Secondary mathematics education in the age of STEM: Tensions and possibilities for policy and practice in NSW

Publication Type:
Thesis
Issue Date:
2021
Full metadata record
In models of integrated learning commonly promoted in STEM education policies worldwide, mathematical learning often appears limited to process-driven applications with little scope for conceptual development. Given the aim of such policies to improve mathematics achievement and ambition of secondary students, an emerging research literature questions this ambiguous role of mathematics. Focusing explicitly on mathematics, this study explores this tension by investigating the landscape of STEM education in NSW secondary schools that developed pursuant to the introduction of strategies promoting integrated STEM. Insights into the perspectives, understandings and experiences of major stakeholders involved in secondary mathematics education were gained using a mixed methods approach. Analysis confirmed previous research findings, including a confused understanding of integrated STEM education in the secondary school environment and a lack of focus on mathematics. Mathematics content in implemented programs was limited in quantity and scope, and curriculum documents difficult to align and reconcile. This study questions the implementation assumptions of integrated STEM models, suggesting that they are ill-suited to discipline-specific education structures and inadequate to support a robust learning of mathematics. Nevertheless, mathematics teachers recognised the benefits of the connected learning approach of STEM and sought to develop these approaches in the classroom.
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