of STEM Integration in an Integrated Science Course

Recent STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education reform initiatives call for integrated STEM education approaches in which students learn how to solve problems by connecting content and practices of various STEM fields. These reform efforts advocate restructuring curricula that emphasize explicit integration of STEM (NRC, 2014, Ring et al, 2018). To accomplish this successfully, it is critical to prepare our undergraduate science pre-service teachers (PSTs) for teaching STEM-subjects through integrated approaches. Teacher educators face the need to design and provide teacher education programs that prepare teacher candidates to adopt this evolving context of STEM education and teach STEM through integrated approaches. A curricular approach that integrates STEM learning provides students with opportunities to engage in real-world problems while learning STEM disciplinary ideas and practices. Researchers have indicated that integrated STEM teaching approaches have enhanced science content knowledge, scientific understandings, and higher-order thinking skills. (Becker & Park, 2011; Wells, 2016). To that end, the purpose of this study is to explore how science pre-service teacher education students enrolled in the integrated science course experience STEM.

The research questions guiding the study are: 

  • What are the views of pre-service teachers towards STEM integration in an integrated Science course?
  • What are the experiences of pre-service teachers with STEM integration and pedagogy after participating in STEM activities within the integrated Science course? 

Discussion posts, surveys with open-ended questions, and interviews will be used as data sources to collect participants' views about STEM, STEM application and student success. This study will use the principles and techniques of grounded theory (Miles & Huberman, 1994) as the methodological approach. Qualitative analysis of the data will be conducted using Dedoose software, applying inductive coding techniques outlined by Corbin and Strauss (2015). 

Research Requirements

By becoming involved in this research project, the student will use a variety of skills to succeed and in the process will be able to:

  • Articulate and use terminology, concepts, and theory in educational research 
  • Identify appropriate research methodologies used in educational research 
  • Use library and other tools to search for existing body of research relevant to the topic 
  • Write a literature review for the study (entry level) 
  • Familiarize with the IRB process  
  • Collect and Organize data 
  • Analyze, and interpret data from the research study 
  • Identify and practice research ethics and responsible conduct in research  
  • Develop and apply problem-solving skills  
  • Work autonomously in an effective manner, setting and meeting deadlines 
  • Write a conference proposal (entry level) 
  • Communicate confidently and constructively with other undergraduate students and faculty as mentors 
  • Explain the research to others in the field and to broader audiences through research presentations 
  • Reflect on their research project, including strengths, weaknesses, and things they would do differently in another research context 
  • Develop competencies that speak to career-readiness 

Duration

1/13/2025 - 5/8/2025

Contact

Dr. Preethi Titu, ptitu@kennesaw.edu