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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 17, Issue 1, Article 3 (Jun., 2016) |
Education plays a crucial role in ensuring future generations are able and well-equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century. Across the globe, educationists have realised that children require more than just the 3 R skills (Reading, wRiting & aRithmetic) when they leave school. This is because in the globalised 21st century, the need to create high-quality human capital is more important than ever (MOE, 2012b). Therefore, in order to compete in the global marketplace, Malaysia needs to produce new workforce that is not only able to use technology, but also capable of contributing to the technology. In other words, a workforce that is able to innovate, invent and solve problems.
21st century skills
The most important asset to achieve a high-income developed nation status is quality human resource that can face the challenges of applying 21st century skills. To spur a world class nation, human resource which is competitive, knowledgeable, creative, and possesses positive ethics plays an important role. The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and Metiri Group have created a 21st century education model which is known as enGauge 21st Century Skills (NCREL & Metiri Group, 2003). 21st Century Skills is a new set of skills which is needed to prepare students to survive and work in the digital era. With this model, there are four main criteria which need to be weighed to produce a generation which is capable of handling 21st century challenges. The four criteria are Digital age literacy, Inventive thinking, Effective communication and High productivity. Additionally, to accommodate the unique Malaysian context, another criteria that is spiritual norms and values has been added (Osman & Marimuthu, 2010). In this research, all five criteria of the 21st century skills have been examined.
The first 21st century skill is Digital age literacy which encompasses communication competency, analysing and interpretation of data, understanding and assessment of models, task management and task prioritization, involvement in problem solving, and ensuring wellbeing and safety (Kay & Honey, 2005). Digital age literacy needs to be developed in a student to ensure that the student is able to maximize technology usage in 21st century learning. The second skill is Inventive thinking. Inventive thinking is a cognitive activity which supports application of creative thinking in a creative and critical manner with skills in problem solving through innovative or specifically designed activities. NCREL and Metiri Group, (2003) as well as the Committee Workforce Needs in Information Technology (2001) have defined a few elements or ‘life skills’ in inventive thought ability, and these are adapting and managing complexities, self-regulation, curiosity, willingness to take risks and high level thinking. The third skill is Effective communication. Effective communication is a skill which needs to be developed by each individual in this 21st century. It encompasses information delivery, teamwork, interpersonal skills, social responsibilities, interactive communication and communication towards the environment (NCREL & Group, 2003). The learning process becomes much more exciting and valuable when communication activities use ICT as a medium to obtain information, to communicate faster, and as a supporting medium which assists in the learning process. The fourth skill is High productivity. According to NCREL and Metiri Group (2003), high productivity is defined as the ability of a student to adeptly produce products that are relevant, high in quality, intellectual, of current information and original. Additionally, high productivity skilled-student is also competent in delegating and structuring tasks in terms of importance and priority, and skilled in planning and producing high quality products. The final skill is employing Spiritual values whereby this skill emphasizes the practice of religious knowledge and beliefs, positive attitude and moral values.
POPBL and STEM Integrated Program
In dealing with the challenges of the 21st century, the work sector requires workers who possess marketability value which encompasses problem solving skills, critical and innovative thinking and the ability to work in a team. To achieve that, students can no longer be assessed based on academic achievements only, but they also need to master 21st century skills. There are many student-centred teaching and learning approaches and processes and POPBL is one of them. The POPBL approach is a teaching method in the pedagogy model which was first used in Problem Based Learning (PBL) (Uziak et al., 2010). POPBL is project centred and oriented. The basic principles of POPBL can be summarized as (i) student-centred and able to motivate and increase commitment among students; (ii) focus is more on learning process in finding solution; (iii) project-based which has goal and action for change; (iv) having exemplarity; and (v) promotes group work/team work, social and communication skills (Yasin & Rahman, 2011). POPBL tries to cultivate students’ ability to think critically, to learn actively and to solve problems through project based activities. It also develops communication skills as students have to conduct group discussions. Implementation of POPBL in STEM Programs therefore would provide great opportunities for students to be engaged in self-directed learning and to enhance their soft skills.
In line with the objective of STEM education to develop inter-disciplinary thinking (Wells, 2008), the POPBL approach is one of the methods that is suitable in STEM education. POPBL is seen as an approach that has potential in creating students who would be able to learn better through meaningful teaching that is associated with real life situations, and most importantly the students would be able to experience the situation themselves. POPBL is also an alternative teaching method where students are immersed in an environment which focuses on teaching through project work and not solely on oral teaching (Mohamed et al., 2012). POPBL incorporates the development of students’ personal skills and also encourages creativity (Ibrahim & Halim, 2013). Therefore, it is hoped that through POPBL, the teaching and learning processes in STEM-based education can achieve its objective of catering to the needs of the 21st century generation. This is because in POPBL students begin with analysing the research problems and followed by designing the projects to solve the problems. (Yasin & Rahman, 2011, Yasin et al, 2012). This learning experiences prepare students to have a strong foundation in STEM and to face challenges in their career and to go through life in this 21st century (Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan, 2008). Additionally, since nature of the STEM Programs is project oriented therefore the role of the instructors is more towards being a facilitator, and according to Shamsudin (2007), in PBL, facilitation techniques are open and flexible thus effective in creating a better learning environment.
Maria (2008) and Yusoff et al., (2011) in their research with Malaysian students suggest that the POPBL approach can elevate students’ interest in science. POPBL has the ability to develop students’ sense of importance for science subjects by making it easy for students to learn science and therefore, increasing their interest in science (Maria, 2008). Furthermore, Yusoff et al. (2011) found that the project integrated in POPBL gave hands-on experience to the engineering students in solving sustainability-related problems not only in terms of particular technical aspects, but the ability to identify the economic and social aspects of the problems. Since students’ achievement is an important issue in education specifically in the Malaysian context, the POPBL approach is relevant as the approach is able to elevate students’ achievement and highly motivate them to participate actively in their learning processes (Ibrahim & Halim, 2013; Mohamed et al., 2012). Through teamwork, POPBL can promote human skills in the students through effective communication between the team members and planning (Ibrahim & Halim, 2013; Jensen et al., 2003). Mohamed et al. (2012) in their studies on the application of POPBL among engineering undergraduate students found that teaching and learning processes which employ the POPBL approach were able to increase students’ ability to analyse and create analogue circuits using various types of transistors and diodes.
Context of the study
In Malaysia, the objectives of Science education are to develop human resource that is competitive and resilient at the global level, capable of becoming a contributor to the development of science and technology, and capable of mastering scientific knowledge and technological craftsmanship (MOE, 2011). Even so, the decline in students’ interest, especially towards science in Malaysia (Osman et al., 2007; Iksan et al., 2006), is going to be a challenge in achieving that objective. The average score for Malaysian students in the Trends in International Mathematics and Sciences Study (TIMSS) examination clearly indicates a downward trend whereby Malaysian students’ average score went down from 510 in 2003 to 471 in 2007 and 426 in 2011 (IEA, 2008, 2012; MOE, 2012c).
PISA (2009) results indicated that Malaysia was ranked at the bottom three out of 74 participating countries and was also below the international and OECD average. In 2011, only 45% of student graduates were from the Science stream, including technical and vocational programs (MOE, 2012a). This scenario cannot be ignored because it will affect Malaysia’s efforts in achieving developed nation status in 2020 where Malaysia needs 33% of workforce in the field of science and technology. Steps need to be taken to achieve the targeted number of graduates in STEM-related fields to increase the number of future workforce capable of working in the science and technology sector.
In line with the country’s aspirations, programs that incorporate the various disciplines of science such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) which are conducted outside of schooling hours are seen as an alternative that could positively affect the efforts to increase interest and involvement in STEM and at the same time, increase the level of 21st century skills among students. According to Shahali et al. (2015), STEM learning experiences prepare students for the global economy of the 21st century. In addition, the integration of these STEM subjects will spur the minds of students to be creative, critical, and innovative, and this in turn contributes to the advancement of technology. English and King (2015) argue that the concept of integration in STEM Education can help students to become better problem solvers, display more positive and motivated learning, and improve in their mathematics and science achievements. According to Becker and Park (2011), STEM education is an approach that explores the processes of teaching and learning between any two or more STEM components or, between any one STEM components with another field of knowledge. The Malaysian education system is already equipped with science, mathematics and engineering which are taught as a stand-alone subject, but the integration of science and mathematics with engineering concepts can be a better practice as compared to the traditional method. In fact, STEM education is the integration of technology and engineering design concepts in the teaching and learning processes of science and mathematics (Sanders, 2012). The Education Ministry (MOE) in the Blueprint (MOE, 2012a) has clearly stated that they will strengthen the delivery of STEM across all education systems. STEM is meant to transform traditional classrooms from teacher-centred instruction into inquiry-based, problem solving, discovery zones where children engage with content to find solutions to problems (Fioriello, 2010).
Conceptual Framework
The POPBL in STEM education program in this research, also known as BITARA STEM program, aimed at increasing students’ participation in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and eventually enabling the students to compete in this 21st century. The approach of this program is based on multi-disciplinary features, active learning through inquiry, application of 21st century skills, and exposure of students to careers in the fields of contemporary science and technology. The learning theories underlying this research are the theories of Constructivism and Constructionism. The Constructivist theory comprises of five phases, namely the orientation phase, idea generation phase, idea restructuring phase, idea application phase, and reviewing phase. The Constructionist theory is applied during the idea application phase, throughout the processes of practical activities which involve real world problem solving in the BITARA STEM Module. According to the Constructionist theory, the generation of new ideas will happen effectively if participants are involved in artefact designing processes (Papert, 1991). This theory emphasizes participants’ involvement in artefact designing activities in the learning process (Kafai & Resnick, 1996).
Figure 1 shows the POPBL which is the main approach in this STEM Integrated Program. It consists of five steps, namely Real Problem, Group Discussion, Data Collecting & Analysing, Communicating, and Constructing New Product. This framework combines the concept of science, technology, mathematics and engineering which is adapted from engineering design process, namely the Think, Make, Improve (TMI) model (Martinez & Stager, 2013). According to English and King (2015), engineering design can advance students’ abilities and dispositions to solve complex, real-world problems. This engineering design process is applied by participants in their artefact designing process through three main stages, namely, Think, Make, and Improve. During the Think stage, after participants have been given a situation or real world problem to solve, they will discuss and work in a group to identify the problem, give suggestions, and make plans. The facilitators will continue to support each participant to ensure they complete this stage effectively. At this Think stage, students are applying the first and second step in POPBL which is analysing the real problem and group discussion. During the Make stage, participants build, create, experiment, solve the issue, and any other issues arising during artefact design. After the artefact has been completed, testing is conducted to identify any problems that arise. At this stage, they are applying the other two steps in POPBL which are data collecting & analysing, and constructing new product. Finally, at the Improve stage, participants will improve the artefact that they have built by testing and rebuilding the artefact again with improvements to identify arising problems, or build a much better artefact following the guidelines which have been set. While working through all these stages, students will always be communicating with each other. In addition, the discussion and the presentation of their artefact will also improve their communication skills.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of BITARA -STEM ProgramObjective and research questions of study
The objective of this study was to assess the effect of POPBL in STEM education program on students’ 21st century skills namely Digital age literacy, Inventive thinking, Effective communication, High productivity and Spiritual values.The research questions were
- What is the level of 21st century skills of the students before they were involved in the POPBL in STEM education program?
- What is the level of 21st century skills of the students after they were involved in the POPBL in STEM education program?
- Was there any significant changes to level of 21st century skills of the students before and after the STEM education program?
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