Session Information
24 SES 08, The Role of Mathematical Knowledge in the 21st Century
Paper Session
Contribution
Outputs from the office of the chief scientist have, over the past five years, repeatedly reference the need for greater student participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) subjects. In Australia, the emphasis is on ensuring students have the intellectual capacity, knowledge and employability skills for an ever-changing workplace (Becker & Park, 2011). Of particular concern is the expectation that 75% of future occupations are likely to require STEM-related skills (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012). While the role of education is not supply to ‘train’ students for the workforce, changing workforce demands and requirements do have an impact on policy. This policy in turn has an impact on curriculum. In South Australian these policy changes are reflected in the New STEM Strategy for SA schools (2016), which includes commitments in regards to upskilling teachers, professional learning and development opportunities, improving facilities, designing a STEM PLAY programme (for early learners) and specialist STEM career pathways support. In addition the South Australian Department for Education (DfE) has been supporting a number of schools to come together and work collaboratively on STEM related work; the Year 7-8 STEM Collaborative Inquiry Project 2016-2018.
One of the challenges with STEM is the many different ways the acronym is interpreted. For example Marginson et al., (2013, p. 70) highlight how many nations describe STEM as a focus on “broad-based scientific literacy” and “science for all”. English (2016) reiterates this, highlighting how lots of initiatives foreground science or technology and even engineering (which is not a curriculum subject in Australia), yet mathematics often has limited emphasis/inclusion. Shaughnessy (2013) argues that the ‘M’ in STEM must be made more transparent and that connections to mathematics need to be made explicitly for students. Gojak (2015), expressed concern that mathematics is often seen as ‘the last letter of STEM and the forgotten quarter of STEM”.
This presentation draws on the data and reflections of teachers and students involved in the Year 7-8 STEM Collaborative Inquiry Project with a particular focus on how mathematics was evident across their work. The research question guiding this analysis was How is mathematics developed within STEM inquiry-based learning projects?
Method
The Year 7-8 STEM Collaborative Inquiry Project aligns to the pillars of collaboration and talent and skills from the National Innovation and Science Agenda (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015). DfE schools in South Australia were invited to submit an expression of interest to participate in this large-scale inquiry project. A total of five networks consisting of 36 schools were selected to participate. Generally, each network had one secondary school connected with 4/5 primary schools. The overarching aim of the larger project was to identify strategies and practices for best practice in collaborative STEM teaching and learning. Each of the secondary teachers was partnered with a primary school teacher and together they co-designed and implemented an inquiry based learning experience in STEM for the project. The Year 7 students and their teacher travelled to the secondary school 2 -3 times per term for two terms to work with their Year 8 peers. Data was collected from the participants (teachers and students) throughout the year. Pre and post project data was collected in each year of the project, by means of survey, teacher interview and student focus groups. The survey was designed and distributed by the DfE, South Australia (SA) and included sections on mathematics self-efficacy, self-concept and anxiety. The questions were based on the PISA 2012 survey and students were asked to respond on a Likert scale of 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). The surveys were distributed to students across 36 schools in South Australia (5 Secondary Schools, 1 R-12 School, 2 Community Schools and 28 Primary Schools). The students were in Year 7 (approx. aged 12 and in the final year of primary school) and Year 8 (approx. aged 13 and in the first year of secondary school). The qualitative data was collected in semi-structured formal teacher interviews and student focus groups. The data relevant to this presentation includes: • Pre (n=322) and post (n=456) survey of student mathematics self-concept, self-efficacy and anxiety • Post project teacher reflections (n =37) • Students focus groups (n = 19, with 4-6 students in each)
Expected Outcomes
The quantitative data suggests that mathematics anxiety (MA) increased (from 14.22 up to 14.33) in the final year of the project, while mathematics self-concept (from 13.67 down to 13.01) and self-efficacy (from 13.81 down to 13.53) decreased. Paired t-tests indicate these changes were statistically significant for MA and self-concept (n=175, p=0.13 and p=0.11 respectively). Content analysis of the chosen STEM activities/projects indicated a dominance of explicit Science and/or Technology foci. This was also evident in the teacher reflections. Teachers consistently reported difficulties making links to the mathematics curriculum. They often felt what had been addressed was ‘tokenistic’ and were concerned about the depth of mathematical learning: “No maths or science, other than the finance stuff that I made them add to their business plan…that’s not a year 8 topic in the Australian Curriculum” (Teacher).The depth and range of mathematics involved in many of the projects was dependent on the choice of project topic/foci. Some schools structured their project so that individual students were doing completely different (but related) projects so pinning down the curriculum content was extremely challenging for teachers. Despite this, a number of teachers across the network made explicit links to mathematics, “We’re calling it ‘the maths in my science’ ”(Teacher). Even in cases where the teacher’s made explicit connections to mathematics, they often added a note that this still lead to students sometimes artificially adding on some analysis that wasn’t naturally there/required. Some students suggested they didn’t learn any mathematics and some only provided very superficial examples, such as “it was kind of basic maths”, “didn’t use much maths except for measurements”. There were a number of attempts at describing their mathematical learning, however when probed on their mathematical learning the students generally struggled to explain what they actually learned.
References
Becker, K., & Park, K. (2011). Effects of integrative approaches among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects on students’ learning: A preliminary meta-analysis. Journal of STEM Education, 12 (5-6), 23–37. Commonwealth of Australia. (2015). National Innovation & Science Agenda. Available from: https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3906/f/July%202018/document/pdf/national-innovation-and-science-agenda-report.pdf English, L. (2016). STEM education K-12: perspectives on integration. International Journal of STEM Education, 3(3), 1–8. Gojak, M. (2015). Don’t underestimate the ‘M’ in STEM. Available from http://www.conceptschools.org/dont-underestimate-the-m-in-stem-education/ Government of South Australia, (2016). New STEM Strategy for SA schools (2016) Available online: https://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/news-at-DPC/new-stem-strategy-for-sa-schools Marginson, S., Tytler, R., Freeman, B., & Roberts, K. (2013). STEM: Country comparisons: International comparisons of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Final report. Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Council of Learned Academies Office of the Chief Scientist. (2012). Mathematics, engineering and science in the national interest. Available online http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/Office-of-the-Chief-Scientist-MESReport-8-May-2012.pdf Shaughnessy, M. (2013). By way of introduction: mathematics in a STEM context. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle school, 18(6), 324.
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