The RoboSTE[M] Project: Using Robotics Learning in a STEM Education Model to Help Prospective Mathematics Teachers Promote Students’ 21st-CenturySkills

Abstract

Teacher education institutions play a strategic role in preparing prospective mathematics teachers with 21st-century skills to teach mathematics in schools. This study aimed to explore how mathematics lectures employing robotics in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education approach can contribute to the preparation of prospective mathematics teachers with 21st-century skills to teach mathematics in schools. The research was conducted through a project called the RoboSTE[M] Project, in three stages: pre-development, development, and field experiment. The project was run to encourage prospective mathematics teachers to arrange mathematical activities for mathematics learning with a STEM education approach using robotics. The findings indicated that the model, lab and online modules developed and implemented in this project succeeded in supporting the ability of prospective mathematics teachers to design a mathematics learning environment with a STEM-influenced robotics approach that has the potential to support students’ 21st-century skills. This study has contributed to answer the problem regarding how to provide cross-curricular activities for STEM education by implementing STEM in an integrated manner in schools, including lack of training for teachers, which will translate STEM in the lesson plans. This research shows that teacher education programmes can provide adequate training for pre-service teachers in practising STEM education in mathematics classroom. This study fills in the gaps by focusing on designing a lecture model with a “STEM Robotics” approach for prospective mathematics teachers and their students and to explore its potential to promote prospective mathematics teachers’ 21st-century skills.