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  • Publication
    Open Access
    Developing an integrated STEM classroom observation protocol using the productive disciplinary engagement framework
    (Springer Nature, 2023) ;
    Koh, Jaime Li-Ching
    ;
    ;
    STEM education and research has gained popularity internationally over the last decade. However, there is a lack in specifications in existing K-12 STEM classroom observation protocols of how features of an integrated STEM experience/lesson would lead to desired outcomes and how those outcomes should be measured. To bridge this gap, we propose the development of a new integrated STEM classroom observation protocol (iSTEM protocol). This article describes the ongoing development work of the iSTEM protocol, which features two creative attempts. Firstly, the productive disciplinary engagement framework is adapted to design a classroom observation protocol that provides a coherent frame of design principles to be met to achieve desired 3-dimensional pedagogical outcomes. Secondly, interdisciplinarity of student engagement was interpreted in terms of the extent to which students take a systematic and disciplinary-based approach to make and justify decisions during STEM problem-solving. The iSTEM protocol comprises 15 items (4-point scale) rated holistically for the extents to which evidence was found in the observed lesson for (1) the 3-dimensional pedagogical outcomes of productive interdisciplinary engagement (five items) and (2) problematising, resources, authority, and accountability design principles (10 items). The accompanying iSTEM profile visually represents and communicates the strengths and inadequacies in design principles, thus providing explanations for extents of students’ productive interdisciplinary engagement. The iSTEM protocol will contribute as a research tool for STEM education researchers and as a pedagogical guide for STEM classroom teachers to improve their design of STEM learning experiences.
    WOS© Citations 1Scopus© Citations 4  78  23
  • Publication
    Metadata only
    What does STEM education offer and how is it relevant? A content analysis of secondary school websites in Singapore
    Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) form the basis of many educational programmes around the world. In Singapore, school-based STEM education appears within STEM Applied Learning Programmes (ALP) offered by some primary and secondary schools. In this chapter, we present an in-depth survey of the diverse offerings and benefits of STEM education here; specifically, we examine STEM learning/activities from the websites of 15 secondary schools (Grades 7–10/11). Using a theoretical model of relevance for science education from the literature, we identified the benefits and pathways that STEM education has been reported to afford its participants, that is, how STEM education can be made relevant for students through ALP. Relevance is defined in terms of fulfilment of intrinsic or extrinsic needs in the present or future, and along the three dimensions of individual, societal, and vocational needs in this model. Our main findings indicate that this sample of STEM ALP websites did not sufficiently yield statements that supported the present or future aspects of intrinsic relevance within the societal and vocational dimensions. On the other hand, multiple descriptions in relation to the extrinsic and future aspects across the individual, societal, and vocational dimensions of relevance were provided. Three implications of these findings for STEM education in Singapore are highlighted: (i) greater consideration of student choices, identities, and agency, (ii) greater awareness and discussion of undesirable/negative impacts of STEM solutions on society, and (iii) greater emphasis on the epistemic aspects of STEM.
    Scopus© Citations 1  85