Using ‘off the shelf ideas’ to plan and design a unit of work in STEM

Abstract

Primary and Early Years settings have had insufficient access to resources and professional development to integrate STEM education as part of a curriculum program. This small-scale action research case study aimed to explore practitioners’ understanding of ‘STEM education’ and involved myself as the researcher and the university tutor, the class teacher (Lily) and a commercial adviser (George). Interviews, document analysis, questionnaires and group discussions were used to examine the transformation required to modify a commercial STEM resource (Discovery: STEM Connect) into a curriculum plan that addressed real-world issues grounded in the Sustainable Development Goals. Lee Shulman’s ‘Model of Pedagogical Reasoning and Action was used as a theoretical framework’ to reflect on the curriculum plan. The findings showed that a commercially prepared plan provided a valuable scaffold enabling practitioners to consider the content and pedagogical knowledge required for a STEM-focused curriculum.