Making STEM Education Objectives Sustainable through a Tutoring Program

Abstract

The objective of this research was two-fold. First, to determine the impact of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education program on school performance amongst primary education students. Second, to identify the potential benefits of this program on the key competences of university students in Primary Education Teacher Training. The primary education students’ sub-sample, after being matched on key covariates, was randomly assigned either to the experimental (N = 25) or control group (N = 25). The university students’ sub-sample consisted of 26 students self-selected from the Primary Education Teacher Training degree. The intervention consisted of 20 two-hour weekly sessions of highly structured after-school tutoring delivered by previously trained university students. Although statistical significance was not reached for the hypotheses tested, notably, the results showed between small and moderate effect sizes (i.e., magnitude and direction of the program impact) for primary education students on core STEM subjects (e.g., mathematics d = 0.29, natural science d = 0.26), and for university students on some key employability competencies (e.g., action orientation d = 0.27 or team orientation d = 0.54).

STEM teacher professional development in pre-service teacher education: A literature review

“…Many of these activities are carried out by universities and schools having to work together. Cooperation between universities and schools can be good for both pre-service teachers and students at the school (Fernández-Martín et al, 2020). This is also in line with what Murphy (2022) found, suggesting that one of the benefits of STEM education is that people in the STEM community work together more.…”

“…Outside of the university curriculum, a number of professional development activities were also carried out (n=12 or 17 percent). The programme is implemented in two ways: either in collaboration with schools (e.g., Fernández-Martín et al, 2020;Küçük Demir, 2021) or on its own without partnering with schools (e.g., Dubek & Doyle-Jones, 2021;Estapa & Tank, 2017).…”

A Study on the Impact of STEAM Education for Sustainable Development Courses and Its Effects on Student Motivation and Learning

“…Besides identifying the impact of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education programs on the academic performance of elementary students, Fernández-Martín et al (2020) observed the key focus of sustainability on the employability of college students through mentoring programs. They used the course materials provided by the Nurture Thru Nature (NtN) program to evaluate the impact of STEM courses on Spanish elementary students and the effect of mentoring programs on the employability of college students [3]. Studies in Vietnam have shown that STEM education could motivate students and enhance their attitude towards learning [4].…”

Improvement of the Learning Strategies of University Students through a Program Based on Service-Learning

“…Therefore, the results obtained appear to confirm the possible effects of improvement that participation in this type of program entails for the variables of learning strategies and social skills. Therefore, by using other statistics, we are avoiding a frequent error in educational research studies considered as a "Type II error" that affects the validity of statistical conclusions, and that consists of not detecting the effect of the intervention when it really exists [72], as has been done in other studies [65,66,73,74].…”