Beyond the subject silos in STEM – the case for ‘looking sideways' in the secondary school curriculum

Banks, Frank and Barlex, David Michael (2014). Beyond the subject silos in STEM – the case for ‘looking sideways' in the secondary school curriculum. In: STEM Education and our Planet Making connections across contexts 3rd International Conference, 12-15 Jul 2014, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Abstract

This paper considers how teachers of each of the school subjects science, mathematics and design & technology might adopt a positive approach to STEM by 'looking sideways' and taking into account in their own teaching what colleagues from each of the other subjects are teaching. The paper will use the invited comments of three distinguished educators, one from each of science, mathematics and design & technology for an initial exploration of what this might involve.

Then the paper considers two possible futures of STEM: the first in which teaching the subjects is independent one from another, the acronym to have a full stop between each of the letters as it were - S.T.E.M; the second in which there is a dynamic and synergic relationship between two or more of the contributing subjects. Each future is considered in the light of comments from teachers in Israel, Argentina and Brazil.

Finally the paper discusses the idea of ‘looking sideways’ for the development of teacher professional knowledge.

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