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The article discusses the myths and motives behind science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the U.S. featured on the Business Roundtable website in 2013. Topics covered include the collaboration between the business and nonprofit communities to improve STEM education, the development of the STEM-worker shortage narrative from the 1980s to 2010s and the need for teachers and teacher educators to seek STEM funding to create programs that promote STEM literacy.

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various reports on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education in the U.S., published within the issue on topics including STEM literate students, the use of mathematical tasks in teacher learning and engineering design.

The article examines the factors that affect preservice teacher reflection. Topics covered include the involvement of preservice teachers in structured writing activities, observation of colleagues' teaching in universities and efforts to practice reflection. Also mentioned are the challenges they face, autonomy of preservice teachers over their curriculum and dilemmas that they experience.

The article attempts to identify the factors that govern the informal collaboration among elementary school teachers regarding technology use, namely the use of computers, software and the Internet. Some of the factors contributing to informal collaboration include personality and friendship and sharing garde level curriculum. It has found that teachers' beliefs concerning implementation of mandated curriculum and their academic expectations for students strongly influence with whom and under what circumstances they may informally collaborate.