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Education Sciences
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Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”
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Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102). This special issue belongs to the section "STEM Education".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2024) | Viewed by 13812

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Kelum Gamage

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
Interests: educational development and innovation; engineering education; quality assurance and enhancement in engineering programmes; radiation detection and instrumentation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Eila Jeronen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Oulu, FI-90014 Oulu, Finland
2. Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
3. Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Lapland, FI-96101 Rovaniemi, Finland
Interests: education; teacher education; environmental education; sustainable development education; health education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Brian M. McSkimming

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Assistant Professor, Engineering Pathways, Gallogly College of Engineering, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
Interests: engineering education; computing education; personal epistemology; self-regulation; transfer; threshold concepts; undergraduate/graduate student mentoring; semiconductor growth and devices
Prof. Dr. Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Education Sciences, European University Cyprus, Engomi, Nicosia 1516, Cyprus
Interests: statistics education; data science education; AI in education; STEM/STEAM education; teacher professional development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The STEM Education Section of Education Sciences aims to publish high-quality research papers on learning, teaching, and assessment, both within the disciplinary topics of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and within the interdisciplinary topics of sustainable pedagogies. Its aim is to promote research and educational development in the field of STEM education.

This Special Issue, entitled “Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”, will publish feature papers by high caliber-researchers in the field of STEM Education that address the following five topics: 

  • Sustainability in STEM Education
  • New and Emerging Technologies in STEM Education
  • Inclusive STEM Education
  • Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in STEM Education
  • Online Learning and Teaching in STEM Education

    Sustainability in STEM Education: This topic aims to publish high-quality studies on STEM and sustainability-related education. The research must focus on the views of educators, student teachers, or students regarding their competence and awareness, and other essential questions regarding human–environment relations from the perspective of ecological, social, cultural, and economic sustainability.

   New and Emerging Technologies in STE(A)M Education: This Special Issue will compile a collection of scholarly publications investigating the infiltration of new and emerging technologies into STE(A)M (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) teaching and learning practices and experiences. It will collect incisive contributions from leading scholars on the benefits and challenges surrounding the design and implementation of novel and emerging technologies in a variety of STE(A)M learning contexts and domains: formal, informal, and non-formal contexts, and open and distance education.

   Inclusive STEM Education: The aim of this Special Issue is to ensure equitable access and opportunities for all students, regardless of their background, gender, race, or abilities, to engage and succeed in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This topic focuses on strategies, practices, and policies that promote diversity and inclusivity in STEM classrooms, encouraging underrepresented groups to pursue STEM careers.

    Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in STEM Education: In the context of STEM education, this Special Issue explores how PBL can be effectively implemented to enhance students' problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and hands-on experience. It examines the role of PBL in fostering a deeper understanding of STEM concepts and its impact on student engagement.

    Online Learning and Teaching in STEM Education: This topic delves into the use of digital platforms and technology to deliver STEM courses and engage students in virtual environments. This topic investigates the advantages and challenges of online STEM education, including the use of multimedia resources, interactive simulations, and remote laboratories. It also explores effective strategies for instructors to create engaging online STEM learning experiences.

Submitted articles should report on original, cutting-edge empirical studies that demonstrate validated practical experiences related to STEM education. Articles presenting interim results from innovative, ongoing projects will also be included. Conceptual essays contributing to future research and theory—by presenting reflective or theoretical analyses, epistemological studies, integrative and critical literature reviews, or the forecasting of emerging learning technologies and tendencies—are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Kelum Gamage
Dr. Eila Jeronen
Dr. Brian M. McSkimming
Prof. Dr. Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • STEM education
  • physics
  • chemistry
  • biology
  • geography
  • mathematics
  • technology
  • science as practice
  • environmental science
  • engineering practices
  • curriculum
  • learning
  • teaching
  • assessment
  • scholarship
  • problem-solving
  • creativity
  • online learning
  • blended learning
  • remote learning
  • virtual learning
  • face-to-face learning
  • active learning
  • learning pedagogies
  • delivery of laboratories and workshops
  • online assessments
  • technology-enhanced learning
  • informal learning
  • student engagement
  • sustainability education
  • education for sustainability
  • teacher education
  • skill development
  • graduate attributes
  • tertiary education
  • higher education
  • further education
  • secondary education
  • primary education
  • competencies in teaching/learning sustainable development

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 3509 KiB  
Article
Fostering Students’ Measurement Estimation Skills in a Digital Teaching-Learning Environment: A Class-Wise Randomized Controlled Trial in Grade 5
by Niklas Peters, Susanne Prediger and Juliane Weiss
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(2), 238; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020238 - 14 Feb 2025
Viewed by 462
Abstract
Students’ measurement estimation skills require benchmark knowledge (about measures of known objects) and estimation strategies (ways to compare with benchmarks). While students’ estimation skills have been assessed and unpacked in several empirical studies (for length and area but less for mass), approaches for [...] Read more.
Students’ measurement estimation skills require benchmark knowledge (about measures of known objects) and estimation strategies (ways to compare with benchmarks). While students’ estimation skills have been assessed and unpacked in several empirical studies (for length and area but less for mass), approaches for fostering them have hardly been empirically studied. We present the instructional design of a digital teaching-learning environment designed to foster fifth graders’ estimation skills for mass measures and empirical evidence for its efficacy. The teaching-learning environment encompassed two 45-minute sessions and drew upon the design principles of cognitive engagement with worked examples, enhanced communication, and scaffolding. A class-wise randomized controlled trial was conducted in 14 classes (involving n = 310 students) with three treatment groups, and two intervention groups worked on estimation strategies in the teaching-learning environment. Both intervention groups significantly outperformed the control group in the post test. The intervention group with highly structured scaffolds only tended to explain the strategies slightly better than the intervention group with regular scaffolds, albeit not significantly. The findings show that estimation skills can be effectively fostered, with a modest indication that highly structured scaffolds might hold promise for longer interventions to enhance students’ discourse practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”)
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16 pages, 2455 KiB  
Article
Teaching Science Outdoors: Supporting Pre-Service Teachers’ Skill Development with the Help of Available Mobile Applications
by Merike Kesler, Arja Kaasinen and Anttoni Kervinen
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(11), 1218; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14111218 - 5 Nov 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 908
Abstract
Outdoor environments provide excellent teaching and learning experiences in science education. However, many teachers find outdoor teaching challenging. In this study, we investigated factors supporting skill development and learning among pre-service teacher during a blended science didactics course that includes mobile interaction in [...] Read more.
Outdoor environments provide excellent teaching and learning experiences in science education. However, many teachers find outdoor teaching challenging. In this study, we investigated factors supporting skill development and learning among pre-service teacher during a blended science didactics course that includes mobile interaction in outdoor environments. Available WhatsApp mobile application was used as an interaction platform between the pre-service teachers’ and the teacher educator. Based on the findings, the pre-service teachers learned easy ways of using outdoor environments with pupils. They also identified challenges that may arise in outdoor teaching and upskilled on how to overcome them. From the perspective of interaction, submitting learning tasks, especially visual observations, through mobile messaging and reviewing tasks of other students in the application were perceived as important. However, the most crucial benefit of mobile interaction was considered to be the teacher’s real-time feedback. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”)
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16 pages, 3455 KiB  
Article
Mastery of the Concept of Percentage and Its Representations in Finnish Comprehensive School Grades 7–9
by Jorma Joutsenlahti and Päivi Perkkilä
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(10), 1043; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14101043 - 24 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1431
Abstract
This research was conducted in 2019 in collaboration with Japanese colleagues, with the research tasks translated from the original Japanese. In Finland, a total of 1112 students from grades 7–9 in primary school participated in the study. In our article, we examine Finnish [...] Read more.
This research was conducted in 2019 in collaboration with Japanese colleagues, with the research tasks translated from the original Japanese. In Finland, a total of 1112 students from grades 7–9 in primary school participated in the study. In our article, we examine Finnish students’ mastery of the concept of percentages and how they express their mathematical thinking about percentages in a multimodal way. A multimodal expression of mathematical thinking can typically take the form of natural language, written mathematics, pictorial representations, mathematical symbolic language, or combinations of these, which can be used to manage information, such as through tables. Our focus is on Finnish primary-school students’ mastery of the concept of percentages, and we then narrow our analysis to tasks where students have used a multimodal approach. We analyze the representations of the concept of percentages and the related thought processes. The concept of percentages was best mastered in grade 9 and weakest in grade 7. Students mostly used a combination of pictorial language, natural language, and mathematical symbolic language to describe their solution processes. However, describing their thinking in different ways did not necessarily highlight possible errors in their reasoning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”)
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27 pages, 9684 KiB  
Article
Lessons for Sustainable Science Education: A Study on Chemists’ Use of Systems Thinking across Ecological, Economic, and Social Domains
by Emmi Vuorio, Johannes Pernaa and Maija Aksela
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(7), 741; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14070741 - 6 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1461
Abstract
This paper explores how concept maps can be structured based on researcher narration as a systems thinking (ST) approach in science education to portray the systemic nature of developmental work by chemists on solutions related to sustainability. Sustainability cannot be achieved without a [...] Read more.
This paper explores how concept maps can be structured based on researcher narration as a systems thinking (ST) approach in science education to portray the systemic nature of developmental work by chemists on solutions related to sustainability. Sustainability cannot be achieved without a systemic approach that considers all the domains of prosperity and well-being—ecological, social, and economic. Science education must respond to this challenge accordingly and find effective ways to include the ST approach. Data were collected from three semi-structured, in-depth interviews with chemists. The analysis was carried out using qualitative content analysis and modelling the systemic structures in concept maps as articulated by the chemists. The results show that authentic narratives of chemists’ developmental work can be used as material in a concept mapping exercise to reveal several ST elements and learning objectives, including leverage points and delays, that have not been presented in previous exercises. The chemists’ descriptions were also found to address the challenge of sustainability education by depicting a holistic and multidimensional picture of the reality where the developmental work is conducted. Furthermore, all three domains of sustainability were identified. The economic and industrial perspectives were especially valuable from the science education viewpoint. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”)
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17 pages, 287 KiB  
Article
Sustaining Teacher Professional Learning in STEM: Lessons Learned from an 18-Year-Long Journey into TPACK-Guided Professional Development
by Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Efi Paparistodemou
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(4), 402; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14040402 - 11 Apr 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4121
Abstract
This article is a self-narrative of our 18-year research into the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)-guided professional development of teachers in ICT-enhanced mathematics learning. Using autoethnography as the methodology to elucidate our transformative personal evolution in implementing the TPACK model, we describe how [...] Read more.
This article is a self-narrative of our 18-year research into the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)-guided professional development of teachers in ICT-enhanced mathematics learning. Using autoethnography as the methodology to elucidate our transformative personal evolution in implementing the TPACK model, we describe how we conceptualized and enacted the TPACK framework across three distinct phases of our research trajectory. In the first phase, our efforts focused on offering afternoon seminars and workshops on using educational software. Mathematics teachers attended the seminars and workshops voluntarily. In the second phase, we concentrated on designing programs guided by the principles of adult education, which emphasize the importance of learner autonomy and relevance, and socio-constructivist views of teacher professional growth, which stress the role of collaboration and reflection in learning. In the final phase, we adopted a systemic, school-based approach to investigating and expanding TPACK for mathematics and other STEM/STEAM teachers. At the end of each phase’s description, we delve into the profound lessons learned and how these led to a paradigm shift, expanding our perspective on TPACK as practitioners and researchers. Finally, we present a set of recommendations for future research and practice aimed at facilitating the sustainability of STEM/STEAM teacher professional learning initiatives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”)
15 pages, 274 KiB  
Article
Teamwork Made in China: Soft Skill Development with a Side of Friendship in the STEM Classroom
by Constance Van Horne and Tzipora Rakedzon
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(3), 248; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14030248 - 27 Feb 2024
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3334
Abstract
One demand imposed by the global market is the possession of adequate soft skills, a challenge commonly faced by STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates. This challenge is particularly prominent in China, which produces millions of STEM graduates annually. Consequently, there is [...] Read more.
One demand imposed by the global market is the possession of adequate soft skills, a challenge commonly faced by STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates. This challenge is particularly prominent in China, which produces millions of STEM graduates annually. Consequently, there is a pressing need to develop and research programs facilitating the acquisition of soft skills, with a specific focus on teamwork, among Chinese engineers. To this end, we created a team-based project as part of a semester-long scientific English communication course at a Sino–foreign STEM university in China. The project aimed at fostering valuable soft skills through active learning, including teamwork, communication, and collaboration. In this report, we examine written reflections by students, aiming to assess their perceptions of soft skill development and overall experience resulting from their participation in the team-based project. Our results show the self-reflected soft skills development was considerable, and, unexpectedly, a noteworthy outcome of the project was the significant development of interpersonal connections, resulting in a positive experience and friendship development. Consequently, the findings of this study shed light on how teamwork can foster soft skills and friendship development, the latter often referred to as relationship development, another soft skill in the 21st century. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series in “STEM Education”)
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