Teachers’ response to the first semester of teaching the VisTE Pilot Units

Abstract

VisTE is a National Science Foundation funded project that promotes technological
literacy by linking to the Standards for Technological Literacy through the study of visualization, science, and technology. Over a three-year period, the VisTE project team plans to develop, pilot, and evaluate 12 units for technology education in grades 8-12. In the spring of 2003 six
teachers pilot tested the first four VisTE units. During this first semester of teaching the VisTE
units, teachers were asked to fill in weekly logs for each week that they taught a unit, and a unit completion log for each unit they taught (see Appendixes A and B for examples of logs). In
addition, during site visits to two schools, two VisTE teachers were interviewed to inquire about
their experience with VisTE. This report includes data gathered from the weekly logs, the unit
completion logs, and the two teacher interviews. Section A contains teachers’ general reactions
to the VisTE units, while Section B contains teachers’ answers to specific questions about the
units.