AUTHOR=Nichols Kim , Musofer Reshma , Haynes Michele 

TITLE=How to promote STEM competencies through design

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2022.982035

DOI=10.3389/feduc.2022.982035

ISSN=2504-284X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>This study explored the impact of a community of inquiry on Science, Design and Technology and Mathematics curriculum competencies of 159 Year six students as they carried out a design task.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>A quasi-experimental design was employed with both qualitative and quantitative analyses. A community of inquiry approach was adopted by the teachers (<italic>n</italic> = 3) in the experimental group but not by teachers (<italic>n</italic> = 4) in the comparison group. Both groups participated in a learning sequence on electricity culminating in a design challenge in small collaborative groups.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The results showed that the experimental group (<italic>n</italic> = 65) demonstrated significantly greater instances and a broader range of Science, Design and Technology and Mathematics competencies across the design task as well as significantly higher learning gains than their comparison group (<italic>n</italic> = 94) peers.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>The cognitive shifts towards higher competency development in the experimental group is stronger as a result of the reflection and reasoning required to engage in a community of inquiry.</p></sec>