First, the origin and development of STEM education
2 1 century, the development of science and technology is getting faster and faster, and it plays an increasingly important role in social and economic development. The relationship between science and technology and society has undergone a qualitative change, putting forward higher requirements for people's quality. The endless stream of new jobs requires practitioners to have comprehensive skills, professional knowledge and innovative ability. Future-oriented education can't stay at the level of isolated discipline education, and the integration and application of knowledge and skills in various disciplines will become the main theme of education.
At the end of 1980s, in order to improve the scientific and technological level of citizens and cultivate a large number of outstanding talents in the field of engineering technology, the United States took the lead in proposing an integrated education model of science, mathematics, engineering and technology, aiming at enhancing the comprehensive national strength by strengthening the cultivation of innovative talents in science, engineering, technology and mathematics education. With the joint efforts of education and science and technology, this educational model has gradually extended from higher education to K- 12 stage. With the promulgation and implementation of the "New Generation Scientific Standards" in the United States, science education is carried out in the form of learning process around important scientific concepts, and the combination of engineering education and science education has become the frontier and new concept of international science education. ①STEM education has a detailed research foundation of brain science, cognitive science and educational science, and has the connotation and educational significance of the demand for innovative talents in knowledge society. It is an educational model and a new system that science education circles jointly promote science education.
STEM education is the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. It does not simply stack the contents of these four fields together, but emphasizes the purposeful, methodical and systematic integration of the four fields in STEM education, so as to develop the thinking, reasoning, teamwork, investigation and creativity required by students in their daily lives. ②STEM course is problem/project-oriented, learning, integrating, applying and developing knowledge and skills in four fields, and it is a teaching method that integrates knowledge from different disciplines into existing courses. STEM education attempts to transform the fragmentary knowledge and mechanical process learned by students into a process of exploring different aspects of the world, emphasizing the application of knowledge and skills in real situations and solving problems, and cultivating students' comprehensive problem-solving ability and innovation ability. The goal of STEM education emphasizes five aspects, namely, STEM literacy, 2 1 century skills, STEM's work vision, interest and participation, and the ability to connect with STEM disciplines. Among them, STEM literacy refers to students' scientific literacy, technical literacy, engineering literacy and mathematical literacy, which are closely related. ③ Through the achievement of STEM literacy and 2 1 century skills, students can: ① understand the significance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to contemporary society; (2) Be familiar with at least the basic concepts involved in each field, and be able to educate and skillfully use these concepts and principles; ③ Develop students' basic literacy in three aspects: cognition (critical thinking and creativity), interpersonal communication (communication and cooperation) and personality characteristics (flexibility, initiative and metacognition).
From June 5, 2009 to 10, President Obama launched the "Education Innovation" campaign, which promoted STEM education to an excellent level nationwide. In 20 1 1-20 13, the reform of science education in the United States entered a critical period. During this period, the Framework of Science Education for Grade K- 12 and the New Generation Science Curriculum Standard for Grade K- 12 (NGSS) were compiled, revised and published. Since 1980s, Europe has paid attention to the combination of engineering and science. Take Britain as an example, it emphasizes science education under the industrial background. The content of courses developed in Europe goes deep into concrete and practical classroom teaching plans and teaching strategies, and York University has established the National STEM Education Center. Around 20 10, under the impetus of the Academy of Sciences, the education departments in Australia and Canada increased their research and practice on engineering technology education in science education, which promoted the transformation from science education to STEM education. On July 5th, 20 15, 18, the British magazine Nature published the special topic "Cultivation of Scientists in the 2nd15th Century", which systematically investigated the challenges and hopes faced by global STEM education. ④ In 2065438+06, American Academy of Sciences Press published the book "National STEM Labor Force Development Strategy", pointing out that STEM knowledge and skills can increase individual employment opportunities and enhance national competitiveness, and the state needs to ensure that all students at different levels and employees in different professional positions have the opportunity to receive high-quality STEM education and training. ⑤ All this has set off an upsurge of STEM education in the world.
STEM education not only has a decisive influence on the country's future innovation ability and competitiveness, but also is a necessary foundation for social progress. STEM education for teenagers is not only the need of social development, but also the need of teenagers' personal survival and lifelong development. Facing the challenge of knowledge society and globalization of economy and science and technology, it is an inevitable requirement to cultivate innovative engineering talents, build an innovative country and enhance national competitiveness, and it is also the only feasible way to ensure the sustained and healthy development of human society.
Second, the development status of STEM education in China
Driven by social resources, such as science associations, universities, mass organizations, science and technology venues, STEM education in China has taken the lead in primary and secondary schools, and has gradually attracted the attention of education administrative departments. Since 20 10, the system of association for science and technology has played an important leading and promoting role in the process of promoting STEM education. Scientific and technological workers have participated in STEM education at all levels, promoted the development of STEM education in China together with educators, and played a positive role in building an innovative country and enhancing the future competitiveness of the country.
In September of 20 15, the Ministry of Education issued "Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively and Deeply Promoting Educational Informatization during the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (Draft for Comment)", and put forward the idea of "exploring new educational modes such as STEAM education and maker education". It is necessary to promote the reform of teaching content and mode of various subjects through information technology, explore the new educational mode of STEAM, and cultivate students' information consciousness and innovation consciousness. From 2065438 to June 2006, the Ministry of Education issued the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" for educational informatization, pointing out that areas with conditions should actively explore the application of information technology in new educational models such as "creating space for all", interdisciplinary education (STEAM education) and maker education. On the New Year's Day of 20 17, the Ministry of Education proposed that education should be experiential, exploratory and practical in educational methods. The National Science Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Primary Schools promulgated in February 2007, 2065438+,clearly proposed to advocate interdisciplinary learning. STEM education is a curriculum organization model oriented to project learning and problem solving, which organically integrates science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and is conducive to the cultivation of students' innovative ability.
The development of STEM education in China is still in its infancy, and the domestic STEM education has not yet formed a complete theoretical system and a highly operable combination mode in and out of class. On the practical level, the foundation of science education is weak, the development between regions is unbalanced, the in-class education and extracurricular education fail to develop harmoniously, and the in-class science education is out of touch with extracurricular scientific and technological activities; Science education resources are insufficient, unevenly distributed and underutilized; The professional ability of science teachers needs to be improved urgently. The proportion of part-time science teachers is large, mostly non-science majors, and science and technology counselors and teachers are marginalized in schools. All these restrict or mislead the development of STEM education in China.
The project team distributed questionnaires to 27 provincial youth centers for science and technology associations in China, and 25 valid questionnaires were collected. Among them, 2 provinces did not carry out provincial STEM projects or activities and did not fill in the questionnaires. Through the analysis of these questionnaires, most provincial youth organizations and managers understand and support STEM education, but most local STEM education activities are mainly carried out by schools. More than 60% regions have held exchange activities or expert lectures on STEM education topics, but there is a lack of relevant policy guidance (only 6 regions have introduced provincial support and encouragement policies, and most schools that carry out STEM education activities have relevant policy support). In most provinces, there is no systematic or specialized STEM education teacher training in the association for science and technology, so some relevant special reports or exchange contents are added to the training of science and technology counselors. The number of schools participating in STEM education is generally less than 5% and the number of teachers is less than 10%, which has not formed a scale and lacks a comprehensive understanding of STEM education system and related teachers and training resources. The venue, evaluation feedback mechanism and reward and punishment mechanism have not been established (only a few areas such as Shanghai and Guangdong have established some mechanisms). According to the questionnaire feedback, some schools have considered the combination with the current national standards of science and technology courses in the process of school-based curriculum development, and STEM activities are mostly in science and technology competitions and exchanges and exhibitions. Provincial science associations generally hope that schools will be more active and promote STEM education by purchasing quality services. Generally speaking, the areas with better economic development in the east are better than those in the central and western regions in terms of policy guidance and training support.
In supporting STEM education and activities, it generally reflects the need for comprehensive and systematic teacher training, allocation of teaching resources, financial support and promotion policies, mainly focusing on the needs of expert team support, special training and exchanges, courses, equipment and exchange activities. The demand put forward by the provinces that have carried out provincial STEM education is more specific and clear. ① Need curriculum resources support, STEM curriculum cases, academic research results, domestic and foreign popular science sites, research centers and enterprise factories resources support, special funds and related policy support.
② Systematic courses, preferably with grade differences, and teacher training courses with textbooks and micro-courses are the best, mainly due to the lack of systematic teaching materials and counselor training, and the need for related equipment support or cooperative research and development with project superior units. It would be better if there are resources such as quality evaluation compatible with STEM. Some social organizations provide training with more concepts but less substance, hoping to carry out standardized teacher training and establish some STEM education demonstration schools.
③ To carry out STEM education, we need to take STEM as one of the courses of scientific and technological activities in and out of class, strengthen the construction of teachers, and organize scientific and technological counselors to develop school-based teaching materials suitable for our region and school. There is a serious shortage of science teachers, experimental sites and equipment in primary and secondary schools in China, and there is a shortage of professionals to explore STEM education. The realization of curriculum sharing needs the guidance and service of national experts, and it is best to provide developed curriculum resources.
Twenty-two valid questionnaires were collected from enterprises and off-campus institutions, all of them actively participated in STEM education, and invested a lot of R&D funds or purchased resources to create STEM education solutions (starting from curriculum resources, teacher training or enrollment, hardware configuration, venue construction, activity expansion, etc.). However, the main breakthrough is the provision of hardware and the development of characteristic extracurricular activities, and the complete curriculum resources (especially the organic combination with in-class education) is its weakness.
In the questionnaire, these institutions reflect that STEM education for teenagers is not simply to let students learn basic knowledge and make it by hand, but an educational way that pays attention to practice, process, aesthetics, innovation and cross-disciplinary interaction. On the premise of providing students with basic equipment, tools and basic knowledge, students can find problems in life and study through observation and thinking, and use their imagination and creativity to solve problems. The concept of STEM education was introduced into China and gradually advocated. However, STEM education lacks top-level promotion, and the lack of STEM teachers is a problem, lacking social linkage mechanism. Create an influential STEM education resource platform in Jiangsu Province and even the whole country, and actively build a diversified and multi-level popular science education service platform with Internet thinking.
(1) Roger W. than. What is STEM education? science