STEM for 2TV (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics for Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam): A Joint Adventure in Science Education Research and Practice

STEM education, in which Science is integrated with Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics to explore and solve real-world problems, is advocated as a promising approach to prepare 21^st century students and human resources. However, research on the implementation and effectiveness of STEM education appears limited and inconclusive since STEM education is a recent initiative. Therefore, this 3-year integrated research project aims to initiate collaborative efforts between Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam to establish evidence-based models of STEM education research and practice at the secondary school level across three countries. Three closely related sub-projects are proposed to achieve such a goal:

Learning and Instruction (Sub-project 1)
Aims to innovate STEM teaching and empirically examine the relationship between students’ classroom participation preferences and the effectiveness of teaching methods.

Assessment (Sub-project 2)
Aims to develop an assessment framework which can properly guide STEM learning, teaching, and professional development. Innovative instruments combined with scaling and standard-setting techniques will be developed to support STEM assessment in authentic contexts.

Professional Development (Sub-project 3)
Aims to identify STEM signature pedagogies and investigate teachers’ pedagogical reasoning on STEM teaching. Innovative methods to facilitate teachers’ professional development for STEM education will be developed and examined.

Cordinative project is proposed to develop STEM instructional activities as research materials and tools for sub-projects and facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration between sub-projects. A STEM education research and practice platform will be established by the synergized effort of sub-projects and the coordinative project. The platform will sustain the Taiwan-Thailand-Vietnam partnership and facilitate the outreach of our evidence-based STEM education across Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and other new southbound countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.