Voices from the Past: Messages for a STEM Future

The current emphasis in K-12 education on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (Douglas, Iversen, & Kalyandurg, 2004; Sanders, 2009) creates many ways to partner engineering education with these fields. Therefore, it is appropriate to examine the commonalities these fields have with engineering education. Though much of the science education and mathematics education history is understood, technology education’s history is not common knowledge, and as a result misconceptions abound (Daugherty & Wicklein, 1993 Wicklein, 2008). Technology education’s longstanding history in problem- and project-based learning, design- and engineering-related pedagogical approach is over a century old and grounded in theories of Comenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Herbart, Sheldon, and Dewey (Dewey, 1915; Foster, 1995, 1997; Herschbach, 2009; Kirkwood, 1994). The brief review of technology education’s history will reveal an almost eerie parallel to the current engineering education and STEM education movements.