Towards a Route Map for STEM education

Background to identify and promote a coherent and progressive pedagogical approach across the STEM subjects from P1 to S3 funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation collaborative project with Association of Science Education Scottish Mathematical Council Scottish Technology Teachers Association

STEM Pathways progressions of learning and teaching - STEM pathways - that build on, support and enhance pupils’ understanding of the “core ideas” reinforcing the core ideas through cross-referencing in different subject contexts presented in an emerging Scottish Route Map for STEM education that can be implemented in a range of locally chosen contexts partially or in full consistent with the principles of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence

Development Process survey to investigate the areas in STEM and skills that should be at the core of every 5-15 years olds education research into learning progressions, concept development and interdisciplinary learning two-day development event (afternoon Fri 29th and Sat 30th Oct) with subject specialists collaborating to make links across subjects and with numeracy and literacy developed STEM Pathways published (March 2011) as part of the emerging Route Map on the STEM-ED Scotland website

Vision for the STEM Route Map STEM Pathways with: the learning progressions from age 5-15 (CfE level 1 to 4) in three core areas effective learning and teaching approaches links to high quality teaching materials / resources a glossary of STEM terms and identified ways of working towards standardisation of methods/processes CPD support for teachers to implement the pathways

Research into Learning Progressions and Concept Development

Curriculum coherence Schmidt et al. examined the content topics covered in each grade of a group of six of the highest-achieving TIMSS countries in mathematics. (Schmidt, William H. , Wang, Hsing Chi and McKnight, Curtis C.(2005) 'Curriculum coherence: an examination of US mathematics and science content standards from an international perspective', Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37: 5, 525 — 559) topics appear to be sequenced to reflect the hierarchical and logical structures of the disciplines Schmidt et al. are not arguing that there is only one coherent content framework for a particular discipline, but do believe that there would likely be a limited set of such frameworks, and that coherence is critical to learning for understanding “Understanding implies, at least at some level, that the structure of the discipline has become visible to the learner so that she or he can move beyond its particulars. We suggest that one way to facilitate such learning is by making the inherent logical structure of the discipline more visible both to teachers and students”.

“The teaching and learning of structure, rather than the simple mastery of facts and techniques, is at the center of the classic problem of transfer . . . if learning is to render later learning easier, it must do so by providing a general picture in terms of which the relations between things encountered earlier and later are made as clear as possible.” (Bruner, 1960, p. 12)

Concept Development American Association for the Advancement of Science - Project 2061 Atlas of Science Literacy creating conceptual strand maps for educators show how students’ understanding of the ideas and skills that lead to literacy in science, mathematics, and technology might develop from kindergarten through 12th grade built from the K-12 learning goals presented in Project 2061’s Benchmarks for Science Literacy nearly 100 maps charting the learning goals accompanied by commentary that provides a general discussion of the map topic, the content of the map and its major strands, and the focus of learning at each of the four grade ranges

Concept Development and Assessment American Association for the Advancement of Science - Project 2061 Assessment Linked to Middle School Science Learning Goals: A Report on Field Test Results for Four Middle School Science Topics DeBoer G, Herrmann-Abell C, Wertheim J, and Roseman J E, AAAS Project 2061, NARST Annual Conference, April 19, 2009. developing multiple choice assessment items for 16 middle school science topics closely aligned to the ideas in Benchmarks for Science Literacy used path analysis to test the hypothesized relationships among the five key ideas for the Substances, Chemical Reactions, and Conservation topic and a cluster of four items from the Atoms, Molecules, and States of Matter topic Path analysis of the chemistry ideas included on the field tests

Learning progressions Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8 Committee on Science Learning, Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade - Richard A. Duschl, Heidi A. Schweingruber, and Andrew W. Shouse, Editors “Learning progressions describe how students gain more expertise within a discipline over a period of time. They represent not only how knowledge and understanding develops, but also predict how the knowledge builds over time. Thus, the focus is not limited on the end-product knowledge as characterized by summative assessment, but on how students’ ideas build upon other ideas” (Duschl, et al., 2007).

Learning Progressions Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8 Committee on Science Learning, Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade - Richard A. Duschl, Heidi A. Schweingruber, and Andrew W. Shouse, Editors Learning science with understanding requires that children reconceptualize their initial concepts to describe macroscopically accessible objects and events and add new levels of conceptual description. Adding new levels is difficult students may not have an appropriate foundation for constructing the next level of explanation new levels can interact and mutually support each other adding new levels calls for greater sophistication than many students have Learning progressions are anchored on one end by what is known about the concepts and reasoning of students entering school and at the other end, by societal expectations about what students should understand.

Learning progressions Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8 Committee on Science Learning, Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade - Richard A. Duschl, Heidi A. Schweingruber, and Andrew W. Shouse, Editors The learning progression approach has four characteristics that are mostly absent from accounts of domain-general developmental sequences and current standards documents. Use of the current research base. Interconnected strands of scientific proficiency. Organization of conceptual knowledge around big ideas. Recognizing multiple sequences and web-like growth.

Why develop learning progressions? Learning progressions and Curriculum for Excellence Bringing the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education community together to share their knowledge and understanding and to support the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. Developing a picture of how children’s understanding of core ideas in science, technology and mathematics builds across school years, not just in a given year or at a given level. Illustrating the interdisciplinary connections.

Learning Progressions Question In what ways do learning progressions developed around core ideas have the potential to support and enhance learning, provide support for teachers, and at the same time not stifle creativity and flexibility?

Interdisciplinary learning Curriculum for Excellence ‘The curriculum should include space for learning beyond subject boundaries, so that children and young people can make connections between different areas of learning. Interdisciplinary studies, based upon groupings of experiences and outcomes from within and across curriculum areas, can provide relevant, challenging and enjoyable learning experiences and stimulating contexts to meet the varied needs of children and young people. Revisiting a concept or skill from different perspectives deepens understanding and can also make the curriculum more coherent and meaningful from the learner’s point of view. Interdisciplinary studies can also take advantage of opportunities to work with partners who are able to offer and support enriched learning experiences and opportunities for young people’s wider involvement in society.’ (Building the Curriculum 3: Page 21; Scottish Government)

Interdisciplinary learning Advantages of interdisciplinary learning Allows more in-depth exploration of topics, issues and problems within and across subjects When teachers do take the time and effort to guide students through multiple representations of the same concept, students report “aha” moments. They discover the underlying coherence among facts and theories they had earlier regarded as unrelated. Lack of coherence can lead to the introduction of a topic before the pre-requisite knowledge that makes a reasonable understanding of the topic possible. Harmonisation of scientific notation, terminology and teaching methodologies

Interdisciplinary learning Potential barriers to interdisciplinary learning Curriculum for Excellence: Draft Experiences and Outcomes Final Report, by the University of Glasgow. “the need for teachers to understand the big picture in relation to and the development of pupils’ learning in a holistic way not just their within their own area of expertise” “The new approach will require teachers to take learning outcomes with a more limited specification than that found in the existing 5–14 mathematics document and make links between mathematics and other curricular areas. Our concern is that this requires a degree of competence and confidence that may not currently be present”.

Interdisciplinary Learning Question In what ways do learning progressions developed around the core ideas have the potential to support and enhance interdisciplinary learning?

STEM Survey Results Question What STEM topics/concepts/skills should be prioritised in the development of first Connecting it Up learning progressions and what do you consider to be the core ideas?