Students’ Readiness for STEM Learning within the Context of National Education Reform

Abstract

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education nowadays becomes more and more topical; however, students’ performance in these subjects is rather low and only a small part of them decide to study these sciences therefore it is important to rouse students’ interest in these subjects already at school. It is important to acquire not only the knowledge of the subject but also the transversal skills, thus, the organization of the teaching/learning process becomes more significant. Schools of Latvia start implementing the teaching/learning content and approach that correspond to the new standards of basic and general secondary education, which incorporates four innovative aspects in the science domain: the promotion of the content acquisition through teachers’ reciprocal collaboration; the use of ICT (Information Communication Technologies) as a platform for engineering technological solutions; learning through doing and engagement in discussions and other activities for making socially responsible decisions. The aim of the study is to find out students’ readiness to learn STEM in the context of innovative approaches of the national education reform. To reach the aim, the research question was set – to what extent and in which way are students ready to learn STEM? Using the QuestionPro e-platform, 257 students of Latvian general comprehensive schools were surveyed and the meta-analysis of factors of thematically respective selected questions was performed. The obtained empirical results were compared with the four aspects of the innovative approach pertaining to the education reform in the science domain. The study resulted in isolating main four factors: the course of the teaching/learning process, the feedback, the use of ICT and technologies little used in the acquisition STEM. The found factors comprised all the innovations of the science domain put forward by the national education reform, which means that students already at the pre-reform stage are ready to acquire STEM subjects in an innovative way.

Some Issues Concerning the Use of Didactics of Biology

“…Biological knowledge encompasses a range of concepts with varying degrees of complexity, abstraction and meaning (Zogza, 2016), so the level of background knowledge of learners is important (Birzina et al, 2019;Cedere et al, 2022;Sorgo & Siling, 2017;Machar et al, 2014). Successful learning in biology requires the use of diverse teaching/learning methods not only for understanding the natural world, but also for learners' successful engagement in today's labour market through project-based learning, critical thinking, problem solving, civic engagement, research and digital skills (Birzina et al, 2021;Cedere et al, 2020;Mård & Hilli, 2022). There are so many new developments in life sciences that nowadays previous theoretical constructs -theories, laws and models -need to be revisited and mastered at the school level.…”

To Be or Not to Be a Great Educator

“…Since the late 1990s, in Latvian school system the pressure on educators has been mainly to increase the number of students who pursue education and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields (Kiselova & Gravite, 2017;Karaseva, 2017), thus marking a clear line between the STEM subjects and the rest of the disciplines taught. However, the current school reform, labeled as "School 2030", is grounded in competence-oriented and interdisciplinary teaching framework that prepares students to creatively master the various economic, political, social and cultural challenges in a rapidly changing world (Birzina, Pigozne & Cedere, 2021). Such an approach calls for curricula implementation that is based on the principles of inter-or trans-disciplinarity and the development of students' inquiry skills that breaks the long-standing boundaries between school subjects (Goodson & Mangan, 1995).…”

The Impact on the Mathematics Curriculum for Grades 7–9 in the Competency-Based Approach in the Learning Process in Latvia

“…There are several research studies describing or comparing education systems, for example, education systems of different countries in a field of mathematics are compared in (Kácovský, u.c., 2022), (Moravcova, Surynková, & Hromadová, 2019), (Dudok, 2019), changes in the curriculum of a particular country are described in (Demirtaş, Arslan, Eskicumalı, & Kargi, 2015), (Prendergast & Treacy, 2017). There are also studies related to the national education reform in Latvia, such as (Birzina, Pigozne, & Cedere, 2021), (Kestere, 2019). However, these publications are from a different perspective and there are no publications that compare a mathematics curriculum of Latvia with other countries curricula or describe changes in mathematics curriculum in Latvia.…”