The learning of STEM skills across the k-12 curriculum is being emphasized globally, and elementary teachers are expected to teach it. In many countries, such as in Canada, elementary teachers (primary and middle school) are generalists – they are expected to teach all subjects such as language, science, mathematics and the arts, even though they may not have undergraduate degrees in these subjects. Hence, many elementary teachers have limited or no university-level academic courses or experiences in many or all the STEM subjects. In this type of teacher education context, it becomes important that elementary pre-service teachers (PTs) be introduced to STEM problem-solving activities to develop their own STEM knowledge and skills, and to learn how to teach STEM to elementary school students. The literature suggests that educational robotics (ER) is an instructional activity that can support school students learn STEM skills. This presentation reports on a study that explored how middle-school pre-service teachers engaged in STEM problem-solving—how to park a driving base robot autonomously during a Mindstorms robotics activity. A qualitative, comparative case study design was employed which involved a cross-case analysis of the data. Data included programs recorded on a problem-solving worksheet, transcripts of audio-recordings of group interactions, and video-recordings or photographs of the computer program solution and Mindstorms driving base robots executing the parking. The discourse of six, PT group interactions (total n = 16; 12 females and 4 males) as PTs problem-solved how to park a car autonomously was analyzed using a STEM problem-solving framework. The results provide insights into the STEM problem-solving decisions of PTs during these ER activities such as PTs drawing on everyday, practical experiences and basic STEM knowledge to frame and plan the problem through trial-error-trial feedback loops. Overall, the findings suggest that the quality of the parking solutions created by this sample of PTs and its effectiveness during demonstration of the solution is related to the type of decisions that these PTs made during the STEM problem-solving. Recommendations are made to support PTs during STEM problem-solving activities to enhance their design and implementation of ER activities for elementary school students.

Keywords: Educational robotics, STEM problem-solving, preservice teachers, qualitative, comparative case study, collaborative groups.