STEM Integration in K-12 Education Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research (2014) / Chapter Skim
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6 Findings, Recommendations, and Research Agenda
6 Findings, Recommendations, and Research Agenda
Pages 135-154
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From page 135... ...
Several converging forces have elevated the importance of understanding the potential value -- as well as the limitations and challenges -- of integrated STEM education. One development is the small but growing presence of engineering in K–12 classrooms1 and out-of-school settings.
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From page 136... ...
Finally, some of the impetus for integrated STEM education is undoubtedly driven by dissatisfaction with traditional approaches to science and mathematics education in the United States. Although decades of education reform have brought significant changes to curricula, standards, and professional development in these subjects, much science and mathematics teaching still emphasizes rote skills and memorization; relatively few K–12 students express interest in pursuing these subjects in college or as a career; and the performance of US students on international comparative assessments is below what many feel is adequate, given how expertise in these subjects helps fuel the nation's innovation engine.
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From page 137... ...
Lack of detailed descriptions of interventions and of experimental methods makes it difficult to have confidence in reported outcomes or to identify the essential ingredients of effective integrated STEM education. In addition, many of the studies used research designs or outcome measures that did not appear optimal for addressing the questions posed.
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From page 138... ...
The two agencies intend to use the document to establish uniform expectations for proposals submitted in response to particular program announcements, solicitations, or other funding opportunities. Research teams engaged in efforts to understand integrated STEM education could benefit greatly by attending to the guid
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Impact Research contributes to evidence of impact, generating reliable estimates of the ability of a fully developed intervention or strategy to achieve its intended outcomes. The three types of Impact Research share many similarities of approach, including designs that eliminate or reduce bias arising from self-selection into treatment and control conditions, clearly specified outcome measures, adequate statistical power to detect continued
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From page 140... ...
Similarly, the composition of the teams, which will vary according to the category of research, can be informed by the considerations discussed in the agencies' report. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS RELATED TO THE OUTCOMES OF INTEGRATED STEM EDUCATION Advocates of integrated STEM education claim that integrated approaches can produce improvements across a range of outcomes, including learn
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Measures should be selected or developed based on these outcomes. Learning, Reasoning, and Achievement In studies on integrated STEM education, learning outcomes are often measured using scores on standardized tests, though some studies include tests of knowledge specifically tied to the intervention.
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In its review of the literature, the committee found hints that integrated STEM education may positively influence STEM interest and identity, and that this effect may be particularly strong for populations that have historically struggled in STEM classes and are underrepresented in STEM programs in higher education and STEM professions. As noted in Chapter 3, identity generally refers to who one is or wants to be, as well as to how one is recognized by others -- as a particular kind of person with particular interests, expertise, and ways of being in particular social contexts.
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Box 6-2 provides examples of research questions related to the outcomes of integrated STEM education. FINDINGS RELATED TO THE NATURE OF INTEGRATED STEM EDUCATION Our analysis of the research and examination of specific programs led to important findings about three aspects of integrated STEM education: the interplay between integrated and disciplinary learning; the cognitive pluses and minuses associated with connection making; and the role that context seems to play in supporting integrated STEM learning.
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Our review of the research suggests that, to benefit from integrated STEM education experiences, students need to be competent with disciplinespecific representations and able to translate between them, exhibiting what some scholars refer to as "representational fluency." Participation in shared practices, such as modeling in engineering, science, and mathematics,
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Box 6-3 provides examples of research questions related to the nature of integrated STEM education. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS RELATED TO THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INTEGRATED STEM EDUCATION Those who design and implement integrated STEM education experiences will need to attend to a number of interrelated factors, if they hope to influence student learning, interest, motivation, and persistence in STEM subjects.
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• What synergistic STEM concepts and practices are learned better through integrated STEM education approaches than via disciplin ary-focused approaches, and what student and teacher supports are needed to accomplish this learning? potential benefits and challenges of making connections across the STEM subjects suggest the importance of a measured, strategic approach to implementing integrated STEM education that accounts for the inherent tradeoffs in cognition and learning.
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This makes it very difficult to determine whether integration is helping to achieve the particular goal. RECOMMENDATION 5: Designers of integrated STEM education initiatives need to be explicit about the goals they aim to achieve and design the integrated STEM experience purposefully to achieve these goals.
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Indeed, if anything, integrated STEM education reinforces the need for students to hone their disciplinary expertise. RECOMMENDATION 7: Designers of integrated STEM experiences need to attend to the learning goals and learning progressions in the individual STEM subjects so as not to inadvertently undermine student learning in those subjects.
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From page 149... ...
In the case of integrated STEM education, we have found no evidence that researchers, curriculum developers, or practitioners are measuring outcomes from integrated STEM experiences in reliable, valid ways. The National Assessment of Educational Progress will field an assessment of technology and engineering literacy in a sample of US 8th graders in 2014 (NAEP 2013)
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As the committee notes in its review of the research on STEM education in Chapter 3 and repeats in this chapter, many well-meaning efforts to develop integrated STEM education programs are either unclear about goals or do not collect outcomes data that allow one to determine if the stated goals have been met. In addition, in many cases, it is not possible to determine if the program as GOALS AND OBJECTIVES (Desired Outcomes)
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From page 151... ...
• How should integrated STEM experiences be designed to account for educators' and students' varying levels of experience with inte grated learning and STEM content? • What pedagogical content knowledge do educators require to suc cessfully support student learning in integrated STEM education ex periences, and how might this knowledge vary according to student age or level of interest in STEM?
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From page 152... ...
Although each of these courses has a disciplinary emphasis, they also aim to build student competencies to connect with other subjects, particularly mathematics. FINAL THOUGHTS In addressing its charge, the committee has carefully reviewed the available research on integrated STEM education and related research and examined a selected set of curricula, schools, professional development efforts, and other relevant initiatives.
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2003. Strategic Education Research Partnership.
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Committee on the Status, Contributions, and Future Directions of Discipline-Based Education Research, Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.
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