Teacher Professional Development for STEM Integration in Elementary/Primary Schools: A Systematic Review
Keywords:
teacher professional development, integrated STEM education, review of literature, elementary teachersAbstract
There has been a recent increase in scholarship devoted to integrated science, technology, engineering mathematics (STEM) education. However, as the field is emerging, there has not been a large amount of scholarship on how to best provide teacher professional development (PD) on integrated STEM education. On the other hand, well-grounded research is available in the field of effective teacher professional development. Therefore, in this study, I undertake a systematic review of empirical studies on training elementary/primary school teachers in integrated STEM education. Using an adapted version of Lawless and Pellegrino’s analytical framework (2007), I analyze and discuss the emerging commonalities among eleven studies in conjunction with the literature on effective teacher professional development. Through this study, I aim to connect current STEM-integrated PD activities with the literature on effective PD and to lay the groundwork for future professional development programs and evaluations in integrating STEM subject areas in elementary/primary schools.
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