Integrative Stem Education as “Best Practice”

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Date
2012
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Queensland, Australia
Abstract

In accordance with the conference theme—“Exploring Best Practice in Technology Design & Engineering Education”— I make a case in this paper for investigating “integrative STEM education” as a prospective best practice in technology education. I begin with an embellished operational definition of integrative STEM education and follow that with an extensive rationale for investigating the integrative STEM education pedagogical model as a technology education best practice. In the latter part of the paper I discuss the “design experiment” research methodology (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1992) and make the case that technology education researchers employ this methodology in their investigations of integrative STEM education. Design experiment methods are ideally suited to investigating innovative pedagogies and would benefit technology education by concurrently improving the integrative STEM education pedagogical model while generating new theories of technological learning, S, T, E, & M learning, and integrative STEM learning.

Description
Keywords
integrative STEM education, integrated STEM education, interdisciplinary STEM education, STEM education, technology education, engineering education, science education, math education, problem-based learning
Citation
Sanders, M. E., (2012). Integrative stem education as best practice. In H. Middleton (Ed.), Explorations of Best Practice in Technology, Design, & Engineering Education. Vol.2 (pp.103-117). Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Queensland, Australia.