ORPILLA, LESTER E.

EDUC 280: Practicum

MAED Biology Education

LITERATURE REVIEW ON STEM EDUCATION

The Role of STEM Education

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has gained so much

attention over the past decade. STEM education integrates knowledge and skills from all four areas

either in a traditional and discipline-specific manner or through a multidisciplinary, interconnected

and integrative approaches that are outcome-focused and aim to solve real-world challenges

(Siekmann & Korbel, 2016).

A STEM education exemplifies the cross-curricular learning that is the foundation of a 21st

century curriculum that incorporates the “4C’s” of 21st century skills: creativity, critical thinking,

collaboration and communication (Barcelona, 2014).

STEM education makes learners better problem solvers, innovators, inventors, self-reliant,

logical thinkers, and technologically literate which lead them to real-world connection in the

curriculum and prepares them to face 21st century global economy challenges (Morrison, 2006;

Khalil & Osman, 2017).

There is broad acceptance that STEM professionals are essential for innovation and

economic growth. The STEM fields are better measure of human capital because it considers the

importance of education that stimulates innovation and produces workers able to drive and respond

to technological advancement, which lies at the center of economic prosperity (Hossain &

Robinson, 2012; Atkinson and Mayo, 2010). STEM workers play a pivotal role in inventing and
making technologies available for commercial use and considered as significant source of

technological changes that ultimately result in up-skilling across the full range of occupations

Numerous reports from United States’ business and government organizations have

warned that US competitive edge in the global economy is eroding. These reports, along with a

series of bills introduced in Congress and in state legislatures, call for an extensive effort to reform

K–12 STEM education, and cultivate the next generation of skilled scientists, engineers,

technicians, and science and mathematics educators (Kennedy & Odell, 2014).

One of the reasons why the United States lags its competitors in producing STEM

graduates is the failure to motivate student interest in science and math (Thomasian, 2011). In

order to address this challenge, informal learning is used to expand math and science such as

providing an out-of-class learning experiences that demonstrate how science and mathematics

connect to everyday life and careers and allow students and teachers to expand their skills.

The U.S. Department of Education (2011) underscored that a labor force without a rich

supply of STEM-skilled individuals will face stagnant or even declining wealth by failing to

compete in the global economy, where discovery, innovation, and rapid adaption are necessary

elements for success.

In the survey of Amgen Asia and Global STEM Alliance (GSA) on “STEM Education in

Asia Pacific” in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan revealed that

majority of students in Hong Kong like STEM and better resources are needed for both students

and teachers (AMGEN, 2017).

Due to general lack of STEM teachers in Hungary, Switzerland, France, Israel, and Latvia,

they offer scholarships and loans to students and professionals from non-teaching backgrounds to
become STEM teachers, and in some cases allowing participants to combine working as a STEM

professional and teaching in the classroom (Kearne, 2015).

STEM Education in the Philippines: Challenges and Directions

The need to lift STEM education and its application in our country can no longer be

ignored. As a developing country we need more researchers, innovators, and problem solvers that

would help bolster our economy. The integration of STEM education in the Philippines is a guiding

principle of the Department of Education geared toward increasing the quality of STEM education

and encouraging more students to be interested in this area (SEAMEO, 2018).

Data from the World Economic Forum on Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018

reveals that Philippines ranked 66th out of 137 countries for quality of primary education, 74th for

quality of higher education, and 76th for quality of math and science education

(https://www.philstar.com/other-sections/education-and-home/2018/03/15/1796807/senate-

review-education-system).

This is supported by the World Bank (2018) report “Growing Smarter: Learning and

Equitable Development in East Asia and the Pacific” it noted that learners in the Philippines along

with Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, scored below average in international exams under the

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International

Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

In the 2018 Global Innovation Index (GII), our country ranked 73rd out of 126 economies

despite “high scores” in business environment, education and information and communications

technology (ICT). It ranked 9th among the 30 lower-middle-income countries included in the index

and placed 13th among 15 countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania, which was described as below
average (https://www.bworldonline.com/philippines-below-average-in-regional-innovation-

ranking/). Despite government steps to encourage innovation — such as a law enticing Filipino

scientists abroad to come home — potential innovators still have limited access to capital to fund

research, especially from the government. These report shows that there is a need to put more

attention in advance (STEM) education.

Few learners today pursue expertise in STEM fields while there are also inadequate

teachers skilled in those subjects. Of the 645,973 university graduates in 2016, 76,423 (12%)

obtained a degree in engineering, 6828 (1%) were science graduates and 2736 (0.4%) were

mathematics graduates (https://www.philstar.com/other-sections/education-and-

home/2018/03/15/1796807/senate-review-education-system).

To increase the number of graduates in STEM-related programs in college, the government

is stepping out measures such as the implementation of the K-12 program. Under Republic Act

No. 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, students are now required to complete

Kindergarten, Grades 1 to 6 or elementary school, Grades 7 to 10 or junior high school, and Grades

11 to 12 or senior high school. The additional 2 years in the basic education curriculum provides

the senior high school students with an option to pursue STEM-related fields through the academic

track. This will prepare our learners to meet the demands of the 21st century and to keep pace with

ever-changing economic, scientific and technological advancements.

Although we have designated Philippine Science High Schools, Regional Science High

Schools and Special Science High Schools in the country that prepares students for a STEM career,

we still need to intensify STEM in all public schools in order to produce a work force from this

fields that would help uplift the status of our economy.

 Numerous programs and activities such as trainings of teachers has been already conducted

to strengthen STEM education in the Philippines with the collaborative efforts of the Department

of Education (DepEd), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Commission on Higher

Education (CHED) and other Non-Governmental Organizations. CHED and DOST are offering

scholarship grants for undergraduate and graduate programs who wish to pursue STEM related

fields.

In our country, we don’t still have a strong legal basis that would mandate the integration

of STEM education. However, there are also Senate Bills authored by former Senator Mirriam

Defensor- Santiago on STEM Education: The Science Start Grant Program Act (S.B. No. 1738),

which seeks to provide grants for pre-schools to provide age-appropriate science education

programs; The Planting STEM in the Classroom Act (S.B. No. 1891), which seeks to provide

government agencies and employees specializing in science and technology opportunities to

support STEM activities in classrooms; The Model High Schools Act (S.B. No. 1756), which seeks

provide grants to business and education partnerships for the purpose of establishing model high

schools for science and mathematics; The Agricultural Science Early Education Act (S.B. No.

2075), which seeks to integrate agricultural science subjects in the elementary and secondary

educational system; and The Nuclear Science and Nuclear Engineering Scholarship Act (S.B. No.

3120), which seeks to establish a national scholarship program for studies in nuclear science and

nuclear engineering. If all these bills were passed into law, this will ensure that STEM education

in the country will receive proper funding in large scale implementation.

Less attention has been paid to facilities and laboratories that help fortify the learning

experiences of the learners and pedagogy and professional development of teachers for STEM

education in our country. Moreover, the incidence of ‘out of field’ teaching in science and
mathematics is also existing in the Philippines. Teachers content and pedagogical knowledge is

intrinsically linked to the effectiveness in the delivery of STEM education (Eckman et al., 2016).

That’s why too many learners lose interest in science and mathematics at an early age, and thus

make an early exit from the so-called “STEM pipeline.”

The Integrated STEM Education

One emerging approach that has the potential to improve students’ motivation for STEM

is integrated STEM education. It is one way to make learning more connected and relevant for

students. Numerous studies have indicated that integrative approaches to teaching and learning

improve students’ interest and advancement in STEM learning skills. Therefore, is a need to focus

on increasing the number of students in the pipeline and ultimately the workforce.

While STEM student enrollment and motivation has declined in many western countries,

various studies have shown an increased interest among young people in developing nations such

as India and Malaysia (Thomas and Watters 2015).

Sanders (2009) described integrated STEM education as an approach that explore teaching

and learning between/among any two or more of the STEM subject areas, and/or between a STEM

subject and one or more other school subjects. Hartzler (2000) as mentioned by Sanders (2009), in

her meta-analysis across 30 individual studies of the effects of integrated instruction on student

achievement found out that students in integrated curricular programs consistently outperformed

students in traditional classes on national standardized tests, in state-wide testing programs, and

on program-developed assessments, and integrated curricular programs were successful for

teaching science and mathematics across all grade levels and were especially beneficial for

students with below-average achievement levels.

 Integrated STEM education pedagogy is inherently learner-centered and knowledge-

centered (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000), and when used with groups of learners, provides

a remarkably robust environment for the social interaction so critical to the learning process.

Investing to STEM Teachers

Jimenez et. al (2012) claim that countries that aim to build strong human capital for

economic growth should prioritize spending public resources on basic education to deliver good-

quality and universally available education at that level before devoting more spending to higher

levels of education. Investments to improve STEM education are essential at all levels of formal

education.

The most successful countries have instituted active programs of reform in curriculum and

pedagogy that are focused on making science and mathematics more engaging and practical,

through problem-based and inquiry-based learning, and emphases on creativity and critical

thinking (Marginson, et. al 2013).

Majority of the countries in Europe are currently prioritizing STEM curriculum reform at

either primary or secondary level, and this is often linked to incorporating inquiry-based methods

and teaching socio-economic aspects of science. Around 70% of countries are prioritizing

initiatives related to the integration of the effective use of ICT in STEM education, while around

60% are focusing on the development of new or revised STEM teaching and/or learning resources,

often to accompany a new curriculum and around 50% are investing in improving initial and/or

in-service STEM teacher training (Kearne, 2015).

The emerging consensus about effective professional development suggests that teachers

need opportunities to work with colleagues who face similar challenges, including other teachers
from their school and those who have similar teaching assignments, engage teachers in

investigations both to learn disciplinary content and to experience inquiry oriented learning,

examine student work and other classroom artifacts for evidence of what students do and do not

understand and apply what they have learned in their classrooms and subsequently discuss how it

went (Baniflower, et.al 2013).

A critical need in developing countries is to improve student access to classroom materials

in math and science, and to train teachers in the effective use of these materials (BOIESA, 2008).

A common theme across high-performing education systems is their investment in and focus on

teachers (World Bank, 2018). Therefore, there is a need to equip the STEM teachers with

technological pedagogical content knowledge for the effective delivery of the program.

Professional development trainings provide important opportunities for teachers to upgrade their

pedagogical content knowledge and how they integrate it in the teaching and learning process.

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