Abstract

 
 
 Underpinned by the nation-wide Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) project, this practice illustration presents a design framework to respond to the challenges of scaling and sustaining a large design-based research project. The framework, known as STEM Practices Framework, is informed by work within the Learning Sciences which suggests that the interplay between project innovation and the wider educational reform priorities are critical to the sustainability and scalability of projects. The ELSA project responded to this by developing processes of developmental evaluation to parallel the design based research of the project. Emerging from that process was a design proposition that the object of the project, and the entire STEM education agenda, is not simply to improve educational practice, but to shift educational purpose. Specifically, the paper argues that STEM Practices represents a qualitative shift in purpose from the content bound traditions of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education towards developing a greater capacity to use practices in diverse STEM contexts. The STEM Practices Framework described here was developed to support educators and developers to implement the project innovations built on this understanding. The framework is in two parts: (1) an adaptation of Kemmis et al.’s (2014) practice architectures approach and the practice architectures that support and constrain those practices. (2) A heuristic for working with STEM practices in large scale implementation. 
 
 
Highlights
Underpinned by the nation-wide Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) project, this practice illustration presents a design framework to respond to the challenges of scaling and sustaining a large design-based research project
Reporting from within a nation-wide design-research project called Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA), this paper continues the discussion of the propagation and scaling of design research interventions
Due to its scale and deep entanglement with reform, the project demanded a translation and implementation stance from a much earlier stage than might typically be expected when undertaking design-research. In responding to this requirement, the ELSA project has strengthened the use of developmental evaluation (Patton, 1994) to widen its design considerations
Summary
“As researchers, we [the Learning Sciences] have developed rich understandings of how technology can foster learning in specialized situations; we need to develop knowledge about widespread appropriation and use of cognitively oriented technologies by school and school systems as part of real-world reform efforts” (Fishman, Marx, Blumenfeld, Krajcik, & Soloway, 2004, p. 45). ELSA began with a series of design workshops that brought together experts in science, mathematics, technology and early learning; a highly accomplished app development team; practicing teachers; experts from Australia’s leading science centre; and science communications professionals with backgrounds in radio and television production This team sought to establish a design process by which to choose a set of learning activities which were appropriate for the learning environments of the pre school year, and which could be enhanced by the use of a tablet device. Through the evaluative engagement with this scholarship, the design research team concluded that we could not support the implementation of the project across the 100 pilot sites through the deployment of simple heuristics alone This is because the idea of STEM has emerged from economic and industry policy and has been poorly specified for education. Even with such an investment, teachers, educators and educational designers will encounter diverse ideas and opinions on what STEM should be and look like (English, 2017)
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