Problematizing STEM: What It Is, What It Is Not, and Why It Matters

Martinović, Dragana; Milner-Bolotin, Marina

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-10518-0_8

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…While the acronym STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, STEM can have a variety of meanings for different researchers and different stakeholders involved in STEM education research (Herranen et al, 2021;Martinovic and Milner-Bolotin, 2022). The most common notion is that STEM uses the integration of the four disciplines to solve real-world problems (Sanders, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research trends in international science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education conference series: An analysis of a decade of proceedings

2023

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This paper reports on the results of a descriptive analysis of 675 publications included in the proceedings of five editions of the International Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in Education Conferences held in Australia, Canada, and China over 9 years between 2012 and 2021. Peer-reviewed academic journals are traditional sources of high quality and established research. Yet these papers might take months and sometimes years to get published. On the other hand, an analysis of research foci represented at international STEM conferences can be used as a source of the most recent trends in the field, and the developments of STEM education research across time and by national origins. In this analysis, 675 abstracts from five editions of the International STEM in Education Conference were coded into eight topics, followed by a descriptive analysis of the results. Four countries were consistently the top four contributors: Australia, Canada, China, and the United States. Thus, the study conducted a descriptive analysis and discussion of the trends among these countries. The results revealed trends in STEM education research, among which policy, curriculum, assessment; K-12 teaching and learning, are dominant topics of research investigation, while postsecondary STEM teaching and learning are less investigated. The results also demonstrated the dominance of some topics over others among the countries that most contributed to the conferences. For instance, Canada dominated in the studies of culture, gender, and social issues and in postsecondary STEM education. China paid much less attention to these topics, while putting more emphasis on historical and epistemological perspectives on STEM, policy and curriculum, and K-12 teaching and learning. Australian research focused on policy and curriculum; K-12 teaching and learning; and industry. Meanwhile, the United States showed the least difference in percentages between topics. Overall the analysis indicates a relatively low interest in postsecondary STEM education research, despite the growing demand for STEM professionals. This highlights the need for STEM education research focused on institutions of higher education. This analysis interprets the trend results in light of the issues in STEM education confronting various national jurisdictions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research trends in international science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education conference series: An analysis of a decade of proceedings

2023

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“…The evolving complexities associated with modern world problems often challenge students beyond their individual capacities in both content knowledge and problem-solving skills [7]. Consequently, collaboration among individuals with diverse expertise becomes essential, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, as the field itself is highly collaborative and relies on collaborative problem-solve at its core [8]. In a meta-analysis study in STEM contexts, Lai and Wong [9] reviewed 33 publications involving a total of 4717 learners and found that learners who engaged in CPS activities exhibited better cognitive and affective learning outcomes compared to those who engaged in individual problem-solving activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating student collaborative problem-solving competency and science achievement with multilevel modeling: Findings from PISA 2015

Tang,

Liu,

Milner-Bolotin

2023

PLoS ONE

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Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) competency is critical for 21st century students. However, reports from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 have revealed significant deficiencies in this competency among young students globally, indicating a critical need for the cultivation of CPS skills. Therefore, it is essential for educators and researchers to examine the factors that influence CPS competency and understand the potential role of CPS in secondary education. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between collaboration dispositions and students’ CPS competency as well as the relationships of CPS competency and inquiry-based science instruction (IBSI) with science achievement using the PISA 2015 data. A total of 408,148 students from 52 countries and economies (i.e., regions) were included in our analysis. Unlike most previous studies that only investigated one country at a time and neglected the multilevel data structure of PISA, this study provided a global view through adopting multilevel modeling to account for the cluster effect at the school and country levels. Our findings revealed that valuing relationship was positively associated with CPS, whereas valuing teamwork was negatively associated with CPS. Furthermore, CPS competency was found to be a dominant and positive predictor of science achievement among all study variables, underscoring the importance of integrating CPS into teaching practices to promote student success in science. Additionally, different IBSI activities show varying relationships with science achievement, indicating that caution should be taken when recommending any specific practices associated with IBSI to teachers.

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Science, technology, engineering, & mathematics, curricular integration, and the story form

Krushelnycky,

Karrow

2024

Future in Educational Research

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As science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education continues to increase in popularity, it becomes imperative that generalist preservice teachers (PT) have both strong concept knowledge and pedagogical skills to properly support its integration. However, generalist PTs do not have enough knowledge or skills possessed by those in STEM's respective disciplines, impacting their perceptions of how the framework is disseminated. The finger, then, is pointed at PT education to provide the necessary education and training that would allow for high‐quality STEM education beginning at the elementary level. One novel approach to mitigate this problem is to introduce Kieran Egan's education theory on imagination (mythic understanding) and the theory of integrated curricula to PT. Throughout this philosophical inquiry, we explore integrated curriculum models, imagination (mythic understanding) and storytelling, illustrating how they may appear in a STEM‐oriented lesson within an elementary science PT course, and attend to the need for approachable, evidence‐based interventions regarding generalist PT STEM education.

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Problematizing STEM: What It Is, What It Is Not, and Why It Matters

Cited by 9 publications

References 51 publications

Research trends in international science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education conference series: An analysis of a decade of proceedings

Research trends in international science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education conference series: An analysis of a decade of proceedings

Investigating student collaborative problem-solving competency and science achievement with multilevel modeling: Findings from PISA 2015

Science, technology, engineering, & mathematics, curricular integration, and the story form

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