Integrated Approaches To Stem Education

This book provides a platform for international scholars to share evidence for effective practices in integrated STEM education and contributes to the theoretical and practical knowledge gained from the diversity of approaches. Many publications on STEM education focus on one or two of the separate STEM disciplines without considering the potential for delivering STEM curriculum as an integrated approach.This publication analyzes the efficacy of an integrated STEM curriculum and instruction, providing evidence to examine and support various integrations. The volume focuses on the problems seen by academics working in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and provides valuable, high quality research outcomes and a set of valued practices which have demonstrated their use and viability to improve the quality of integrated STEM education.

STEM Integration in K-12 Education examines current efforts to connect the STEM disciplines in K-12 education. This report identifies and characterizes existing approaches to integrated STEM education, both in formal and after- and out-of-school settings. The report reviews the evidence for the impact of integrated approaches on various student outcomes, and it proposes a set of priority research questions to advance the understanding of integrated STEM education. STEM Integration in K-12 Education proposes a framework to provide a common perspective and vocabulary for researchers, practitioners, and others to identify, discuss, and investigate specific integrated STEM initiatives within the K-12 education system of the United States. STEM Integration in K-12 Education makes recommendations for designers of integrated STEM experiences, assessment developers, and researchers to design and document effective integrated STEM education. This report will help to further their work and improve the chances that some forms of integrated STEM education will make a positive difference in student learning and interest and other valued outcomes.

This timely book addresses the increasing need for collaboration, innovation and solution-focussed skills by looking at examples of cutting-edge pedagogy that can inform future directions. Integrating STEM in Higher Education shows how applying digital innovations that can be generated through the implementation of deliberately designed STEM education can change the world for the better. References to over 45 higher education institutions from around the world are included, where integrated approaches are already occurring. A wide range of teaching strategies and assessment methods are discussed, promoting a transformative method in which students can generate new knowledge within coursework and simultaneously develop skills and attributes for their future careers, lives and the world’s needs. This book is essential reading for STEM educators, administrators and academic leaders, as well as learning designers in higher education.

Over the past decade, integrated STEM education research has emerged as an international concern, creating around it an imperative for technological and disciplinary innovation and a global resurgence of interest in teaching and learning to code at the K-16 levels. At the same time, issues of democratization, equity, power and access, including recent decolonizing efforts in public education, are also beginning to be acknowledged as legitimate issues in STEM education. Taking a reflexive approach to the intersection of these concerns, this book presents a collection of papers making new theoretical advances addressing two broad themes: Transdisciplinary Approaches in STEM Education and Bodies, Hegemony and Decolonization in STEM Education. Within each theme, praxis is of central concern including analyses of teaching and learning that re-imagines disciplinary boundaries and domains, the relationship between Art and STEM, and the design of learning technologies, spaces and environments. In addition to graduate research seminars at the Masters and PhD levels in Learning Sciences, Science Education, Educational Technology and STEM education, this book could also serve as a textbook for graduate and pre-service teacher education courses.

In the face of complex local and global problems, there is a critical need to prepare PK-12 students to be innovative, resilient problem-solvers and well-equipped STEM-literate citizens. With focus upon integrated content, college and career readiness, authentic problems, and action-oriented pedagogies, integrative STEM education provides a promising approach to address this challenge. Integrative STEM programming with its fusion of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology content and practices may manifest in a variety of ways: Teachers co-plan an engineering design experience within a social studies class. A community business partner offers a job-shadowing experience. Students engage in an after-school program at a makerspace. Educators collaboratively re-envision and interweave STEM across the curriculum. And more... Current and future educational leaders striving to improve STEM programming will find this book to be a useful resource. Its introduction offers an orientation to the fundamental goals, principles, and practices of integrative STEM education. While later chapters delve into the facets of STEM programming and the competencies of STEM leadership which form the foundation of a coherent program. These evidence-based strategies, examples, and resources may provide inspiration to leaders as they initiate and enhance an equitable integrative STEM culture within their school.

Responding to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the U.S. K–12 student population and an increasing emphasis on STEM, this book offers a model for professional development that engages teachers in transformative action research projects and explicitly links literacy to mathematics and science curriculum through sociocultural principles. Providing detailed and meaningful demonstrations of participatory action research in the classroom, Razfar and Troiano present an effective, systemic approach that helps preservice teachers support students’ funds of knowledge. By featuring teacher and researcher narratives, this book centers teacher expertise and offers a more holistic and humanistic understanding of authentic and empathetic teaching. Focusing on integrating instructional knowledge from ESL, bilingual, and STEM education, the range of cases and examples will allow readers to implement action research projects in their own classrooms. Chapters include discussion questions and additional resources for students, researchers, and educators.

If you were to peer into a primary school classroom somewhere across Australia and New Zealand, you would be forgiven for thinking that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is synonymous with coding and digital technologies. However, while these aspects are important, technology alone does not reflect the broad learning opportunities afforded by STEM. In countering this narrow approach, STEM Education in Primary Classrooms offers a platform for research that innovates, excites and challenges the status quo. It provides educators with innovative and up-to-date research into how to meaningfully and authentically embed STEM into existing classroom practices. It incorporates accurate explanations of STEM as an integrated approach to solving real-world problems, including social issues, along with case studies and stories to bring practice to life in evidence-informed ways. This book showcases the impact of a broader approach to STEM in the primary classroom through Australian-based and New Zealand-based research that will challenge current teaching practices. Thus, this book will be of interest to pre- and in-service primary school teachers, along with researchers and postgraduate students in the STEM education field.

This book offers a new, research-based approach to STEM education in early, elementary, and middle years of schooling, concentrating on building teacher agency and integrated approaches to teaching and learning in High Possibility STEM Classrooms. Author Jane Hunter presents a globally oriented, contemporary framework for powerful Integrated STEM, based on mixed-methods research data from three studies conducted in 14 schools in language-diverse, disadvantaged, and urbanized communities in Australia. Theory, creativity, life preparation, public learning, and contextual accommodations are all utilized to help educators create hands-on, inquiry-led, and project-based approaches to STEM education in the classroom. A set of highly accessible case studies is offered that places pedagogy at the center of practice – an approach valuable for researchers, school leaders, and teachers alike. Ultimately, this text responds to the call for examples of what successful Integrated STEM teaching and learning looks like in schools. The book concludes with an evidence-based blueprint for preparing for less siloed and more transdisciplinary approaches to education in schools. Hunter argues not only for High Possibility STEM Classrooms but for High Possibility STEM Schools, enriching the dialogue around the future directions of STEM, STEAM, middle leadership, technological literacies, and assessment within contemporary classrooms.