STEM 1, 2, 3: Levelling Up in Primary Schools

Abstract

Recent research advocating the educational value of engaging primary students in authentic integrated STEM inquiry projects also identifies challenges for teachers aspiring to high-quality student-learning experiences. Teachers require support to integrate disciplines, prioritise processes and reasoning over curriculum content, and increase student autonomy in purposeful STEM projects. Within the context of a year-long professional learning program in Australia, an innovative tri-level approach to skill-building for teachers and their students has been developed. The three levels of ‘STEM Skills’, ‘Design Process’ and ‘Integrated STEM Projects’ are intended to successively escalate demands on time, resources and pedagogical change while promoting the development of the dispositions and skills needed to engage in sustained inquiry projects. The teacher participants (n = 11) came from five schools who had just concluded the STEM Academy professional learning program. Semi-structured interviews guided teacher reflection. Data analysis combined inductive and deductive processes to thematize meaning and revealed ways in which the tri-level approach to STEM education supported the development of STEM integration practices. The findings suggest the efficacy of the tri-level approach and its potential value beyond the context in which it was developed.