Background: STEM education needs to begin in primary schools and should aim to prepare young people for active participation in their future. To produce a generation interested and skilled in STEM, the key foci within schools may best occur through teams of teachers working together in an integrated approach, based on crosscurricular teaching and learning. Teachers play a key role in STEM education, and it is important to attract high achievers with relevant backgrounds into teaching. This research study focused on the beliefs, understandings, and intentions of pre-service primary teachers to teach STEM. These beliefs, understandings, and intentions form the platform on which the pre-service teachers build their capacity to teach STEM subjects in primary schools.Results: The data (n = 119) collected from a designed questionnaire were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. An interpretive practice has been used in formulating categories based on responses regarding beliefs, understandings, intentions, and ideal scenarios for future practices and a grounded theory approach for formulating scenarios based on data analysis. The qualitative data were coded into categories based on responses. Structural equation modelling (SEM) and logical regression were conducted to find relationships of the pre-service teacher's platform for capacity building and connecting to what is required in their classrooms now and in the future. Logistic regressions were used to explore the association of all the questionnaire items and open responses related to the platform and future capacity building. Based on the results, it is evident that the platform developed for teaching STEM based on experience in their teaching degree is limited; however, they have positive intentions to take up STEM. They are not seeing any positive initiative at schools, and they have limited confidence to teach STEM. However, they were suggesting that they should be provided with more opportunities to teach STEM.Conclusions: Overall, our findings indicate that pre-service teachers do not have strong understanding; however, they have strong beliefs and intentions to teach STEM in their future career. The results of this study indicate that the capacity they have built provides them with explicit views on how to teach STEM in primary schools now and informs what they need for the future teaching of STEM. It is essential to formulate a course work and professional development in STEM, capable of integrating disciplines, providing an understanding of pedagogical approaches, and connecting to real-life relevance with the twenty-first century competencies.

Background China has great student participation in STEM education. Chinese society has a progressive and positive attitude towards STEM as it is considered to provide more opportunities in life. Teachers play a vital role in the success of any STEM program in K-12 schools. However, teachers are facing instructional challenges because of the interdisciplinary nature of the STEM curriculum and the current typical school structure. The success of the STEM programs depends on teachers’ beliefs and their knowledge in adapting to instructional implementation of STEM concepts. Results The data (n = 216) was collected from STEM primary and secondary teachers from 25 provinces in mainland China. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied, and Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to examine the correlation between Chinese STEM teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, implementation, and the intrinsic challenges of STEM education; t tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed to ascertain whether there were differences. The structural equation model (SEM) was applied to identify interrelationships. The results indicated that Chinese STEM teachers encounter higher-level intrinsic challenges to instructional implementations based on their beliefs and knowledge. Teachers who utilize their experience of teaching science as their main discipline and then attempt to integrate STEM using mathematics and engineering are likely to encounter higher-level intrinsic challenges in implementation. Conclusion The intrinsic challenges perceived by Chinese teachers in the practice of STEM education can be predicted by their beliefs and knowledge base. Teachers who understand the nature and pedagogy of STEM education are more likely to encounter lower-level intrinsic challenges of STEM teaching, while teachers who utilize their main discipline when conducting integrated STEM learning activities through modeling based on science, technology, engineering, and mathematical problem situations are more likely to encounter higher-level intrinsic challenges. This study also reveals that there are some significant differences in the level of STEM teachers’ beliefs, knowledge base, instructional practice, and their intrinsic challenges based on their teaching grade, seniority, and experience of STEM training and teaching.

The development of integrated skills and knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are necessary in order to deal with challenging complex situations and should be developed from primary school. It is expected that early experiences can influence and foster a deep and ongoing interest in STEM. In order to provide these early experiences in their future classrooms, preservice teachers need subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and expertise to innovate and deal with STEM in their own future classrooms This research focused on the beliefs and understandings preservice primary teachers (n=119) have about teaching and to what extent they are prepared to teach STEM subjects in primary schools. A questionnaire based on the position paper on STEM issued by the Australian Office of the Chief Scientist (Prinsley & Johnston, 2015) and guided by the theory of reasoned action was used as the basis of this study. The data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results suggest the preservice teachers in this study believed there should be STEM in the curriculum, but they were not confident in their ability to teach STEM without more professional preparation and development.

Global warming and climate change are serious issues facing humanity at present and education needs to focus on including informed-decision in classroom practices. The conceptual framework used in this study has provided interconnections that influence beliefs and understandings in providing a knowledge base for making “informed-decision” among high school students. This study was conducted in three year 9 classes in two high schools in the UK and among 65 students. An inquiry intervention model was developed using the 5E instructional model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) to identify beliefs and understanding and to strengthen students’ knowledge base. This study used a design-based research setting and utilised a mixed methodology. The Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were computed to examine the pre-post-difference among questionnaire items, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilised to explore the relationship between belief, understanding, and intention. Data analysis of the intervention revealed that students developed a strong understanding of the causes and effects of global warming. There is evidence that students used that knowledge to “inform-decision” in relation to global warming and climate change. Promoting informed decision-making through science teaching can encourage responsible action in the future. The real gap identified in this study is that the regular school curriculum does not engage socio-scientific issues in the real world and has no opportunity to organise an inquiry-based instructional sequence for informed decision-making.

We have great pleasure in releasing this special edition on “Significance of STEM Education in Teaching and Learning for the Changing World with COVID19”, which focused on the importance of STEM education during these challenging COVID 19 scenarios. Integrated approaches to teaching and learning, and teacher preparation are key aspects to be focused on to nurture a responsible generation that is motivated and proficient in STEM. This would open new avenues for changing the existing practices and might lead to innovations that would have an influence on contemporary lifestyle practices. These are unknown, unpredictable and uncertain times, requiring unprecedented experimentations with new choices to reverse or enhance established practices. It is certainly tough to deal with many difficulties in daily life, let alone in in research, teaching and learning settings. We must confront these times with resilience to face the challenges and find alternative routes to forward. This would most likely include a timeline from inception to conclusion of current practices and a roadmap for future practices.