Chapter 28: A Model for Reform in Teaching in Engineering and Technology: Creating Links Among Disciplines for Increased Scientific Literacy

The institutionally-imposed segregation of higher education faculty into the specific fields within departments of science, mathematics, engineering, and education has created a barrier to interdisciplinary collaboration. This separation has created difficulties in providing appropriate pedagogy and discipline knowledge in science course work. The lack of expertise in faculty was demonstrated in several key areas including course experiences leading to meaningfully understanding the elements of scientific literacy, developing positive dispositions toward science, making interconnections between the science disciplines, and understanding prior knowledge that freshmen bring into college science courses. This chapter describes how faculty in the College of Engineering and College of Education at the University of Alabama bridged the gap and created an aerospace engineering course for preservice teachers to improve scientific literacy.