Utilizing STEM-based practices to enhance mathematics teaching in Vietnam: Developing students' real-world problem solving and 21st century skills

Abstract

In Vietnam, STEM-based teaching approaches have been recommended for schools since 2018 with the integration of multiple related courses in schools. Teachers' perspectives on integrated STEM education, and how to design a STEM lesson that supports students’ learning are critical for ensuring that an integrated STEM curriculum is implemented successfully. This paper aims to describe a study applied successfully to STEM education in teaching Mathematics, in particular “Trigonometry ratio of an acute angle” in Vietnam. This study utilized mixed methods approaches with three phases: the first stage employed a quantitative study to examine the Vietnamese teachers' perspectives on STEM education. The second phase was an experiment on teaching while applying STEM education to design and organize a mathematics lesson, and the final phase was to employ a qualitative study to explore the Vietnamese students' experiences of STEM education connected with real-world problem solving and 21st-century skills development. A total of 47 teachers and 85 students participated in this study and data was collected through multi ways of surveys and semi-structured interviews. The findings show Vietnamese teachers' perspective of the necessity and importance of applying STEM education, however, they reported facing many challenges. A lesson designed as a STEM education application and the student's feedback regards the real-world roles. Learning outcomes connect with 21st-century skills in this study that are expected to provide the success evidence for further discussion and practice to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning STEM education in Vietnam

Keywords

• stem education, teacher perspective, student learning outcomes, real-world, the 21st skills