Hrennikoff, 2006;McAuliffe et al, 2011;McKellar, 2006;Pearson, 2009;Stewart, 2014). In addition to peer-reviewed research, educators' Action Research on IE also reveals IE's impact on student engagement and learning (e.g., Guenter, 2019;Jalali-Tehrani, 2017;Kim, 2017;Llanos & Vergara, 2019;Lopez, 2015;Murdoch, 2019;Olivares et al, 2017;Payson, 2017;Peralta et al, 2019;Shahi, 2018).…”

Developing a Measure to Capture Middle School Students’ Interpretive Understanding of Engineering Design

“…The logic of this analysis depends on the position that our experimental curriculum is sufficiently different from the standard teaching practices of middle school engineering that instructors in the treatment group would meaningfully differ from non-treatment teachers in their approach. Three features of our experimental curriculum-as described in Ellis, Piña, Mazur, Rudnitsky, McGinnis-Cavanaugh, Huff, Ellis, Ford, Lytton, and Cormier [49]-supported this presupposition: the transmedia nature of the lessons, the overarching narrative structure of the curriculum, and the use of Imaginative Education thinking tools. Singly, a transmedia, narrative, or Imaginative Education-driven curriculum would be noteworthy in pre-college engineering education.…”