What do we mean when we say ‘STEM’?
The Primary + STEM team recently wrote a report on STEM in primary schools, including best practice implementation, innovation, and identified gaps in Victorian classrooms.
The report was developed for The Invergowrie Foundation by Therese Keane, Tanya Linden and Suzanne Snead from Swinburne University of Technology and University of Melbourne.
You can read the whole report here.
In this blog post, we want to bring you a short excerpt from the report, and to clarify what we mean by the term ‘STEM’.
Report excerpt: Engaging Primary Girls in STEM
The concept of STEM, originally known as SMET (Science, Mathematics, Engineering & Technology), was introduced in 2001 at the National Science Foundation in the United States by Dr Judith Ramaley.
She rearranged the letters to STEM.
In doing so, she emphasised Technology and Engineering as being integrated with Science and Mathematics (i.e. not considered inferior or secondary).
The National Science Foundation did not define, precisely, what STEM was, which left interpretation to the stakeholders, each with their own vested interest in STEM education and occupations.
The absence of a unifying definition and understanding of STEM continues to be acknowledged in Australia.
Reviews of best practice suggest it may not be possible to have a unified definition (Hobbs et al., 2017).
According to Hanover Research (2012, p. 9), “STEM education should include interdisciplinary and hands-on, experience-based pedagogical techniques” while acknowledging the lack of consensus regarding the method to this approach.
Despite the popularity of the term STEM, its complex and multidimensional nature makes it difficult to produce a clear definition incorporating all important aspects.
The term STEM is often used as a shorthand to describe the four discrete fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
However, when used within the field of education, the meaning of STEM often extends beyond this. According to the Australian Education Council (2015, p. 5) the definition for STEM is:
“…a term used to refer collectively to the teaching of the disciplines within its umbrella – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and also to a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching that increases student interest in STEM-related fields and improves students’ problem solving and critical analysis skills.”
The Education Council’s definition recognises STEM as both separate disciplines and as a cross disciplinary approach.
STEM education definitions set STEM as a distinct integrated pedagogy larger than the sum of its parts. The National STEM Education Resources Toolkit (Dandolopartners International, 2020) identified two common ways to refer to STEM education.
Firstly, as individual subjects. Secondly, as an integrated entity. An integrated approach to STEM promotes key skills such as problem-solving and creative thinking.
Other researchers have also advocated an integrated approach to STEM (Breiner, Harkness, Johnson, & Koehler, 2012).
The integrated approach removes the artificial silos of Science or Technology or Engineering or Mathematics. Rather, it takes the view: Science and Technology and Engineering and Mathematics.
Since real-life problems are interdisciplinary in nature, an integrated approach to STEM provides students with a context for engaging in authentic problem solving.
The theoretical underpinnings for the integrated STEM approach to solving real world problems is provided by Dewey (Waks & English, 2017).
The Primary + STEM team use a definition of STEM education as: an integrated teaching approach to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines and their relation to other disciplines in the curriculum.
This approach is informed by experiential project-based and/or inquiry-led learning, with connections to real world situations and issues, and aims to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Click here to download a copy of the full report.
References
Breiner, J. M., Harkness, S. S., Johnson, C. C., & Koehler, C. M. (2012). What is STEM? A discussion about conceptions of STEM in education and partnerships. School Science and Mathematics, 112(1), 3-11. doi:10.1111/j.1949-8594.2011.00109.x
Dandolopartners International. (2020). National STEM education resources toolkit Retrieved from Australia: https://www.dese.gov.au/australian-curriculum/support-science-technology-engineeringand-mathematics-stem/stem-education-resources-toolkit
Education Council Australia. (2019). STEM school education interventions synthesis report. Retrieved from Victoria: https://eric.ed.gov/?q=Synthesis&id=ED600042Hanover Research. (2012). Best practices in elementary STEM programs. In Report. Washinton, DC: Hanover Research.
Hobbs, L., Jakab, C., Millar, V., Prain, V., Redman, C., Speldewinde, C., . . . van Driel, J. (2017). Girls’ future – our future. The Invergowrie Foundation STEM Report. Retrieved from Melbourne: https://invergowrie.org.au/ wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Invergowrie-STEM-Report-web.pdf
Waks, L. J., & English, A. R. (2017). John Dewey’s democracy and education: A centennial handbook: Cambridge University Press.
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