The aim of this study is to examine how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is implemented in the published literature. To accomplish this, the educational experiences published in indexed magazines in the main Web of Science collection during the 2013-2018 period were examined, with special attention paid to (a) The STEM concepts defined in the theoretical frameworks; (b) the STEM disciplines that intervene; (c) the possible benefits of STEM education; and (d) the key aspects for the success of the educational intervention. The results indicate that the theoretical frameworks used normally focus more on the variables that are the object of the study than on STEM education, and that there are multiple interpretations of what STEM education is, and these interpretations do usually involve the integrated appearance of the four disciplines that make up the acronym.

Esta investigación se centra en el análisis de la "Prueba de la competencia de ciencia y tecnología" elaborada para el curso de 6º de Primaria por el MECD. El objetivo es caracterizar las pruebas de evaluación de 6º de Primaria liberadas, en lo referido a la competencia en Ciencia y Tecnología, de acuerdo a variables extraídas del modelo de la OCDE y del MECD. A través del análisis de la presencia y relaciones de las variables "Contexto", "Demanda cognitiva", "Tipo de respuesta", "Capacidades competenciales" y "Contenido". Se trata de un estudio cuantitativo exploratorio descriptivo, que utiliza la metodología observacional no participante, los observadores son profesores de Educación Primaria y el instrumento utilizado es una parrilla de observación. La población es la prueba emitida por el MECD. La distribución de las variables no se ajusta a las demandas emitidas desde sus marcos de referencia, además las relaciones son escasas y siguen sin ajustarse a sus marcos de referencia. Se recomienda ajustar la presencia de las variables y sus relaciones a sus marcos de referencia.

This research focuses on the analysis of the “Test of competence in science and technology” developed as a model test for the Grade 6 by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD). The analysis focuses on checking whether the “Test of Science and Technology Competence” conforms to its theoretical frameworks of reference, as well as to characterize the presence of scientific competence in the items of the same. This is a descriptive exploratory documentary research, which use an instrument designed in accordance to the General Framework of Primary Education Final Assessment; four teaches perform as observers. The results allow us to conclude that the distribution of some of the analyzed variables does not conform to what is demanded in the reference frameworks and that the subcompetences associated with scientific competence in the international evaluation frameworks do not appear in the test equitably. It is finalized with improvement proposals for future evaluations test.