Identifying Key Components of an Integrated STEM Curriculum Primary School Program that have the Potential to Improve Girls’ STEM Attitudes and Aspirations

Abstract

The proposal that by substantially increasing the participation of women in the STEM workforce, would begin to address the shortage of STEM professionals. For this approach to be successful, researchers need to address why so many young women develop negative attitudes towards science and mathematics, making an early exit from the STEM pipeline. As educators and researchers, we need to better understand what impact the school curriculum and classroom teaching practices have on STEM engagement and participation. The primary school curriculum currently presents subjects in silos with researchers suggesting that by connecting and integrating students’ learning experiences across subjects, student engagement and interest in the STEM subjects could be increased. The underlying assumption of this study is that an integrated STEM curriculum in primary school has the potential to positively impact girls’ attitudes towards STEM and aspirations to pursue a career in STEM. To investigate the potential of a teacher-designed integrated STEM curriculum to influence students’ attitudes and aspirations, the 28 schools that participated in two professional learning programs (the STEM Academy) in 2018 were considered as possible case studies for this research. The findings confirmed the presence of a set of nine essential components needed for the success of an integrated STEM curriculum program – content integrated STEM curriculum, context integration through community connections, inquiry-based learning, school culture and STEM leadership, teacher capacity, sustainability, role models and STEM careers education, gender equity, and student enthusiasm. A key contribution of this study, therefore, is the identification of connections between components, and the clustering of components into four sets identified as curriculum and pedagogical design; school personnel capabilities; professional connections; and student enthusiasm.