How can science and technology activities be made more engaging and relevant in primary education? Hollie Monks

 Hi bloggers!

We have been doing a lot of work relating to STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) within our seminars this week and reflected on how jobs in the future will require STEM skills, this blog post will discuss how science and technology activities should be made more relevant and engaging within primary education.

It is argued by first minister Carwyn Jones (2012) that STEM is the bedrock for innovation in industries and businesses and that the Welsh Government will continue to push science, technology, mathematics and engineering towards education to help young people gain the skills needed for the real world of work in the future. The Welsh Government (2012) state that “science isn’t just a school subject – in one form or another, it is continually changing and improving the way that we live our lives.” This statement chimes in with Jones’s (2012) views as the welsh government believes that science and technology are making and sustaining our modern society and that STEM skills will be needed even more for the future as they will help us to solve and understand big questions that the world faces. (Welsh Government, 2012).  Arthur, Crick, and Hayward’s (2013) views chime with this as they also argue that traditional schooling must adapt and change to suit the modern world as contemporary jobs will require STEM skills.

It is estimated that in the UK there will be over 7 million jobs that will require STEM skills by 2030, (OECD, 2011) because of this SMG (2017) argue that science and technology need become more relevant within schools, they also believe that this will help to widen young people’s choices in their lives and give them different opportunities in terms of keeping their future options open. Smiths (2017) ideas chime in with this as he suggests that using STEM within schools will inspire young people with different opportunities within the sector and by continuing to use STEM enough individuals will be sourced to fulfil the growing number of jobs within the industry.

The curriculum ‘Successful Futures’ will have an implementation of science and technology and will become an area of learning and experience, this area will exploit children’s interest about our physical and natural world through explaining, understanding and investigating. (Donaldson, 2015, p. 50) Donaldson (2015, p.50) believes that the implementation will allow children to “learn to generate, test ideas, gather evidence, make observations, carry out practical investigations, and communicate with others.” This proposal will allow children to become more than just consumers of technology as they will develop the knowledge and skills needed to use technology creatively as learners and as future members of the modern world. (Donaldson, 2015) Smith’s (2012) views chime in with Donaldson’s as he argues that traditional schooling must change and adapt to fit in with the modern world and the children’s futures as he believes that young people have different ways of being because they have grown up surrounded by modern technology.  The ICT Steering Group (2013) agree with this idea and argue that technology needs to be more relevant to the modern world and the future for young learners, they believe it needs to be re-engineered and re-branded. Buckingham’s (2007, p. 144) ideas also chime in with this as he also suggests that schools need to “place a central emphasis on developing children’s critical and creative abilities with regard to new media”, therefore promoting “a form of ‘digital media literacy’ as a basic educational entitlement”.

During our seminar this week we learnt how to make technology engaging for children by using VR headsets, we learnt how to use different apps alongside the headsets so that children can learn in a cross curricular way, the apps allowed the user to decide how to explore different environments and who they interacted with, Lave and Wenger (1991) suggest that “the immersive nature of virtual worlds supports social interaction and identify exploration.” Dawley and Dede (2014) also argue the benefits of virtual reality teaching and state that using VR and allowing children to explore different worlds make pedagogy highly motivating and engaging, autonomy is also enhanced which builds on the children’s motivation. (Nelson, 2007). As teachers will have the important role of delivering the rich STEM lessons to young learners it is vital that they make the sessions engaging so that they can learn the skills needed for the modern world, as Stoke (2012) argued that ‘technology has no impact on its own, it all depends on how we use it’, he suggests that to have a positive impact within a class room the teacher needs to be the informed user of technology. Selwyn’s (2008) views also chime with this idea as he believes that technology will allow the facilitator to move from being the organiser of the children’s lessons to be the shaper of quality learning experiences.

Lastly, here is a video of the first minister Carwyn Jones (2012) making a speech at the Welsh National Convention of Excellence in Engineering and Technology on March 26th, 2012, which talks about how STEM is important for young learner’s futures and how crucial STEM subjects will become within education which I found very educational and interesting to listen too. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U61qOUh_q7U

References  

·         Arthur, S. Crick, T. Hayward, J. (2013) The ICT Steering Group's Report to the Welsh Government. Available at: https://learnictblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/ict_steering_grp_rprt.pdf (Accessed: 10/04/18).

·         Buckingham, D. (2007) Beyond technology. Cambridge, Polity Press.

·         Carwyn Jones (2012) First Minister Carwyn Jones making a speech at the Welsh National
Convention of Excellence in Engineering and Technology March 26th, 2012. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U61qOUh_q7U (Downloaded: 10/04/2018).

·         Dawley, L., & Dede, C. (2014). Situated learning in virtual worlds and immersive simulations. In J. M. Spenctor, M. D. Merrill, J. Elen, & M. J. Bishop (Eds) the handbook of research for educational communications and technology. Fourth Edition. New York: Springer Verlag.

·         Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government.

·         Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.

·         Nelson, B. (2007) Exploring the use of individualised, reflective guidance in an educational multiuser virtual environment. Journal of Science Education and technology, 16(1), 83-97.

·         Selwyn, N. Potter, J and Cranmer, S. (2008) 'Primary pupils’ use of information and communication technologies at school and home, British Journal of Educational Technology, 29(23) p.1. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2008.00876.x

·         SMG (2017) Why is STEM important for society?. Available at: https://transformingpractice.sciencemuseum.org.uk/why-is-stem-important-for-society/ (Accessed: 10/04/18).

·         Smith, G. (2017) Britain’s STEM skills gap: are teachers on their own?. Available at: http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/britains-stem-skills-gap-teachers-2551943/ (Accessed: 10/04/17).

·         Stokes, J. (2012) Mega schools, Technology and Teachers. London. Routledge

·         Welsh Government (2012) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in education and training. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/160311-stem-delivery-plan-en-v2.pdf (Accessed: 10/04/18).

Hollie Monks