In Search of a Long-Awaited Consensus on Disciplinary Integration in STEM Education

Abstract

The emergence of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in research and the practice of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education is today an unquestionable fact at international level. Despite the importance attached to STEM education, there is a lack of synthesized approaches to teaching the interdisciplinarity of STEM. This lack of synthesis can hinder a strong theoretical foundation for STEM education and possible new contributions. The purpose of this position paper is to contribute a theoretical framework for STEM education that enables the unification of criteria regarding disciplinary integration and associated teaching methods. The authors discuss disciplinary integration in STEM activities, the implication of STEM literacy, educational stage, and teaching method, and provide suggestions for future research.

Measurement in Primary School Mathematics and Science Textbooks

“…In short, we deem that the teaching approach found in textbooks must be revisited if they are to be used in STEM instruction. In the earliest years, prioritising the use of personal, professional or scientific contexts would further STEM education, characterised by problem solving, everyday situations and inter-disciplinarity [3,52]. Otherwise, such books would be useful only as a supplement or reinforcement of the skills addressed in a given STEM proposal.…”

Humanities and Social Sciences in Relation to Sustainable Development Goals and STEM Education

“…Therefore, STEM education is not only ascribed to scientific and technological knowledge, it also involves a particular approach to education where learning to apply the acquired knowledge to real life situations is as central as the disciplinary knowledge acquired [7]. Although the term of STEM education is applied to different ideas using different criteria [1], [5] (p. 597), [9] (p. 20), it is true in nearly all cases that STEM education involves the recognition of the necessity to integrate the four disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in an interdisciplinary process to address real world problems [5] (p. 598), [6] (p. 10), [9,10].…”

“…Although the need for the inclusion of humanities and social sciences in STEM education has been well established [2][3][4], in practice, this idea is more of a politically correct statement than an actual policy [3] (p. 11). The lack of a common conceptualization about how to integrate the disciplines [5] (p. 598), [6] (p. 11) makes it difficult to actually integrate them in the classroom or in other educational environments. The problem can be seen as an operational one.…”

Aproximación a los estilos y estrategias de enseñanza del profesorado de la ESO y Bachillerato de ciencias experimentales y tecnología: un estudio de caso

“…En este sentido, dentro de las taxonomías de estrategias de enseñanza-aprendizaje, se encuentran aquellas centradas en el alumno, las centradas en el docente, las centradas en el proceso y las centradas en el objeto de conocimiento. Entre todas ellas, las estrategias centradas en el alumnado parecen señalarse como las más efectivas para un aprendizaje significativo, como pueden ser el método de problemas, de casos, de indagación, de proyectos, educación STEM o juegos de roles, entre otros, fundamentándose en el autoaprendizaje, así como en el desarrollo del pensamiento y el razonamiento crítico (Aguilera et al, 2021;Azorín-Abellán, 2018). Asimismo, las metodologías participativas parecen incidir de manera favorable en aspectos cognitivos (rendimiento académico), afectivos (actitud hacia la ciencia) y procedimentales (método científico) de los estudiantes (Aguilera-Morales y Perales-Palacios, 2016).…”