Preparation and Inspiration: STEM Education for Future Generations

In this book we outline and stress the importance of STEM education as it is critical to and supportive of many education reforms being undertaken today, from adoption of international standards to better teacher preparation, to enhanced coordination across the entire K–12 education system. Moreover, STEM education is linked to economic prosperity and thus requiring students to have a strong education foundation for competing in the economy of the twenty-first century and beyond; an imperative to train and prepare a diverse STEM-literate workforce with the capability to understand and comprehend global STEM challenges (Merchant & Khanbilvardi, 2011). A major goal of the STEM agenda is to improve the proficiency of all students in STEM, regardless of whether they choose to pursue STEM careers or post-secondary studies, while fostering 21st century skills identified as being crucial for success. In Canada and other jurisdictions, such as Ireland (Department of Education and Skills, 2017), STEM education policy development (DeCoito, 2016) highlight the important of policy priorities for schools (detailed in Chap. 6 ). We believe that STEM education policy development should be a priority for future educational reforms in order to provide a conceptual framework for schools that can be used for curriculum planning and pedagogical supports for STEM integration.