Mathematics as the focal point of STEM teaching

Dorte Moeskær Larsen; Mette Als Kristensen; Lars Seidelin; Connie Svabo

Mathematics as the focal point of STEM teaching

Dorte Moeskær Larsen
, Mette Als Kristensen
, Lars Seidelin
, Connie Svabo

Læreruddannelsen i Odense

University of Southern Denmark

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review

Abstract

The role of mathematics in STEM teaching is often described as limited or unclear, and more or less always conceived as a tool. This paper examines the role of mathematics in 19 STEM activities developed in the research and development project LabSTEM, the goal of which includes developing STEM activities where mathematics is the focal point. All 19 activities include mathematics, and they target students from kindergarten to lower secondary school. The analysis contains a categorisation of the different roles that mathematics plays in the 19 STEM activities. The results show that teachers manage to present mathematics not as abstract and decontextualised but as integrated and relevant in most of the 19 activities. Nevertheless, there is a persistent tendency for them to place mathematics learning in the background, relegating mathematics to a supporting role in STEM

Original language	English
Journal	Proceedings of the Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12)
Number of pages	9
Publication status	Published - Feb 2022

Keywords

mathematics

Access to Document

https://hal.science/CERME12/hal-03745468v1

Cite this

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title = "Mathematics as the focal point of STEM teaching",

abstract = "The role of mathematics in STEM teaching is often described as limited or unclear, and more or less always conceived as a tool. This paper examines the role of mathematics in 19 STEM activities developed in the research and development project LabSTEM, the goal of which includes developing STEM activities where mathematics is the focal point. All 19 activities include mathematics, and they target students from kindergarten to lower secondary school. The analysis contains a categorisation of the different roles that mathematics plays in the 19 STEM activities. The results show that teachers manage to present mathematics not as abstract and decontextualised but as integrated and relevant in most of the 19 activities. Nevertheless, there is a persistent tendency for them to place mathematics learning in the background, relegating mathematics to a supporting role in STEM",

keywords = "mathematics, Role of mathematics, STEM",

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N2 - The role of mathematics in STEM teaching is often described as limited or unclear, and more or less always conceived as a tool. This paper examines the role of mathematics in 19 STEM activities developed in the research and development project LabSTEM, the goal of which includes developing STEM activities where mathematics is the focal point. All 19 activities include mathematics, and they target students from kindergarten to lower secondary school. The analysis contains a categorisation of the different roles that mathematics plays in the 19 STEM activities. The results show that teachers manage to present mathematics not as abstract and decontextualised but as integrated and relevant in most of the 19 activities. Nevertheless, there is a persistent tendency for them to place mathematics learning in the background, relegating mathematics to a supporting role in STEM

AB - The role of mathematics in STEM teaching is often described as limited or unclear, and more or less always conceived as a tool. This paper examines the role of mathematics in 19 STEM activities developed in the research and development project LabSTEM, the goal of which includes developing STEM activities where mathematics is the focal point. All 19 activities include mathematics, and they target students from kindergarten to lower secondary school. The analysis contains a categorisation of the different roles that mathematics plays in the 19 STEM activities. The results show that teachers manage to present mathematics not as abstract and decontextualised but as integrated and relevant in most of the 19 activities. Nevertheless, there is a persistent tendency for them to place mathematics learning in the background, relegating mathematics to a supporting role in STEM

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