STEM Courses Research Articles

Undergraduate Student Concerns in Introductory STEM Courses: What They Are, How They Change, and What Influences Them

Introductory STEM courses represent entry points into a major, and student experiences in these courses can affect both their persistence and success in STEM disciplines. Identifying course-based student concerns may help instructors detect negative perceptions, areas of struggle, and potential barriers to success. Using an open-response survey question, we identified 13 common concerns expressed by students in introductory STEM courses. We converted these student-generated concerns into closed-ended items that were administered at the beginning and middle of the semester to students in 22 introductory STEM course sections across three different institutions. Students were asked to reflect on each item on a scale from very concerned to not concerned. A subset of these concerns was used to create a summary score of course-based concern for each student. Overall levels of student concern decreased from the first week to the middle of the semester; however, this pattern varied across different demographic groups. In particular, when controlling for initial concern and course grades, female students held higher levels of concern than their peers. Since student perceptions can impact their experiences, addressing concerns through communication and instructional practices may improve students’ overall experiences and facilitate their success.

Correlations between modes of student cognitive engagement and instructional practices in undergraduate STEM courses

BackgroundWithin STEM education, research on instructional practices has focused on ways to increase student engagement and thereby reap the associated benefits of increased learning, persistence, and academic success. These meaningful-learning goals have been tied most specifically to cognitive engagement, a construct that is often difficult for instructors to assess on their own. While it has been shown that certain instructional practices are tied to higher cognitive engagement in students, tools to measure instructional practices and student engagement have remained largely isolated in their development and use.ResultsThis research uses previously developed instruments to simultaneously assess modes of cognitive engagement in students (Student Course Cognitive Engagement Instrument [SCCEI]) and instructional practices (Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey [PIPS]) within a course. A sample of 19 STEM courses was recruited to participate in this study, with instructors and students each self-reporting data. Results from the instructor and students in each course were scored, and ANOVA and partial correlation analysis were conducted on the sample. ANOVA indicated the significance of and classroom structure on student engagement. From the correlation analysis, a significant relationship was found between four student-reported modes of cognitive engagement and instructor-reported teaching practices.ConclusionsWith an understanding of student engagement response to classroom structure, instructors may consider their teaching environment when implementing instructional practices. Moreover, Interactivity with Peers, the deepest mode of cognitive engagement suggested by previous research, was correlated with instructional practices in our study, suggesting that instructors may be able to shape their students’ learning by encouraging collaboration in the classroom. We also found that assessment played a role in students’ cognitive engagement; this indicates that instructors may wish to thoughtfully consider their methods of assessment to facilitate modes of cognitive engagement associated with deeper learning of course material. By understanding factor correlations, the PIPS and SCCEI can be used in tandem to understand impacts of instructional practices on student cognitive engagement within a course. We conclude that there is a need for ongoing research to study the interplay of instructional practices and student cognitive engagement as instruments are developed to measure such phenomena.

Online STEM courses can rival their in-person analogues

Online STEM courses can rival their in-person analogues

A Learner based Perspective on STEM Learning in AP Courses

STEM fields are at the core of 21st Century Innovation. However only a small number of American students pursue STEM disciplines as their future careers. In high school, AP STEM courses provide unique opportunities to improve students’ awareness, interests, and access to STEM learning in the school environment. A positive experience in these AP courses can be a catalyst to shaping a student’s career interests and preferences towards STEM fields. However, these courses are also the most challenging among all high school curricula, and the situation is even more complicated by the shortage of teachers skilled in STEM subjects. It is then important to help students develop effective learning strategies for these courses. Through surveying high school students who have studied AP STEM courses, this study has found that students highly value learning physics with a concept-based approach, chemistry and calculus with a procedure-based strategy, and biology with a mix between memorization and concept. Additionally, students prepared best with a mix between concept-based activities, such as labs, and procedure-based activities, such as practice problems, in both physics and chemistry. Students who took biology found memorization-based preparations to be the most useful, and calculus was prepared best with procedure.

General Chemistry in Just One Semester for All Majors

We have successfully developed a one-semester general chemistry course that meets the primary learning goals of the traditional two-semester sequence. It is appropriate for physical, life, and earth science majors. Since implementation, 88% of students who start general chemistry complete it, an increase from 72% in our prior traditional curriculum. Scores on a full-year ACS general chemistry exam are almost the same, as are attitudes as measured by the CLASS-Chemistry instrument. Thus, one-semester general chemistry is more efficient, allowing students to move on to additional STEM courses quicker without impacting learning of core content. By increasing completion rates through general chemistry, we have removed a key barrier for students majoring in STEM fields. As well, students now can proceed through organic chemistry and biochemistry by the end of their second year, consistent with the increased emphasis on the chemistry of biological systems for the life sciences and in admissions to medical school. This reform can be implemented by schools that value the traditional quantitative and broad content of general chemistry without modifying later courses or disrupting other departments.

Exploring Organic Chemistry I students’ responses to an exam wrapper intervention.

Abstract: Research has demonstrated that academically successful students are effective, self-regulated learners. Moreover, exam wrapper interventions have been shown to foster the development of self-regulated learning behaviors on the part of college students. In this naturalistic, qualitative, and exploratory study, an exam wrapper intervention was implemented in a key, gatekeeping STEM course at a diverse, public university. Student responses to a series of four exam wrappers were collected and analyzed. Results indicated that while many students were able to look critically at their study behaviors and course performance, these behaviors did not necessarily pay off, especially for weaker students. Notably, transfer and/or non-matriculated students were at greatest risk of withdrawal and failure. However all students, both weak and strong, showed a lack of attention towards checking their answers and learning from their mistakes. Overall, the exam wrappers provided useful information regarding the SRL processes of these STEM students. 

A design-oriented STEM activity for students’ using and improving their engineering skills: the balance model with 3D printer

This study involves the development and implementation of a STEM activity containing 3 D printer technology, which is commonly used in STEM education. Out of school STEM courses were organized with seven middle school students studying in the 7th grade and the activities in the course were carried out with a 3D printer. One of the activities in the course is the Balance model. The study reveals the skills students used in the Balance Model activity, which is a 3D STEM activity. The students’ engineering skills were effective through the STEM activity, and they actively used skills such as planning, designing, explaining the design process, creating a realistic product, and testing and evaluating product performance. In addition, it was concluded that the students use their academic and technical skills effectively. The study presents in detail the preparation and implementation process of this activity, which we think may help educators uncover and improve students’ engineering skills.

An educational intervention to improve women's academic STEM outcomes: Divergent effects on well-represented vs. underrepresented minority women.

The aim of this field experiment was to test the effect of a social psychological intervention on an ethnically diverse sample of first-year college women majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). We hypothesized that grade point averages in STEM courses would be higher in the intervention condition relative to the control condition. Furthermore, we tested competing hypotheses about the moderating role of belonging to either a well-represented (WR) or underrepresented minority (URM) ethnic group in STEM. The sample (N = 199) included 115 women from WR ethnic groups and 84 women from URM ethnic groups who were randomly assigned to condition. Women in the intervention were educated about the harmful impact of gender stereotypes in STEM and provided with effective strategies for coping with stereotype threat. At the end of their first year, we obtained participants' academic transcripts. At the end of their first year in college, URM women in the intervention condition had higher grade point averages in their STEM courses than URM women in the control condition. The intervention had no effect on WR women. The present research demonstrates the importance of intersectional approaches to studying the experiences of women in STEM. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Comparison of Student Perceptions of Flipped Teaching in Undergraduate STEM Courses Across Two Institutions

Flipped teaching (FT) creates an environment to actively engage the learner as opposed to the often passive learning experience of traditional lecture‐based teaching (TT). Evidence has shown that FT can increase student engagement when lecture is shifted outside of the classroom through pre‐class activities while spending in‐class time working on activities at higher Bloom’s taxonomy levels. Research is lacking on which student population would benefit most from the FT. Six faculty from a four‐year institution and six faculty from a two‐year community college from STEM disciplines were selected to complete faculty development training on FT techniques. Upon completion of their training, faculty implemented FT in their classrooms the following semester. Student surveys were administered in each of these classes at the end of the semester. Students’ perception of engagement in the university STEM classes was significantly higher (p<0.0001) compared to community college STEM classes. Similarly, the university students’ level of confidence with the course material was significantly higher (p=0.0002) compared to the community college students. When overall attitude toward FT was assessed, the university students had a significantly more favorable attitude (p<0.0001) than the community college students. University students were significantly more likely to take another flipped course (p=0.0001) as well as recommend another student to take a flipped course (p<0.0001) than the community college students. Based on these results we conclude that students in the university setting have a more positive and receptive attitude toward FT compared to community college students.Support or Funding InformationNational Science Foundation

Students Choice of Group Mates: Avoiding Conflict to Enhance Learning

The use of group work in student centered collaborative learning in STEM courses has widely increased over the past decades. There is significant evidence available in literature about the benefits of group work in terms of student learning, peer acceptance, and retention of knowledge. However, group work is not beneficial if the groups are not structured strategically. There is conflicting evidence in the literature about what type of group structures are most beneficial for enhanced learning. There is a significant gap in the literature about how to compose groups in order to maximize cognitive engagement, performance, and satisfaction and minimize interpersonal conflicts in undergraduate inquiry‐based introductory labs. One of the goals of our study is to understand the impact of the group selection methods on student network formation in association with group dynamics and conflicts that arise.To explore this idea, we used a socio‐cognitive perspective in combination with the framework of Cooperative Learning Effects on Learning to conduct a longitudinal study in thirty‐five sections of an undergraduate inquiry‐based biology laboratory at the University of Georgia (n=796). Our data was collected over a 3‐week period in the form of 7 surveys over the summer semester and over 7 weeks in the Spring semester. After each lab, students were given a survey that asked them to report who they worked with, things they noted as good and bad traits in their group mates, how frequently they communicated, how they rated effort from their group mates, and if they planned to work with these students again the following week. The data from the first five surveys in each of the semesters was analyzed quantitatively by social network analysis.The student network analysis showed that there is clustering with respect to gender and ethnicity regardless of whether students are in the structured or unstructured lab. Empirical observations suggest that pre‐class friends choose to work together. In the unstructured sections, students chose to work with the same group members throughout the lab course, even when given the option to change groups. Students would rather stay with a problem group member that they know rather than confront the issue and change groups. In the preliminary data, students were asked to identify “good” and “bad” group member traits. The top three good group member traits were “prepared” “interested in class”, and “participated.” Students in the unstructured labs (9%; n= 540) are less likely to report negative comments about their group members in comparison to students in structured labs (16%; n=532). In the future, we are going to run qualitative analysis in case studies to understand at what point students will report intragroup conflicts.Support or Funding InformationThis study was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant no. 1659423 as part of the UBER‐REU program, however; the findings of this study do not explicitly represent the views of the NSF. We would like to thank the GLAs and students who contributed data to this study. Additionally, we would like to thank Destiny Williams, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Cellular Biology, and the SEER Centre for contributions to this project.

Faculty Perceptions of the Implementation of Flipped Teaching in Undergraduate STEM Courses Across Two Institutions

The flipped classroom is an active learning and teaching environment that has been shown to improve student engagement and thus student performance. In order to expand the use of flipped teaching (FT) in STEM classrooms, we recruited faculty members from two institutions, six faculty from a local community college and an additional six from a regional state university. We were particularly interested in how faculty perceived the implementation of FT, barriers in the implementation of FT, and the differences in FT implementation at a four‐year university and a two‐year community college. All 12 faculty members participated in six faculty development FT workshops, that were spread over an entire semester. While undergoing training, the participants were expected to be preparing for their implementation of FT during the following semester. Pre‐implementation survey data from both institutions showed that 6 out of 12 faculty had a strongly favorable attitude toward FT and 4 out of 12 strongly agreed that they possessed the knowledge to use FT. When implementation of FT was considered, 4 out of 6 community college faculty and 2 out of 6 university faculty strongly agreed that they could successfully implement FT. One common barrier contributing to the resistance in the implementation of FT as identified by the participants at both institutions in the pre‐implementation survey was the lack of time to implement. Additional barriers identified specifically by the university faculty included lacking the knowledge to implement FT as well as anticipating potential resistance from students. Post‐implementation survey data showed that university faculty attitudes toward FT increased from 3 out of 6 to 5 out of 6 while community college faculty’s attitudes remained at 3 out of 6. There was an increase in knowledge of using FT from 2 out of 6 to 6 out of 6 by university faculty and from 2 out of 6 to 5 out of 6 by community college faculty. Additionally, faculty perceptions of successful implementation increased from 2 out of 6 to 5 out of 6 by university faculty and remained unchanged at 4 out of 6 among community college faculty. Multiple barriers were identified through post‐implementation survey by faculty from both institutions which included lacking the time to implement, limited knowledge related to implementation, grading, and class sizes. An additional barrier identified specifically by the university faculty was anticipating potential resistance from students. Addressing these barriers is critical in allowing the use of active learning methodologies such as FT.Support or Funding InformationNational Science Foundation

To what extent have Disability Resource Centers evolved to accommodate the challenges of active learning in large enrollment STEM courses?

While active learning teaching methods have been shown to improve student achievement in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), the increased interactions among students can also present unique challenges for students from underrepresented social identities. One proposed underrepresented group of individuals who may face challenges with active learning are students with disabilities who request academic accommodations from Disability Resource Centers (DRCs). DRCs are offices on university campuses that provide academic and social services for students with disabilities and other diagnosed medical conditions. Academic accommodations often include note‐taking services, preferential seating, extended time for exams, closed captioning of videos, and interpreters. However, as more and more classes are moving away from traditional lectures to adopting active learning methods, are we providing the right accommodations for students? Could we be disadvantaging students who normally would be receiving accommodations in traditional lectures? In this exploratory study, we identified commonly implemented active learning strategies and reviewed the literature on what reported disadvantages these activities may present for students. We then contacted directors of DRCs from 305 universities with large undergraduate student populations and large enrollment science courses based on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. We interviewed directors to identify how familiar they are with the term of active learning and what accommodations, if any, they currently have for students in active learning science classrooms along with any challenges they have experienced when accommodating students with disabilities in active learning science courses. Our data suggest that directors are generally aware of “active learning” and have encountered it in their position when talking with students and faculty. However, few DRCs have policies or protocols in place to specifically address accommodations needed for active learning courses. Thus, accommodations for active learning are generally determined retroactively or on a “case‐by‐case basis”, which requires students to be the ones responsible for identifying aspects of active learning courses that they struggle with and report these challenges to the DRC in order to receive appropriate accommodations. With this study, we hope to provide a foundation for creating more inclusive active learning classrooms for students with disabilities.Support or Funding InformationNational Science Foundation

Grades as Noisy Signals

Letter grades are noisy and coarse measures of academic achievement. However, these grades serve as important signals to both employers and to the student on his or her ability. I study the consequences of these noisy measures using administrative data from the National University of Singapore which records both the letter grades as well as the precise marks (0-100) received for each course that a given student takes. I exploit a regression discontinuity design -- specifically, close to the letter grade cutoffs, individuals with very similar achievement will receive different letter grades. I find that receiving a better grade in a single class for students on the margin results in 32 US dollars greater monthly earnings post-graduation. Looking at each letter grade cut off, I find that the effect is largest at the A- cutoff, followed by the A and B+ cutoffs. There is a null effect for elective courses, which indicates that only signals for major-relevant courses are important. The effect is driven by courses taken in years 1 and 2 (years 3 and 4 are graduation years). The effects are significantly larger for men than women, and for STEM courses than non-STEM There are two possible mechanisms: 1) Employers use grades as a signal of ability and thus pay similar students different salaries based on this coarse measure. 2) Students interpret better or worse grades as a signal of their own ability which effects their future behavior and outcomes. Testing the second mechanism, I find that receiving a worse grade for students on the margin results in only slightly lower grades in future semesters, but these students take significantly easier courses. This indicates that students under invest in human capital accumulation as a result of receiving a noisy negative signal of ability.

Rubrics to assess critical thinking and information processing in undergraduate STEM courses

BackgroundProcess skills such as critical thinking and information processing are commonly stated outcomes for STEM undergraduate degree programs, but instructors often do not explicitly assess these skills in their courses. Students are more likely to develop these crucial skills if there is constructive alignment between an instructor’s intended learning outcomes, the tasks that the instructor and students perform, and the assessment tools that the instructor uses. Rubrics for each process skill can enhance this alignment by creating a shared understanding of process skills between instructors and students. Rubrics can also enable instructors to reflect on their teaching practices with regard to developing their students’ process skills and facilitating feedback to students to identify areas for improvement.ResultsHere, we provide rubrics that can be used to assess critical thinking and information processing in STEM undergraduate classrooms and to provide students with formative feedback. As part of the Enhancing Learning by Improving Process Skills in STEM (ELIPSS) Project, rubrics were developed to assess these two skills in STEM undergraduate students’ written work. The rubrics were implemented in multiple STEM disciplines, class sizes, course levels, and institution types to ensure they were practical for everyday classroom use. Instructors reported via surveys that the rubrics supported assessment of students’ written work in multiple STEM learning environments. Graduate teaching assistants also indicated that they could effectively use the rubrics to assess student work and that the rubrics clarified the instructor’s expectations for how they should assess students. Students reported that they understood the content of the rubrics and could use the feedback provided by the rubric to change their future performance.ConclusionThe ELIPSS rubrics allowed instructors to explicitly assess the critical thinking and information processing skills that they wanted their students to develop in their courses. The instructors were able to clarify their expectations for both their teaching assistants and students and provide consistent feedback to students about their performance. Supporting the adoption of active-learning pedagogies should also include changes to assessment strategies to measure the skills that are developed as students engage in more meaningful learning experiences. Tools such as the ELIPSS rubrics provide a resource for instructors to better align assessments with intended learning outcomes.

Exploring STEM postsecondary instructors\u2019 accounts of instructional planning and revisions

BackgroundLocal and national initiatives to improve the learning experiences of students enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses have been on-going for a couple of decades with a heightened momentum within the last 10 years. However, recent large-scale studies have demonstrated that transmission of information is still the primary mode of instruction in STEM courses across the undergraduate curriculum. The limited impact of instructional change reform efforts can be partly explained by the one-sided focus of educational research on the development of evidence-based instructional practices and production of evidence demonstrating their impact on student learning. This has been done at the expense of understanding faculty members’ instructional practices and mindsets about teaching and learning that underlie their practices. This study addresses this gap in the literature by characterizing STEM instructors’ instructional intentions and reflections on their teaching performance for a week of instruction. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 42 STEM faculty members from one doctorate-granting institution in the USA.ResultsSTEM instructors in this study had teacher-centric mindsets with respect to their instructional planning (e.g., content-focused learning goals, lecture is seen as an engagement strategy). We found that these instructors mostly saw formative assessment tools as engagement strategy rather than tools to monitor student learning. Reflections on their level of satisfaction with their week of teaching focused heavily on content coverage and personal feelings and minimally considered student learning. Finally, we found that pedagogical discontent was not a driver of planned course revisions.ConclusionsThis study identifies mismatches between STEM instructors’ teaching mindsets and current approaches to instructional change. STEM instructors in this study paid minimal attention to student learning when considering course-level revisions and many of their reflections were anchored in their personal feelings. However, instructional reform strategies often attempt to convince faculty of a new approach by demonstrating its impact on student learning. The misalignment identified in this study further highlights the need to better characterize STEM instructors’ cognition around teaching so that reform efforts can better meet them where they are.

Peer-led team learning for introductory biology: relationships between peer-leader relatability, perceived role model status, and the potential influences of these variables on student learning gains

Student-instructor interactions have an influence on student achievement and perceptions of learning. In college and university settings, large introductory STEM courses are increasingly including Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), an evidence-based technique associated with improved student achievement, recruitment, and retention in STEM fields, especially for underserved populations. Within this technique, peer leaders hold a unique position in a student’s education. Peer leaders have relevant experience in that they have had recent success in the courses in which they facilitate student learning, yet, compared to student-faculty or student-teaching assistant relationships, there is minimal imbalance of authority or power. Students might find their peer leaders to be more relatable than faculty or graduate teaching assistants, and may even consider them to be role models. We explored students’ perceptions of peer leader relatability and role model status in relation to students’ achievement and their perceived learning gains in the context of an introductory biology course with an associated PLTL program. The final course grades and self-assessed learning gains of PLTL students who felt they related to their peer leader were compared to those who did not. We also compared final course grades and self-assessed learning gains between PLTL students who viewed their peer leader as a role model versus those who did not. Self-reported learning gains were significantly higher for students who relate to their peer leader, as well as for students who viewed their peer leaders as a role model. There is some support that this trend is stronger for STEM majors versus those who are not enrolled in a STEM program, though the interaction is not significant. Significant differences in overall course grade were only observed between students who reported that they related to their peer leader versus those who did not relate to their peer leader.

Student Participation in Supplemental Instruction in STEM Courses at a Large Urban Community College in California

ABSTRACT A realist evaluation framework asks what works best for whom under what circumstances. This study utilized a realist evaluation framework to determine which students benefited under what circumstances from supplemental instruction, an academic support program using peer-assisted problem-solving techniques. The study setting was a large urban community college that was also a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), with 80% Hispanic students and over 50% of all students qualifying for financial aid. Two sources of existing administrative data were analyzed using a quasi-experimental design. All science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses in one semester with supplemental instruction (SI) (n = 18 courses in spring 2015) were matched to STEM courses that did not have SI (n = 35). Student-level comparisons based on the number of SI sessions attended were also made (N = 1,851). Three research questions were analyzed: (a) what was the pattern of SI participation?; (b) Did course pass rates increase with SI participation?; and (c) Were grade outcomes different based on SI participation? Results indicated that as expected, SI participation was higher among students in SI STEM courses (33.4%) compared to those in non-SI supported STEM courses (5.3%). In addition, increasing numbers of students passed their courses with increasing SI session attendance. Mean grade differences of just under half a grade were found, favoring students who attended one or more SI sessions. Across all students and in math courses, more students who attended SI earned higher grades (A’s, B’s, C’s) and fewer withdrew or received an F compared to students who did not attend SI.

Initial implementation of active learning strategies in large, lecture STEM courses: lessons learned from a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary STEM faculty development program

BackgroundA faculty development program was implemented over four years at a 4-year regional comprehensive university and two partnering community colleges. This project was focused on improving student learning in introductory Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) courses at each institution, by helping faculty adopt inclusive, student-centered pedagogies. Survey data were combined with data from classroom videos, faculty interviews, and student questionnaires collected during the first two years of the project to give insight into how faculty initially implemented the theory and strategies they learned and how the students perceived instruction from participating faculty.ResultsThese data sources were combined to generate four overall themes to characterize our project and guide future projects. These are: (1) implementation of student-centered learning took a variety of forms; (2) quality implementation of student-centered teaching practices lagged behind understanding of the theory behind those practices; (3) the most robust perceived barriers to implementation of student-centered teaching stayed constant, while more moderate barriers were ranked differently from year 1 to year 2; and (4) faculty perceptions of student-centered learning practices were not always the same as students’ perceptions. These themes build from the extant faculty development literature in that they are drawn from the unique context of a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional project, and that they represent an “on the ground” perspective from case studies combined with “big picture” findings from surveys.ConclusionsThis paper describes the faculty development project, as well as our collection and interpretation of data from surveys and case studies, to ultimately develop the four themes. Recommendations deriving from these themes are also described. These include modeling a variety of pedagogies; adopting realistic expectations for faculty change; institutionalizing faculty development so it can take place over multiple years; being transparent with faculty about known barriers and aligning supports with those barriers; and helping faculty develop strategies for transparency with students about student-centered pedagogies.

Research on the Integration of STEM Education into the Rural Elementary School Science Curriculum: An Example from Rural Elementary Schools in Western China

Due to the limitation of social economic conditions, the teaching effect of science in rural elementary schools remains unsatisfactory and poorly studied. This research integrates STEM education into rural elementary school science courses to explore whether STEM courses are effective in improving students' knowledge and ability, asking: Are STEM courses better than traditional science courses in improving students' knowledge and abilities? An experimental study of STEM curriculum teaching was conducted in science education at Jiujiang elementary School in Shuangliu County, Chengdu, China. The experimental group receiving STEM classes had increased total score, basic knowledge, and ability expansion compared to the control group receiving traditional classes. This shows that the integration of STEM education into rural elementary school science courses is feasible and effective.

Theoretical basis of integrative approaches studying of STEM-education programs implementation in secondary educational institutions of Ukraine

The article examines integrative approaches of educational STEM programs implementation in secondary educational institutions. The concept of “STEM education” is not stable. The views of experts on its content are revealed through such generalized components as pedagogical technology (pedagogical process), focus on practical tasks and problem-based learning. At the same time, integrative approaches find application in the disciplines, the sequence of courses, and in a separate course. Generalization of the definitions of the concept “STEM education”, proposed by various experts, made it possible to understand it as a joint activity, interaction and cooperation of teachers, students and stakeholders, aimed at overcoming the fragmentation of knowledge by eliminating boundaries between them, integrating content components. It provides the formation of key competencies necessary for further employment and life activity in the conditions of the formation and development of new branches of knowledge. The article describes the general features of the learning organization in accordance with disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. In the context of transdisciplinarity, the prospects for the development of educational programs in secondary educational institutions of Ukraine is considered. It is possible to single out a number of problems accompanying the process of STEM courses developing and implementing. There are the problem of systematizing the structural and logical links between disciplines to be merged, the problem of professional readiness of teachers specializing in teaching one or two disciplines to take responsibility for mentoring and supporting student’s transdisciplinary projects and modernization of educational laboratories and making of modern STEM centres at secondary educational institution.