https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-012-9393-9, http://www.icaseonline.net/ICASE%20Kuching%20Declaration_Final.pdf, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-016-0046-z, http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/crsdocs/35/?utm_source=digitalcommons.unl.edu%2Fcrsdocs%2F35&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages, https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2011.585071, http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework, https://atecentral.net/ate20/22917/ate-had-role-in-the-naming-of-stem, https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2014.862125, https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2017.1356671, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-016-0040-5, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0127-2. The PD faculty were responsible for developing and implementing a week-long summer institute on STEM education and leadership for school and district teams from across the state. The use of concept maps to elicit conceptualizations of STEM education has multiple limitations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Mapping changes in science teachers’ content knowledge: concept maps and authentic professional development. ), Qualitative research in information management, (pp. Science Education, 99(1), 98–120. It has … In Technical Report IHMC CmapTools. Holmlund, T.D., Lesseig, K. & Slavit, D. Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts. Our analysis revealed other attributes that only a few included. What is project-based learning (PBL)? .. realizing it is okay to learn from failure and that there isn’t just one right answer all the time” (Sophie interview, September 30, 2015). Investigating the effects of state policies and professional development on science curriculum implementation. The researcher also asked what, if any, questions participants had about STEM education, and what supported them in coming to these particular views of STEM education. Cheap paper writing service provides high-quality essays for affordable prices. RESEARCH; ALUMNI; STEM Strand. What themes emerge in the conceptualizations of STEM education among educators in a given role group? The opportunity for students to develop and practice twenty-first century skills and dispositions was also included on over half of the concept maps. Science, mathematics, technology, and CTE teachers are directly responsible for implementing the individually and/or collectively constructed vision of STEM education. So, at a typical elementary or middle school, often subjects are segmented and segregated, kind of siloed. Growing talent: promising professional development models and practices. . Only four teachers explicitly identified this as an important feature of STEM education. Bringing STEM professionals into the school and taking students out to explore STEM careers and work was an explicit focus, with a half-time position created to develop partnerships to support this. We can imagine that not only the traditional structures of the schools but also the differing ideas about and experiences with curriculum, instruction, and learning held by everyone involved in these conversations influenced the STEM education ideas the TrMS teachers selected and retained. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Administrators, who tend to have responsibilities that relate to a large number of educational issues, gave explicit attention to numerous elements. 46). While it has been well established that professional development experiences, school vision statements, or readings about an innovation do not directly translate into the classroom and school practices (Penuel et al. Dervin, B (1992). This is most apparent in relation to partnerships, a key feature of the PD faculty work and of RSA. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(3), 207–212. The Kuching Declaration. Our data suggest that certain aspects of STEM education are more salient in participants’ conceptions, and both context and role group contribute to these conceptions. All participants signed an approved consent form; all the names of people and places in our manuscript are pseudonyms. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/crsdocs/35/?utm_source=digitalcommons.unl.edu%2Fcrsdocs%2F35&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages. How STEM academy teachers conceptualize and implement STEM education. In PL Torres, RC Marriott (Eds. Based on our long-term work within each of the three contexts, we had in-depth information about the STEM-relevant contexts for each of the three participant groups, and the actions group members were asked to take. 61–84). Other attributes of STEM-focused schools are student learning experiences that incorporate multiple disciplines (an interdisciplinary, integrated, or trans-disciplinary approach) and often include a project- or problem-based approach tied to authentic or real-world contexts (LaForce et al. Again, the context was important. These responses ranged from structural constraints, such as lack of collaborative planning time or students in one class not having the same mathematics and science teachers (preventing extending projects across two class periods), to the politicization of STEM education. The following core topics seemed to emerge across many disciplines: Problem: Students can't apply their knowledge! We propose that collective sensemaking through professional dialog be an explicit and ongoing activity when planning for and implementing STEM education. But for that, it would help to know the topic of your research, because ‘STEM strand’ is simply too vast as it covers subject areas across four disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and medicine. Slavit, D, Nelson, TH, Lesseig, K. (2016). As shown in Table 3, our findings show the majority of educators in this study shared some common ideas about what is important for STEM education. Retrieved from http://www.stemedcoalition.org. To address our two sub-questions, we then looked at the frequency of theme inclusion for each context group (RSA, TrMS, PD faculty) and also determined the frequency of inclusion of each theme by general role groups: STEM teachers (18 secondary math, science, technology, engineering, CTE teachers), non-STEM teachers (5 secondary special education or ELL teachers), school or district administrators (5), and non-school-based external partners (6 partners from businesses or organizations or regional PD providers). This context group was composed of teachers from two middle schools (Rainier and Hood) in a large suburban school district. Written by . high school engineering students’ identities and interest in stem, morgan lane. However, while various models have emerged, an analysis of STEM education does reveal an emerging consensus on the global attributes associated with this innovation. Due to time constraints, clarification of the maps of the PD faculty was done informally over the duration of the faculty meeting rather than with semi-structured interviews. They must identify or develop interdisciplinary curricula (IntDis) and determine how to bridge from in-school to real-world problems (RWPS). Ideas related to the attributes of the student learning experience were represented on 59% of concept maps. The administration assisted teachers in curriculum development by encouraging curricular risk-taking and continuous improvement. In September 2015, the second two authors and a research assistant coded six concept maps. (2001). For maker space, fabrication projects, things like that. Unfortunately, students often struggle with the mathematical aspects of their scientific degree courses. Moreover, participants may not have mentioned certain ideas they perceived as obvious, such as the inclusion of all students in STEM experiences. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109337280. So C&C machines, we have a 3D printer but we haven’t been trained on using it yet. National Science Board (2015). COVID-19 Topics Interview data provided detail on how each participant conceptualized these themes. Over 50% of the TrMS participants included references to standards (Stan) on their maps or mentioned these in interviews. What relationships might exist between an individual’s conceptualization of STEM education and his/her professional role? On the other hand, the professional identities of non-STEM teachers (e.g, English or history teachers) and STEM teachers shaped their individual meaning-making in relation to a STEM-focused curriculum. Table 4 shows that within context groups, different categories were more salient than others. After concept mapping, semi-structured interviews were used to provide participants with another opportunity to make sense of their ideas about STEM education and inform the research findings. Consistent with many international recommendations, two National Research Council (NRC) reports on successful K-12 STEM programs in the USA described three major and inclusive goals for STEM education: (a) increase the number of STEM innovators and professionals, (b) strengthen the STEM-related workforce, and (c) improve STEM literacy in all citizens (National Research Council … All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All rights reserved. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), previously science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET), is a broad term used to group together these academic disciplines. Copyright © 1997 - 2021. Jumping on the STEM bandwagon: how middle grades students and teachers can benefit from STEM experiences. STEM; is an educational approach aimed at providing students with the ability to communicate in an inter disciplinary way, to do team work, to think creatively, to research, to produce and to solve problems, STEM integration: teacher perceptions and practice. Table 5 is organized in descending order of the most commonly included concept map themes by individual participants, making for an easy comparison between the global findings (reported in Table 3) and the frequency of inclusion by role group. National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council (2014). https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21171. The creation of a “plausible story” (Weick et al. Novak, JD. In his interview, he explained why real-world connections were important and how he developed these: And so I started with real world scenarios, just because to me the science, technology, engineering and mathematics, kind of the end goal is getting students more fully prepared for real life. For some participants, the interview prompted them to make modifications to the map or express additional ideas that were not on the map. A middle school history and language arts teacher who did include technology on his map explained why he positioned it as one of the major nodes: “I feel technology is embedded into everything. Cite this article. Greene, BA, Lubin, IA, Slater, JL, Walden, SE. 2008), explicitly identifying the ideas educators are and are not selecting and retaining can inform professional learning activities at local and larger scales. Scoring concept maps: an integrated rubric for assessing engineering education. Technology and Engineering Teacher, 70(1), 30–35. Markham, KM, Mintzes, JJ, Jones, MG. (1994). Thus, preparation for and implementation of the various sessions in this institute provided opportunities for all faculty members to share their expertise and clarify key ideas about STEM education. And great to know your eagerness in working out the title for your research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the commonalities and variations in educators’ conceptualizations of STEM education. Sensemaking as a collaborative, reflective, and iterative process can surface the differences and commonalities in people’s understandings to better ensure consistency in students’ learning opportunities across classrooms. (Rachel interview, November 6, 2014). The three codes (Val, TchNd, ChPrb in Table 2) were added later in the coding process to better capture significant themes that emerged in our analysis. LITERATURE REVIEW STEM Education has become an international topic of discussion over the past decade. Engineering, mathematics, and science professors from the university and a variety of other professionals (e.g., a prosthetics designer, a government climate scientist) interacted with the teachers and students. And technology education has traditionally been delegated to vocational education (now called CTE), when included at all in secondary schooling. Statement of core policy principles. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 28(5), 444–467. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2014.862125. STEM is the strand for students who wish to go into college with the following courses: Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, Computer Studies, Information Technology and so on and forth on the related courses. Educators must push on the status quo in areas of instruction, curriculum, learning opportunities, assessment, and school structures. So since inception it would seem, STEM has struggled with its identity. Beneath any issues which might arise in knowledge of content, many students with good grades in mathematics seem to find it difficult to apply the mathematical knowledge that they might have. These include the incorporation of an engineering design process into the curriculum (Lesseig et al. Less than one third of the participants included an explicit reference to STEM education as providing opportunities for all students to participate and be successful (Equ). Gonzalez, HB, & Kuenzi, JJ (2012). To check the reliability of our thematic coding on complex, non-traditional maps, the first author conducted follow-up interviews with three of the PD faculty and found that the initial coding accurately represented the mapmaker’s intentions. Our research shows that even when educators have similar professional learning experiences and/or work in the same contexts, they may make sense of what this innovation means quite differently. Thus, we addressed the following sub-questions in our analysis: What themes emerge in the conceptualizations of STEM education among educators in a given professional context? 1. As in the case of PD context, there is an indication in these data that the responsibilities of one’s specific job contribute to the elements of STEM education that are retained. However, STEM teachers were also more likely to consider content standards, instructional approaches commonly associated with STEM education such as project-based learning, and twenty-first century skills in their conceptions. In this article we explore some of the main mathematical problems arising. They created their concept maps during the first of a 2-day planning meeting for the summer STEM education institute. Understanding how various stakeholders conceptualize new curricular or instructional ideas can inform the conversation needed to support professional learning and alleviate challenges to reform. (2003). (2016). Washington State University, 14204 NE Salmon Creek Avenue, Vancouver, WA, 98686-9600, USA, Tamara D. Holmlund, Kristin Lesseig & David Slavit, You can also search for this author in Expanding on this area in interviews, some connected these skills to career and life opportunities. Manage cookies/Do not sell my data we use in the preference centre. If it’s your task for now, feel free to use our short guide. Google Scholar. (2014) compiled ten “critical components” of STEM high schools, and LaForce et al. Our society have plenty of problems to be solved, let’s admit it. Log in. “The assumptions and propositions of sensemaking, taken together, provide methodological guidance for framing research questions, for collecting data, and for charting analyses” (Dervin 1992, p.62). At the classroom level, Kelley and Knowles (2016) provide a conceptual framework for secondary STEM education efforts. ... for college. In this way, enacting STEM education entails innovation and motivates sensemaking. Part of As the interview protocol probed for explanations about each map element, the transcripts helped clarify meanings or validate interpretations of cross-links and nodes. Sense-making does assume that the individual is situated in cultural/historical moments in time-space and that culture, history, and institutions define much of the world within which the individual lives . It seems that there are several main reasons, common to all disciplines: Solution: We designed stemNRICH around the content areas needed for university STEM courses. Science Education, 93(4), 656–677. Emerging research shows a lack of consensus on the content and instructional practices associated with STEM education, with various models being promoted. Organization Science, 16(4), 409–421. Kloser, M. (2014). What does it mean to create sustainable science curriculum innovations? Posted in Chronic Reviews. Both individual and collective sensemaking can result in a range of meanings. Nodes that reflected a broader conceptualization related to global citizenship and STEM literacy as having economic and other societal benefits were recoded as “value of STEM literacy” (Val). National Governors Association (2010). STUDENTS moving up to senior high school are encouraged to take the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) strand to help the country be a leader in innovation and competitiveness. In cases where interviews were conducted in pairs, participants were asked to compare and contrast their maps or to comment on specific ideas that may have appeared on a colleagues’ map. The NSF continues to use the STEM as an overarching title—for example, in requests for proposals—and activity within any one of the four disciplines can fit into the STEM category. A discussion about conceptions of STEM in education and partnerships. However, for three PD faculties who constructed non-traditional concept maps (e.g., Fig. 2005, p. 410) provides the implementer a way to reconcile the varied requirements, standards, and other ideas associated with a proposal for change within their current situation. (2018). The interdisciplinary nature of STEM learning was by far the most salient feature for non-STEM teachers as well, and a significant focus by the administrators and external partners. Achieve, I (2013). While multiple perspectives are useful in generating ideas, this can also be problematic in terms of how new ideas are implemented. These discussions machines, we investigated the conceptualizations of STEM schools institute developed by the majority Borko... Requires implementers to interpret what is your understanding or conception of STEM education such, map formats ranged widely Figs... 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