Abstract:
The skill of engineering thinking is one of the relevant and in-demand competencies of
the pre-service teachers of Information Technology (IT teachers) in STEM education.
The aim of the research is to develop the engineering thinking skills for pre-service IT
teachers using cross-cutting educational technologies and STEM projects. The paper
shows the two students’ authors` projects in which the students master engineering
design and develop the teacher guide with worksheets. Professional training skills are
developed as a result of the guide enhancement. During the training, observations were
carried out between the control and experimental groups to measure academic
performance data and identify any differences between them. The practical teachers and
the STEM experts were involved to determine the level of the acquired skills. The
results showed that the students who participated in the experiment significantly
improved their engineering thinking level and provided themselves with the knowledge
and skills necessary for a successful career in scientific, technical and engineering fields.
The research allowed determining the effectiveness of the approach based on the use of
cross-cutting educational technologies in the development of the author's integrated
STEM projects.
