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Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing attention to STEM education worldwide, there is considerable uncertainty as to what constitutes STEM education and what it means in terms of curriculum and student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the commonalities and variations in educators’ con...

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Autores principales: Holmlund, Tamara D., Lesseig, Kristin, Slavit, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6310439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30631722
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0127-2
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author Holmlund, Tamara D.
Lesseig, Kristin
Slavit, David
author_facet Holmlund, Tamara D.
Lesseig, Kristin
Slavit, David
author_sort Holmlund, Tamara D.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Despite increasing attention to STEM education worldwide, there is considerable uncertainty as to what constitutes STEM education and what it means in terms of curriculum and student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the commonalities and variations in educators’ conceptualizations of STEM education. Sensemaking theory framed our analysis of ideas that were being selected and retained in relation to professional learning experiences in three contexts: two traditional middle schools, a STEM-focused school, and state-wide STEM professional development. Concept maps and interview transcripts from 34 educators holding different roles were analyzed: STEM and non-STEM teachers, administrators, and STEM professional development providers. RESULTS: Three themes were included on over 70% of the 34 concept maps: interdisciplinary connections; the need for new, ambitious instructional practices in enacting a STEM approach; and the engagement of students in real-world problem solving. Conceptualizations of STEM education were related to educational contexts, which included the STEM education professional development activities in which educators engaged. We also identified differences across educators in different roles (e.g., non-STEM teacher, administrator). Two important attributes of STEM education addressed in the literature appeared infrequently across all contexts and role groups: students’ use of technology and the potential of STEM-focused education to provide access and opportunities for all students’ successful participation in STEM. CONCLUSIONS: Given the variety of institutionalized practices and school contexts within which STEM education is enacted, we are not convinced that a single worldwide definition of STEM education is critical. What we do see as essential is that those working in the same system explore the common elements that are being attributed to STEM education and co-construct a vision that provides opportunities for all their students to attain STEM-related goals. This is especially important in the current reform contexts related to STEM education. We also see that common conceptions of STEM education appear across roles and contexts, and these could provide starting points for these discussions. Explicitly identifying the ideas educators are and are not selecting and retaining can inform professional learning activities at local and larger scales.
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spelling pubmed-63104392019-01-08 Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts Holmlund, Tamara D. Lesseig, Kristin Slavit, David Int J STEM Educ Research BACKGROUND: Despite increasing attention to STEM education worldwide, there is considerable uncertainty as to what constitutes STEM education and what it means in terms of curriculum and student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the commonalities and variations in educators’ conceptualizations of STEM education. Sensemaking theory framed our analysis of ideas that were being selected and retained in relation to professional learning experiences in three contexts: two traditional middle schools, a STEM-focused school, and state-wide STEM professional development. Concept maps and interview transcripts from 34 educators holding different roles were analyzed: STEM and non-STEM teachers, administrators, and STEM professional development providers. RESULTS: Three themes were included on over 70% of the 34 concept maps: interdisciplinary connections; the need for new, ambitious instructional practices in enacting a STEM approach; and the engagement of students in real-world problem solving. Conceptualizations of STEM education were related to educational contexts, which included the STEM education professional development activities in which educators engaged. We also identified differences across educators in different roles (e.g., non-STEM teacher, administrator). Two important attributes of STEM education addressed in the literature appeared infrequently across all contexts and role groups: students’ use of technology and the potential of STEM-focused education to provide access and opportunities for all students’ successful participation in STEM. CONCLUSIONS: Given the variety of institutionalized practices and school contexts within which STEM education is enacted, we are not convinced that a single worldwide definition of STEM education is critical. What we do see as essential is that those working in the same system explore the common elements that are being attributed to STEM education and co-construct a vision that provides opportunities for all their students to attain STEM-related goals. This is especially important in the current reform contexts related to STEM education. We also see that common conceptions of STEM education appear across roles and contexts, and these could provide starting points for these discussions. Explicitly identifying the ideas educators are and are not selecting and retaining can inform professional learning activities at local and larger scales. Springer International Publishing 2018-08-24 2018 /pmc/articles/PMC6310439/ /pubmed/30631722 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0127-2 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Research
Holmlund, Tamara D.
Lesseig, Kristin
Slavit, David
Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts
title Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts
title_full Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts
title_fullStr Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts
title_full_unstemmed Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts
title_short Making sense of “STEM education” in K-12 contexts
title_sort making sense of “stem education” in k-12 contexts
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6310439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30631722
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0127-2
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