A conceptual framework for integrated STEM education

Abstract

The global urgency to improve STEM education may be driven by environmental and social impacts of the twentyfirst century which in turn jeopardizes global security and economic stability. The complexity of these global factors reach beyond just helping students achieve high scores in math and science assessments. Friedman (The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century, 2005) helped illustrate the complexity of a global society, and educators must help students prepare for this global shift. In response to these challenges, the USA experienced massive STEM educational reforms in the last two decades. In practice, STEM educators lack cohesive understanding of STEM education. Therefore, they could benefit from a STEM education conceptual framework. The process of integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in authentic contexts can be as complex as the global challenges that demand a new generation of STEM experts. Educational researchers indicate that teachers struggle to make connections across the STEM disciplines. Consequently, students are often disinterested in science and math when they learn in an isolated and disjoined manner missing connections to crosscutting concepts and real-world applications. The following paper will operationalize STEM education key concepts and blend learning theories to build an integrated STEM education framework to assist in further researching integrated STEM education.

Supporting integrated STEM in the elementary classroom: a professional development approach centered on an engineering design challenge

“…This can present a challenge for elementary teachers, who often have limited disciplinary knowledge within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Sanders 2008;Ejiwale 2013). However, Kelley and Knowles (2016) suggest that the key to preparing STEM educators is to first begin by grounding their conceptual understanding of integrated STEM education within key learning theories, and pedagogical approaches, and then building awareness of research results of current STEM educational initiatives. In addition to building pedagogical and content knowledge within STEM, Roehrig et al (2012) suggest that helping teachers develop beliefs and knowledge related to the importance of integrated STEM as well as building an understanding of what integrated STEM instruction looks like in the classroom can help ensure more successful implementation.…”

Students’ Attitude towards STEM Education

“…Creative innovation and technological progress are important elements for the improvement of the humans' quality of life and for the protection of the environment. Nonetheless, reports show that nowadays an insufficient number of students study STEM fields so as to cover the future needs of the society (Sjaastad, 2012;EC, 2015) and students' interest towards STEM learning is falling (Kelley &Knowles, 2016). As a result, many countries are trying to find measures in order to improve this situation (EC, 2015).…”

The STEM Education and its reflection on the secondary school science lesson draft curriculum

“…STEM education has critical importance especially starting at the primary school level (Akgündüz et al 2015a;Basham & Marino, 2013;Bybee, 2011;Lamb, Akmal, & Petrie, 2015). What exactly the abbreviation of STEM stands for and different experts (Becker & Park, 2011;Bray, 2010;Eroğlu & Bektas, 2016;Hsu, Lin & Yang, 2017;Kelley & Knowles, 2016;Wang, 2012) express the uncertainty about its use.…”

“…When we look at the characteristics of STEM education it is seen that the features of integration of different disciplines (Becker & Park, 2011;Brown et al 2011;Corlu, 2012;Gonzalez & Kuenzi, 2012;Hsu et al 2017;Kelley & Knowles, 2016;Kennedy & Odell, 2014;Öner & Capraro, 2016;Yalçın et al 2016), product design (Gonzalez & Kuenzi, 2012;Gulhan & Şahin, 2016;Marulcu & Sungur, 2012;National Research Council [NRC], 2009;Şahin et al 2014;Trilling & Fadel, 2009), and scientific research (Bybee, 2011;Kelley & Knowles, 2016;MoNE STEM Education Report, 2016;NRC, 2011;Trilling & Fadel, 2009;Yalçın et al 2016) are among the frequently emphasized concepts.…”

“…When research on the STEM education is examined, it can be observed that the importance of integrated teaching of the related fields in relation to each other in response to the separate teaching of the fields of Science, Mathematics, Technology and Engineering is emphasized (Bray, 2010;Brown et al 2011;Gonzalez & Kuenzi, 2012;Kelley & Knowles, 2016). STEM education is very important in terms of enabling the theoretical knowledge to be transformed into practice and product.…”