What Is STEM Education?

STEM education promotes the integration and development of scientific and technical subjects in a single interdisciplinary framework. It proposes a didactic approach that aims to ensure the transversality of the teaching-learning process through disciplines that are considered essential for the integral development of individuals in the current local and global context: that is, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

ISTF,  January 12, 2023

The Importance of STEM Education

The pedagogical approach of STEM education encourages critical thinking, creativity, and innovation, as well as collaboration and teamwork. This favors the development of a student profile that is flexible, determined, and motivated that allows the student to transfer their learning to new situations and relevant contexts.

Active methodologies provide students with the set of skills necessary to apply the knowledge and tools they have learned in class to their daily lives. These methodologies assist students in reflecting on what has been learned through this interactive and multidirectional process

The International Science Teaching Foundation (ISTF), which aims to promote research in the field of scientific and technological education, firmly believes that the 5E Model is the model that best meets the challenges of the interdisciplinary framework posed by STEM education. Its adoption in the classroom, using quality content that is designed on the most effective learning models, ensures lasting, transferable, and functional learning for students.

The Future Is STEM

In contrast with more traditional approaches, STEM education aims to provide instructional environments for blended learning and is committed to showing students how the scientific method can be applied in an everyday context. Indeed, STEM education is focused on the practical applications of problem-solving in the real world.

This approach has a distinct advantage in building the student’s future professional career: currently, STEM career profiles are the most sought after by companies for their compatibility with the technological evolution of our society.

The seven countries that had the most STEM career graduates in 2019 were also some of the strongest economies in the world or have the highest growth today: China (4.7 million graduates), India (2.6 million), the United States (568,000), Russia (561,000), Iran (335,000), Indonesia (206,000), and Japan (195,000).

So it is no coincidence that, in the last ten years, STEM education has spread to reach the curricular proposals of most countries in the world in response to the demands of the job market. Today’s students are tomorrow’s professionals and leaders, so we must ensure the quality of STEM education to construct a better-prepared, more critical society.

Sources:

• International Labour Organization (ILO)

• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

• The Importance of STEM Careers to Make a Better Future for Our Society

• The cognitive principles of learning underlying the 5E Model of Instruction