image: Cover of "Becoming a STEM Teacher: My Learning Journey".
Credit: World Scientific
Interested in infusing STEM into your classroom? Unsure of how to integrate engineering design thinking or technology into your STEM lesson plans? Frustrated that you started planning a STEM activity but realised you were stuck?
Whether you are taking your first steps to being a STEM teacher or whether you are experienced in integrating STEM into your lessons, the road to becoming an integrated STEM teacher is a journey, one that is transient and unique to the individual. The transition from being a good science or mathematics teacher to becoming an integrated STEM teacher oftentimes requires multiple iterative cycles of learning, reflection, and refinement. Transformation of practice can be arduous, scary, and sometimes lonely. Peer into the classrooms of six teachers as they enact and reflect on their integrated STEM lessons. Designed to be your personal STEM professional development companion, Becoming a STEM Teacher: My Learning Journey can act as a guiding voice to help you reflect on your own practices and examine how you can better integrate the learning and practices of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics into your classroom.
“As the importance of STEM education becomes increasingly recognised, one might ask, how can I effectively integrate STEM into my classroom? What resources do I need and where do I start?” said co-author Dr Melissa Neo, “Integrating STEM into the classroom can be a challenging experience. As teachers often wear different ‘hats’ and assume various roles in the classroom, one might carry the perception that integrating the mono-disciplines of STEM requires a teacher to be an expert in each of the four disciplines. Some might even feel that integrated STEM education is only suitable for higher grade levels like secondary school and wonder how integrated STEM can be implemented to suit the primary classroom…Becoming a STEM Teacher is here to help overcome those misconceptions and challenges.”
Becoming a STEM Teacher is designed for teachers with varying STEM experiences and teaching backgrounds. The book features classroom enactments of six different integrated STEM activities, each varying in duration and grade level of focus. Readers can adapt, adopt, and change various elements according to their classroom needs, to instil, develop, and reinforce key interpersonal 21st century skills, foster engineering design thinking, and so on. Customise and personalise your integrated STEM learning journey like you would your life experiences. Build on, test, refine and iterate your integrated STEM lesson ideas as you progress and grow as a STEM teacher.
For best results, co-author, Dr Tan Aik Ling recommends “Journaling as a way of professional development...” alongside adopting measures and practices from the book. She said, “As you document your lived experiences and observations of your own practice and discuss with your community, you gain greater insights into your own practices. We hope that through reflection and journaling your STEM learning journey, it will lead to personal and professional growth.”
Each of the six integrated STEM activities presented in the book are accompanied by a probe activity, images of integrated STEM inquiry (teaching vignette), instructional model and instructional strategies. Use the probe activity to engage your students and assess their prior knowledge on the topic at hand. Adopt the featured teacher’s ideas or adapt parts that are suitable for your classroom. Reflection questions are dotted throughout the book to help you distil or cultivate insights into potential challenges that your students might face, anticipate misconceptions they might have, deliberate on ways to inspire creativity and innovation in the classroom, and much more.
Select from instructional strategies based on classroom grade or pick and choose from suggestions across the grades. Scan the QR codes to access additional resources such as introductory videos, a student STEM workbook, editable lesson plans and more! Let this journal be your ticket to customising your integrated STEM learning journey. Record your successes and shortcomings, monitor your growth and development, and inspire new innovative and creative STEM lesson ideas of your own.
Becoming a STEM Teacher: My Learning Journey is available in print (both hardcover and paperback) and electronic formats. To order or know more about the book, visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/13629.
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About the Authors
Dr Tan Aik Ling is an associate professor of science education with the Natural Sciences and Science Education academic group at the National Institute of Education. She teaches biology education methods courses and courses related to integrated STEM curriculum. Prior to teaching at NIE in 2007, Dr Tan taught Biology and Lower Secondary General Science at River Valley High School for 10 years. She was the subject head in charge of Media Resource Library, and later of Thinking and Project Work. She worked in developing young scientists interested in science projects. Her current research interests lie in the areas of students' ideas of science learning, science teacher professional development and STEM education. To uncover students’ ideas of science learning, she examines students’ classroom interactions with peers, learning resources and manipulatives. To understand science teacher professional development, she focusses on science teachers’ ideas of science inquiry, their classroom actions and adaptive practices as science lessons are enacted. Finally, for STEM education research, she delves into integrated STEM curriculum and STEM education leadership.
Dr Melissa Neo is a research fellow at the Natural Sciences and Science Education department at the National Institute of Education. She is passionate in developing materials and resources for the teaching and learning of science and biology. Her research interests lie in effective translation and accessibility of science content knowledge across K-12 grade levels, understanding student- and teacher-directed scientific inquiry, and integrated STEM curriculum.
About World Scientific Publishing Co.
World Scientific Publishing is a leading international independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research and professional communities. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation and US National Academies Press to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. The company publishes about 600 books and over 170 journals in various fields annually. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit www.worldscientific.com.
For more information, contact WSPC Communications at communications@wspc.com.