Integration is seen as a main factor for students to stay in university and eventually graduate. In conventional lecture-based teaching, students might avoid asking for academic help from teachers, which weakens the student-teacher relationship and distances students from the faculty. To decrease distance and ease integration, more student-centred…

Background: The main objective of the study was to examine the relevance of engineering mathematics to the emerging industries. The level of abstraction, the standard of rigor, and the depth of theoretical treatment are necessary skills expected of a graduate engineering technician to be derived from mathematical knowledge. The question of whether…

This research aimed at preparing an out-of-school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education program for secondary school students and investigating the effects of the program on students' interest in STEM fields. As part of this investigation, this study sought the students' awareness of a career in these fields as well as…

Peer-led small-group learning has been used quite extensively in the US to enhance performance and retention of undergraduate students in science, math, and engineering classes. This study presents the results from an evaluation of a peer-led small-group programme at a research university in the US over a 10-year period across five disciplines…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs help to enhance the nation's global competitiveness. Many federal agencies have been involved in administering these programs. Concerns have been raised about the overall effectiveness and efficiency of STEM education programs. GAO examined (1) the number of federal…

Numerous teaching, learning, assessment, and institutional innovations in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education have emerged in the past decade. Because virtually all of these innovations have been developed independently of one another, their goals and purposes vary widely. Some focus on making science…

This mixed method study examined the impact of a LEGO-based, engineering-oriented curriculum compared to an inquiry-based curriculum on fifth graders' content learning of simple machines. This study takes a social constructivist theoretical stance that science learning involves learning scientific concepts and their relations to each other. From…

Women continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and in STEM leadership positions. According to the most recent data available from the National Science Foundation, in academia only 31% of full-time STEM faculty and 27% of STEM deans and department heads are women. By comparison at Stevenson…

This qualitative case study reports on processes and outcomes of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded System-Wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE) project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). It addresses a critical challenge in studying systemic reform in complex organizations: the lack of methodologies that…

The focus of this research was to understand how a program for women in science, mathematics, and engineering (SM&E) at college level in the southeastern United States functioned to influence women's decision making in terms of participation in these fields. By employing Lave and Wenger's theory of situated learning, we explored this program…

Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) are established to promote teaching excellence. While CTLs are effective at fostering teaching excellence in the main, they have provided little attention to addressing potentially unique needs of STEM faculty. This article proffers explanations as to why CTLs do not focus on promoting STEM pedagogies and…

The "Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005" created two new grant programs for undergraduates: the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) program and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (National SMART) Grant program. The ACG program is intended to encourage students to take challenging courses in high school and thus…

The role of motivation and collaboration in STEM learning and performance is paramount. A learning community represents an educational approach that can engage students in learning in a motivated, thoughtful, active, and collaborative way. The focus of this article is on the nature of students' interest, attitudes, learning experiences and…

Workshops are currently one of the most popular ways for instructors in STEM fields to learn more about teaching and learning. Yet research shows we often do not know what participants gain from attending. This article suggests ways of measuring impact of instructional improvement workshops that will help not only workshop providers with designing…

Significant steps have been taken by the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) project since its formation in 1970. The founders of MESA began a campaign, first in high schools, and later in middle and elementary schools, to convince educators, parents, and students of the importance of raising standards for the minority children…