While there is no consensus on a best practice approach to STEM teaching and learning, there is agreement that opportunities for STEM learning:
- exist within learning areas themselves (disciplinary)
- are strengthened when the connections between learning areas are emphasised (interdisciplinary)
- are richest when learning areas combine to provide authentic learning opportunities for students to investigate, design and create solutions to needs, opportunities or problems situated in authentic contexts (transdisciplinary).
“Eighty-five per cent of STEM education in Australian schools is based on a “products and processes” approach dominated by robotics and coding, but that ignores real-world context… Researchers have called for STEM education to be more authentic to students’ lives and better aligned with real-world problems and the desire among students to advocate for positive change.
We need learning which explores and acts on local and global issues and empowers students to make informed and socially just decisions about their own and others’ futures.“ Source: STEM education must go beyond robotics and coding accessed 4 February 2025.
For the purposes of this resource, STEM learning involves teaching knowledge and skills in each learning area: Science, Technologies and Mathematics and then authentically applying that learning using an inquiry-based project. A culminating STEM (transdisciplinary) unit can help students transfer their learning from one learning area to others. This can lead to a better conceptual understanding of the relationships in and between the learning areas and subjects.
Approaches to STEM learning will be influenced by the school situation, including student interest, available teachers and the broader context of the school. Purposeful connections between learning areas are critical to the success of STEM learning; forced connections can reduce the impact. The same applies to connections to general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.
Developing STEM competencies enables students to investigate and define, develop, model, analyse, test, improve, produce and implement solutions to authentic problems. It supports students to access further study and pursue a variety of career pathways. STEM units that focus on inclusivity and are set in an authentic context present “design challenges that are authentic to engineering practice, scaffolding work, and demonstrating that ‘everyone can engineer’” (Cunningham and Lachapelle 2016).
Careers in STEM range from roles where there is a requirement for university qualifications (STEM professionals) to vocational education qualifications (STEM allied jobs) to STEM-enabled roles where formal qualifications are not needed but a level of STEM literacy is needed. (Australian Government Department of Defence 2019:4)
The Jones et al. (2024) study, Learning contexts and visions for STEM in schools, explored 4 visions of STEM education: familiarity and fluency with STEM concepts; application to social issues; contexts for local action; and STEM for an external provocation.
Figure 1: Adapted from “Visions for STEM education” (Jones et al. 2024)
Effective STEM education practices should:
- develop students’ collaboration skills so they can work effectively with a group to achieve shared goals
- promote creativity so students can find new ways to solve problems and develop new ideas
- support students’ critical thinking skills so they can make decisions or form opinions
- foster students’ communication skills, including listening and sharing ideas using a variety of digital tools.
These practices are best achieved when students are authentically acting as practitioners: being a scientist, designer, engineer or entrepreneur.
A transdisciplinary approach
Transdisciplinary approaches reflect authentic needs, opportunities or problems in society. Transdisciplinary learning promotes multi-causal explanations of complex phenomena or events. This reflects our connected, knowledge-based and data-informed society.
A transdisciplinary approach can enhance the application of students’ scientific and mathematical literacy, design and computational thinking, investigation, problem-solving and collaboration skills.
Australian educators make use of a variety of approaches to situating and planning STEM learning. These approaches can help teachers to identify a “connecting idea” that becomes the focus for a unit of work. Students may mimic business processes such as pitching ideas to a client or producing prototypes or design iterations for feedback. They may work with local businesses and academic institutions in their community as a precursor to professional contexts.
The STEM Connections provides a framework for teachers to develop units of work that develop students’ STEM practices and dispositions through producing STEM solutions for STEM contexts – the key aspects of STEM Connections are complemented by the STEM Connections workbook and STEM practices critiquing checklist; and the National STEM education resources toolkit. See ‘Whole school planning’.
References
Australian Catholic University (2024) STEM education must go beyond robotics and coding, https://www.acu.edu.au/about-acu/news/2024/may/stem-education-must-go-beyond-robotics-and-coding, accessed 12 November 2024.
Australian Government Department of Defence (2019) Moving Towards a High-Tech Future for Defence, Workforce Strategic Vision underpinned by Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, 2019–2030, p. 4.
Australian Government Department of Education (2021) Introductory material – What is STEM?, National STEM education resources toolkit, https://www.education.gov.au/australian-curriculum/national-stem-education-resources-toolkit/introductory-material-what-stem, accessed 12 November 2024.
Education Council (2015) National STEM School Education Strategy, 2016 – 2026: A comprehensive plan for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education in Australia, https://www.education.gov.au/australian-curriculum/resources/national-stem-school-education-strategy, accessed 12 November 2024.
Jones M, Geiger V, Falloon G, Fraser S, Beswick K, Holland-Twining B and Hatisaru V (2024) “Learning contexts and visions for STEM in schools”, International Journal of Science Education: 1–21, https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2024.2323032, accessed 12 November 2024.
Planning for STEM learning
Select from the following sections for more information and resources to support a deeper understanding of STEM in the Australian Curriculum and planning for STEM learning.