Explicating the Characteristics of STEM Teaching and Learning: A Metasynthesis

Abstract

This metasynthesis focused on STEM teaching and learning practices in middle and high school classrooms and in informal settings. Research artifacts between 2005 and 2012 were examined. Fifty-eight unique artifacts were classified into four categories: reform-based teaching and learning, informal education, teacher factors, and technology use. Promising pedagogical reform-based practices included inquiry-based learning, engineering design, project-based learning, problem-based learning, and hands-on practices. The most common intervention identified was increasing teacher content knowledge. Even though STEM informal activities attempt to recruit underrepresented or low achieving students, the reality is that access to informal STEM activities is often based on students' expressed high interest, prior academic achievement, teacher recommendation, time and travel availability and flexibility, and overall levels of ambition or motivation. Positive outcomes, due to technology, appeared to covary with other factors such as teacher content knowledge, the presence of campus support, or active engagement within a learning community. 33 was conducted. We attempted to identify attributes from the literature linked with successful STEM teaching, learning, interest, and attitudes. Artifact Selection ProceduresOur comprehensive search of STEM practices in teaching middle and high school was conducted using the following search terms: "STEM practice" OR teaching OR learning OR education OR "high school" OR "middle school" OR research NOT cell NOT cells.

The effectiveness of an integratedSTEMcurriculum unit on middle school students' life science learning

“…The design tasks required students to make recommendations for design decisions supported by background information, content, and data from prototypes. The study findings support prior literature that signifies the inclusion of the intentional integration of STEM disciplines in well‐designed curriculum materials helps enhance students' understanding of science concepts (e.g., Furner & Kumar, 2007; Guzey et al, 2016; Nite et al, 2017; Wendell & Rogers, 2013).…”

“…Studies suggest that these experiences will allow the students to make decisions about their career paths and develop STEM identities during middle school years (Beier et al, 2019; English & King, 2019; Ganesh & Schnittka, 2014; Guzey et al, 2016, 2017; Maltese & Tai, 2010). Other benefits of STEM integration include having students engage in hands‐on and authentic experiences by providing students a real‐life context‐based academic learning and problem‐solving skills (Cunningham et al, 2020; Dailey et al, 2018; Guzey et al, 2017; Hernandez et al, 2014), enhancing higher‐level thinking skills (Capraro & Slough, 2013; Kelley & Knowles, 2016), improving conceptual understanding and academic performance (Nite et al, 2017; NAE/NRC, 2014.…”

“…Studies suggest that these experiences will allow the students to make decisions about their career paths and develop STEM identities during middle school years (Beier et al, 2019;English & King, 2019;Ganesh & Schnittka, 2014;Guzey et al, 2016Maltese & Tai, 2010). Other benefits of STEM integration include having students engage in hands-on and authentic experiences by providing students a real-life context-based academic learning and problem-solving skills (Cunningham et al, 2020;Dailey et al, 2018;Hernandez et al, 2014), enhancing higher-level thinking skills (Capraro & Slough, 2013;Kelley & Knowles, 2016), improving conceptual understanding and academic performance (Nite et al, 2017;NAE/NRC, 2014. Besides students' learning of science concepts, studies have highlighted the importance of students' retention of content knowledge of STEM disciplines (e.g., Edwards et al, 2017;Reeve, 2014) for future application of concepts. However, research has reported mixed results on knowledge retention (e.g., Çelik & Gündo gdu, 2016;Marth & Bogner, 2017;Ng et al, 2020).…”

A Meta-Summary of Qualitative Findings about STEM Education

“…It is a common finding in the individual studies that, apart from motivation, STEM education enables students to develop positive attitudes, gives responsibility, increases self-confidence, and raises awareness of both real-life problems and themselves. In support for these findings, Yildirim (2016) and Nite et al (2017) found in their meta-synthesis studies that STEM education contributes to the development of students' positive attitudes toward STEM domains. The fact that students develop positive attitudes toward STEM domains can also support their future careers in STEM fields (Koszalka, Wu & Davidson, 2007).…”

“…There are also meta-synthesis studies in the literature that determine the characteristics of STEM education (Nite, Capraro, Capraro & Bicer, 2017) and the effect of STEM education on academic success, skills, and attitude (Yıldırım, 2016). In the metasynthesis study conducted by Nite et al (2017), 57 individual studies were categorized in terms of their characteristics as reform-based learning and teaching, informal education, teacher factors and technology use. Reform-based applications cover the inquiry-based instruction, engineering design, project-based instruction, problem-based instruction, and applied activities.…”