The main challenges for teachers with regard to STEM-oriented instruction are: 1) How to integrate science, technology, engineering and mathematics in such a way that students see the interconnectedness and interdependence between these disciplines; and 2) How to help students realize that solutions to real world problems or issues involve the combined use of knowledge, processes and practices from all of these disciplines. In order to teach STEM effectively, these two challenges must be met. But, how? Teachers need pedagogical approaches or models that can address these challenges effectively. Given that the STEM definition adopted by IPST includes “the application of knowledge to real-life problem solving”, it follows that effective STEM-oriented instruction must involve a pedagogy that is centered around real-life issues, concerns, problems or questions and offers students the opportunity to employ two or more of the STEM disciplines in an integrated manner to address the questions.
The Learning Cycle offers just such a pedagogical approach in which instruction is organized in a manner that establishes the purpose and usefulness of lesson content early in the lesson with real-life contexts, involves students actively in the learning process, provides opportunities for connecting lesson content to real life applications, and gets students to “experience” science the way real scientists do and problem-solving the way real engineers do. The Learning Cycle approach is a “continuous” instructional process but for the sake of understanding it better, we will consider it in terms of 5 specific phases described below. Table 1 below indicates the alignment between these phases of the Learning Cycle and the Scientific and Engineering Practices deemed essential in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (2012), which form the foundation for STEM-oriented instruction.