Engineering is pivotal to any country's development. Yet there are insufficient engineers to take up available positions in many countries, including Australia (Engineering Australia, 2008). Engineering education is limited in Australia at the primary, middle, and high school levels. One of the starting points for addressing this shortfall lies in preservice teacher education. This study explores second-year preservice teachers' potential to teach engineering in the middle school, following

more »

... r engagement with engineering concepts in their science curriculum unit and their teaching of engineering activities to Year 7 students. Using a literaturebased pretest-posttest survey, items were categorised into four constructs (i.e., personal professional attributes, student motivation, pedagogical knowledge, and fused curricula). Results indicated that the preservice teachers' responses had not changed for instilling positive attitudes (88%) and accepting advice from colleagues (94%). However, there was statistical significance with 9 of the 25 survey items (p<.05) after the preservice teachers' involvement in engineering activities. Fusing engineering education with other subjects, such as mathematics and science, is an essential first step in promoting preservice teachers' potential to implement engineering education in the middle school.