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The global economy is changing, with jobs disappearing due to automation and others emerging as a result of technological advances and innovations. This new reality is changing the way students need to learn, connect, interact, and interpret the world around them. The skills developed by students through STEM education — from problem solving and creativity, to teamwork and digital literacy — provide them with the foundation to adapt and thrive in this fast changing world.
This Collection invites research and review articles that provide fresh perspectives on all aspects of STEM teaching, learning, and assessment. We welcome research both empirical and conceptual from all areas of the social and behavioural sciences. Perspectives are encouraged from all geographic regions and learning contexts, including day care, pre-k, kindergarten, primary, elementary, secondary, vocational, higher education, teacher training colleges, and open and distance education.
Research is invited on key themes, including but not limited to:
Assessing STEM learning outcomes and impact
Case studies of best practice
Curriculum design and development
Entrepreneurship, industry links and partnerships to support STEM education
Innovative learning environments
Integration of STEM with other disciplines (e.g. arts and humanities; ASTEM)
International perspectives and trends
Learning and assessment
New innovations and practices to support teaching, learning and assessment
Pedagogical approaches
Perspective on STEM education of the future
Sociocultural factors and STEM
STEM education policy
Strategies to enhance student engagement in STEM learning
Parents’ beliefs and behavior act as both explicit and implicit ways of communicating the value of science and their confidence that their child can be successful in science-related classes. Using the NCES High School Longitudinal Survey (HSLS:09), we examined how parent beliefs and behaviors regarding their 9th grader’s science education predicted the students’ motivation in science. Using multiple regression indicates that the combination of parental education, beliefs, and involvement in science-related activities with their child are weak but significant predictors of students’ academic motivation in science (adjR2 = 0.04, F(6, 14,933) = 26.32, P < 0.001). In particular, parent education and parent involvement have positive and significant effects on students’ science identity and science self-efficacy. These findings suggest that students may have a stronger academic motivation in science with parents who have higher levels of education, more confidence in their ability to help their child in science, and who engage in more science activities with their child.