STEM education in a gentle way

SGGP 09/11/2023 09:47

More than 200 managers and teachers from high schools in Ho Chi Minh City have just participated in sharing experiences on STEM education (a program that teaches knowledge and skills related to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to find solutions to overcome difficulties when implementing this activity in schools.

According to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, an expert on STEM education in the US, STEM is not a subject but an approach and implementation of interdisciplinary teaching to solve a problem in practice. Therefore, STEM is not a teaching method but a combination of many different forms of activities, such as practicing making handicrafts, home surveys, experiential activities outside of class, extracurricular activities...

In addition, many teachers think that teaching STEM costs a lot of money because they have to buy modern equipment, but in reality, this activity can be implemented with simple equipment, recycled materials such as paper, cardboard, foam boxes, etc. Through the process of participating in teacher training in many provinces and cities of Vietnam, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hai recognized that any change in approach is difficult and confusing for teachers, and cannot be effective overnight.

Sharing the same view, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, an expert in the field of educational management in Ho Chi Minh City, said that schools should implement STEM education in a gentle way, not turning STEM teaching into a measure for competition, evaluation, causing stress and adding pressure to teachers. There should not be a rigid understanding that a STEM lesson must have 4 elements of Science , Technology, Engineering and Math, but can only need 2 or more fields with the starting point being a problem posed in life, implemented in the form of inquiry, helping students ask questions and find answers to those questions. With this understanding, STEM can be completely implemented in social sciences, arts, physical education... not just in natural sciences.

Currently, in developed countries, subjects are revised on average every five years to suit the social context. In Vietnam, the 2018 General Education Program has entered its fourth year of implementation. According to experts, after the 2024-2025 school year, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of the program implementation, including STEM-oriented educational innovation to improve the quality of educational innovation.