Abstract
STEM education faces monumental challenges which are aggravated by the Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 and the current COVID-19 global contagion. These challenges also affect how students learn in the STEM discipline in the senior high school. This qualitative study employed a case research design which sought to investigate nature of the challenges in STEM learning among senior high school students in the Philippines. Semi-structured interview guide was used in gathering the qualitative data from the 20 STEM learners in a government-run secondary school in Zambales, Philippines. Findings showed that the students encountered challenges in the STEM program. Ten themes emerged based on the students’ responses. These challenges encountered by the students revolved around three categories – course-related challenges, individual challenges and socio-cultural challenges. The study recommends that schools offering STEM academic strands may reframe and rethink their processes, practices and policies to address the students’ challenges in STEM learning. Policy recommendations are also discussed in the paper to equip the students towards the demands of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and in the post-pandemic world.
Highlights
The demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce in the contemporary society is very high.Globally, educational institutions encourage students to take up STEM to enhance their STEM skills and literacy which are needed in the modern industries
The present study explored the challenges in STEM learning of a case of Filipino students
The challenges encountered by students in studying STEM
Summary
The demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce in the contemporary society is very high. The first batch of STEM senior high school students in the Philippines enrolled in June 2016 which marked the full implementation of the K12 basic education curriculum. The Commission on Higher Education report as cited in Rafanan et al (2020) reveals that the completion rate across STEM disciplines is only 21.10% based on the average 5year data up until 2016-2017 They cite the completion rates as follows, science (25.52%), mathematics (21.20%), information technology (19.56%), engineering and technology (18.97%), and medical and allied fields (14.38%). With the challenges of low STEM enrollment and low scientific literacy, the researchers sought to explore through this qualitative case research the nature of challenges of senior high school students in learning STEM in the Philippine context. Twenty Grade 12 STEM students sampled conveniently from one Philippine government school served as participants in the case study. To ensure validity and credibility of the emerging themes and its corresponding descriptions, the researchers employed informant feedback via interview among select participants (Lincoln & Guba, 1985)
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