Abstract
STEM education has received increasing attention in recent years. However, developing valid and reliable assessment of interdisciplinary learning in STEM has been a challenge. This study is a comprehensive review of assessment of interdisciplinary STEM education during the last two decades. A total of 49 empirical research articles were collected from an initial library of 635 articles focusing on interdisciplinary STEM education. A two-dimensional framework was developed to examine the literature. The first dimension concerns the nature of disciplines being assessed and includes three categories: monodisciplinary, interdiscipline, and transdiscipline. The second dimension concerns the learning objectives and includes four aspects: knowledge, skill, practice, and affective domain. The results show that most assessments focused on assessments of monodisciplinary knowledge, monodisciplinary affective domains, and transdisciplinary affective domains. Although many programs aimed to improve students’ interdisciplinary understanding or skills, their assessments did not align with their aims. Based on the review, future directions are proposed for developing assessments for interdisciplinary STEM educational programs.
Highlights
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has become a popular term in education worldwide
The following question guided this review study: What are typically included in assessments of student learning in STEM education at the secondary and the tertiary level?
As this review focused on student learning in STEM educational programs, the search was restricted to literature with an explicit focus on interdisciplinary STEM, not studies on the STEM programs consisting of individual disciplines of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics
Summary
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has become a popular term in education worldwide. While STEM education has drawn increased attention and research, it is filled with debates and dilemmas (STEM Task Force Report, 2014). There is little consensus on what STEM education means and how it should be realized in practice (NAE & NRC, 2014). It can refer to either the sum of the individual disciplines involved in STEM or an interdisciplinary approach to STEM education that emphasizes the connections across disciplines.
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