Identifying 21st Century STEM Competencies Using Workplace Data

2015

326 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Gaps between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and required workplace skills have been identified in industry, academia, and government. Educators acknowledge the need to reform STEM education to better prepare students for their future careers. We pursue this growing interest in the skills needed for STEM disciplines and ask whether frameworks for 21st century skills and engineering education cover all of important STEM competencies. In this study, we identify important STEM competencies and evaluate the relevance of current frameworks applied in education using the standardized job-specific database operated and maintained by the US Department of Labor. Our analysis of the importance of 109 skills, types of knowledge and work activities, revealed 18 skills, seven categories of knowledge, and 27 work activities important for STEM workers. We investigate the perspectives of STEM and non-STEM job incumbents, comparing the importance of each skill, knowledge, and work activity for the two groups. We aimed to condense dimensions of the 52 key areas by categorizing them according to the Katz and Kahn (1978) framework and testing for inter-rater reliability. Our findings show frameworks for 21st century skills and engineering education do not encompass all important STEM competencies. Implications for STEM education programs are discussed, including how they can bridge gaps between education and important workplace competencies.

Subfields: Education, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/314ebb14030eb6a321dd86440ffe56887541b07c

Citations in the corpus

• A Review of Competency‐Based Learning: Tools, Assessments, and Recommendations (2017, background): “This qualification gap is also applicable to engineering graduates; Jang (2016) identifies opportunities for improving necessary engineering competencies as compared to engineering education frameworks (e.g., ABET), and Daly, Mosyjowski, and Seifert (2014) emphasize the need for creativity, while…”
• Assessment Strategies for Enhancing Students’ Mathematical Problem-solving Skills: A Review of Literature (2021, background): “…needed in today’s world and the shifts that should be made in both content and pedagogy for preparing students to acquire relevant 21st-century skills including mathematical reasoning, critical thinking, and mathematical problem-solving (Gravemeijer et al., 2017; Jang, 2016; Turiman et al., 2012).”
• Factors Influencing Student STEM Learning: Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy, 21st Century Skills, and Career Awareness (2021, background): “Increasing 21st century skills through STEM education has been focused among educators (Bybee, 2010; Jang, 2016; Li et al., 2019).”
• Analysis of Students’ Critical Thinking Skill of Middle School through STEM Education Project-Based Learning (2018, background): “…United State Department of Labor, the importance of STEM *Correspondence Address: E-mail: mutakinati@yahoo.com skills are problem-solving skills (ill-defined problem), system skills, technology and engineering skills, and time, resource, and knowledge management skills (Kuenzi, 2008; Jang, 2016,).”