STEME

Guided inquiry to develop interdisciplinary STEM competences

Posted by Prof. Russell Tytler on October 15, 2019

An article —

New pedagogies for interdisciplinary STEM skills

— in the professional journal ‘Education Matters’ argues that guided inquiry, rather than direct teaching, is a preferred pedagogy if we are to take seriously the focus on interdisciplinarity and STEM competences such as critical and creative thinking. In describing the approach of the ‘Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Science’ project, Russell Tytler points out that while the underpinning pedagogy has the hallmarks of ‘direct teaching’ such as strong teacher guidance and structured activity sequences, it is the process of student exploration, invention, evaluation and revision that leads to richer learning of key ideas and interdisciplinary STEM skills such as collaborative reasoning and problem solving.