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Shaping science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum in Australian schools: An ecological systems analysis

- Falloon, Garry, Powling, Markus, Fraser, Sharon, Hatisaru, Vesife

  • Authors: Falloon, Garry , Powling, Markus , Fraser, Sharon , Hatisaru, Vesife
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: The Australian journal of education Vol. 66, no. 2 (2022), p. 171-195
  • Full Text: false
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  • Description: Improving young people's engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is being promoted worldwide as a means of addressing projected shortfalls in expertise needed to further nations' economic, social and environmental goals. Responding to this, schools are reforming traditional discipline-based curricula into interdisciplinary approaches based on problem and project-based designs, to make STEM learning more relevant and meaningful for students. This study drew on a dataset of 449 Australian principal and teacher interviews, to identify factors influencing STEM curriculum in their schools. It utilised Ecological Systems Theory to build understanding relating to the influence of activities and outputs originating at macro, exo and meso system levels, on STEM curriculum and practices in classrooms. Results demonstrated how many innovative schools were able to successfully leverage community, business and national resources to enhance their STEM curriculum, while others struggled due to limitations imposed by geographic or socio-economic factors, or limited access to resources, expertise or advice. Central to achieving this was the powerful influence of principals' and teachers' 'proximal processes and developmental assets' in establishing effective and engaging interdisciplinary STEM curricula, despite constraints imposed by, at best, ambiguous national and state curriculum and policies, rigid assessment regimes and compliance-focused reporting requirements.

Bridging to mathematical modelling: Vietnamese students' response to different levels of authenticity in contextualized tasks

- Tran, Dung, Nguyen, Duyen, Nguyen, An, Nguyen, Giang-Nguyen, Ta, Phuong

  • Authors: Tran, Dung , Nguyen, Duyen , Nguyen, An , Nguyen, Giang-Nguyen , Ta, Phuong
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International journal of mathematical education in science and technology Vol. 51, no. 6 (2020), p. 893-912
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: To address the upcoming reform curriculum initiative following competency-based learning in Vietnam, this study examines how variations of a contextualized task allow students to experience the mathematical modelling process. We explore how Grade 10 students respond to tasks with different levels of authenticity when they first attempt such tasks. Adapting the Theory of Authentic Task Situations, we designed variations of the Goat Cage task and implemented them with six small groups of students. Results showed that the modelling processes that the students progressed through differed in mathematical models used and real-world considerations, with diverse approaches when solving the more-authentic variation. Not all phases of the modelling process were observed explicitly when they engaged in the tasks. Students showed a positive disposition towards tasks with more authentic contextual information. The study suggests ways to adapt contextualized tasks to make them more authentic, which allows students to experience a holistic modelling process.
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