Date of Award

2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

First Advisor

Dr Tasneem Anwar

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Abstract

Global interest in STEM education, particularly integrated STEM, has escalated in the past twenty five years. However, it remains relatively new in the Pakistani context where recently, the inclusion of STEAM/STEM as a cross-cutting element in the National Curriculum of Pakistan (2022-23) marks a significant step, integrating STEM into science for grades 4-8. Its nascent concept has led to issues with teachers' lack of interdisciplinary knowledge outside of their field of specialization, teachers' limited access to high-quality STEM curricular materials for integrated teaching, and STEM professional development programmes. Thus, traditional, discipline-based methods are still frequently used. Therefore, this study was carried out  to design  a teacher professional development  program that can offer teachers support for  developing integrated STEM units that align with the Pakistan National Curriculum.  Design-Based Research  was used as a methodological approach in this study. Seven teachers from private schools divided in two teams participated in a 6-day professional development programme. They used the engineering design process to design two STEM curriculum units. Pre-post survey, focus group discussion, a daily reflection of the participant and the facilitator, and teachers' artifacts including the two STEM curriculum units served as data sources. These two STEM-integrated units were assessed using the STEM Integration Curriculum Assessment tool. The assessment of these two units was made and the level of integration within each unit was demonstrated by using Vasquez's model of integration. Hence, Team 1 accomplished a greater degree of interdisciplinary integration, whereas Team 2 largely included disciplinary knowledge and skills of science only.  The study shares three design principles emphasizing the need to facilitate collaboration; provide sustained opportunities of Model-Design-Practice and engage in engineering design process with emphasis on testable prototype. Finally, the study shares implications and recommendations for research and practice of integrated STEM.

First Page

1

Last Page

121

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