Integration in K-12 STEM Education: Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research

Education for K-12 students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has received increasing attention over the past decade with calls both for greater emphasis on these fields and for improvements in the quality of curricula and instruction. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 In response, numerous new instructional materials, programs, and specialized schools are emerging. While most of these initiatives address one or more of the STEM subjects separately, particularly mathematics and science, there are increasing efforts to create connections between and among the subjects, including sometimes the T and E. For example, the recently published Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), 8 modeled on A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, 9 has focused attention on how science concepts and practices can be integrated with those from engineering. Advocates of more integrated approaches to K-12 STEM education argue that teaching STEM in a more connected manner, especially in the context of real-world issues, can make the STEM subjects more relevant to students and teachers. This in turn can enhance motivation for learning and improve student interest, achievement, and persistence. And these outcomes, advocates assert, will help address calls for greater workplace and college readiness as well as increase the number of students who consider a career in a STEM-related field. Despite the rise in interest in providing students with learning experiences that foster connectionmaking across the STEM disciplines, there is little research on how best to do so or on what factors make integration more likely to increase student learning, interest, retention, achievement, or other valued outcomes. Indeed, there is considerable confusion about just what integrated STEM education is and how, if at all, it is different from STEM education that is not integrated.