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Nowadays, STEM education plays an essential role in the economic growth and competitiveness of nations. This systematic review was aimed to reveal research trends in STEM education over the last 10 years. A total of 336 studies published in the Journal of Science Education and Technology, Research in Science Education, Journal of Science Teacher Education, International Journal of Science Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and Science Education were selected for analysis. The time span was limited to the period between 2011 to late 2020. All sample papers were then examined to capture the latest research trends and status regarding STEM education that included the number of papers by year, research types, countries' rank, and the number of authors. To collect data, the formula proposed by Howard et al. [1] was employed to determine the most productive countries in terms of STEM education scholarships. Findings revealed that STEM education has garnered greater attention and it grew rapidly within this period. The most frequent research type used in STEM education were quantitative studies. In addition, the US, Australia, and the Netherlands were the most productive countries in STEM education research. During these ten years, most papers published in selected journals were written by three authors. This indicates that STEM education is an attractive topic to explore collaboratively by researchers and educators around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the pedagogical beliefs of practicing teachers in two countries--Indonesia and Australia. It investigates what teachers deem to be important in planning and implementing teaching for effective student experiences in the classroom. Pedagogical beliefs are directly related to teachers' decision-making in planning and implementing their teaching; thus, they are directly relevant to attempts to understand and reform practice. In this study, pedagogical beliefs are constructed along the dimensions of Productive Pedagogy, a teaching framework developed in Australia and is increasingly used as research and professional development tool in a variety of educational settings. This paper argues that the main benefit of this type of research is not the measurement of teachers' beliefs but the potential of leading to action to improve teaching. It is hoped that further research might not only look at measuring beliefs but understanding of the contextual factors that give rise to these and to conduct interventions to change these towards improving practice. This study points to the observation that a universal program that is designed to reform teachers' beliefs and actions in teaching cannot be one-size-fits-all. It has to take local conditions into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the work of middle years teachers working with Design-Based Research (DBR) to target literacy interventions in their classrooms, employing a range of pedagogical foci. Two teachers' work, focused on science and English curricular literacies, is described. One of the teachers works in a secondary school, the other in a primary school. The primary level project involved a Year 5 classroom teacher exploring explicit teaching of technical language in science, aimed at assisting learners to understand and have greater facility with the specific genres, texts and language elements required in science writing. The secondary teacher, working with a Year 9 English class, focused on improving use of internet materials for research purposes. Both were concerned with the challenging demands and varied literacy needs of learners as they worked in different curriculum areas and progressed through the years of learning, with transition points from primary to secondary and middle years to senior secondary of particular concern. Their journeys and discoveries using this approach to inquiry provided them with deeper understanding of their own literacy teaching pedagogies, and showed how learners can be assisted to make successful transitions in the middle years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded project for which Learning Design is encompassed in the broadest sense. ALIUS (Active Learning In University Science) takes the design of learning back to the learning experiences created for students. ALIUS is not about designing a particular activity, or subject, or course, but rather the development of a method, or process, by which we have re-designed the way in which learning occurs in large university classrooms world wide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem based learning is a successful teaching and learning strategy used to engage students in deep rather than surface learning and where the learning is student focused rather than teacher focused (Biggs, 1999; 2003). The strategy is also successful in aligning university courses with the real-life professional work which students are expected to undertake on graduation. At this university, plans to introduce PBL into a number of units taught in the Science Faculty were initiated in 2006, to improve student engagement and enrich the student learning experience at the first year level. This paper reports on the implementation of PBL into a core first year unit in 2007. Data for the research were gathered through student surveys and semi-structured interviews. While the implementation is perceived as a successful strategy, to achieve both aims there are still challenges, linked to group processes, to overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite attempts to change school science there remains a dissatisfaction with it. Given this outcome it is appropriate to examine initiatives in science education. This paper reports a summary of a selected sample of these initiatives, current in Australia in the second half of 1998, and identifies trends arising. The emphasis remains on curriculum change associated with the official science education agenda in each state rather than local school-based initiatives. We may have developed ways to initiate a change and even, in some cases, to sustain specific initiatives, yet there is a need to think afresh about what we want by way of initiatives in science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]