4IR and Right to Education in Nigeria: Synergybetween Legal Instruments and Stem Education

Author(s):  
Mariam Adepeju Abdulraheem-Mustapha

Laws and policies have important roles to play in advancing the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research in Nigeria. STEM education and knowledge brings about development by converging scholars across the world with recent research discoveries. In order for Nigeria to reap the maximum benefits from the 4IR, its legal system must come in line with the principles advanced by the 4IR. It is important to state that the laws which have been enacted before the contemporary era are inadequate and obsolete. Education (STEM education inclusive) which will benefit the most from thenewrevolution would demand new legal instrumentsthat are adequate and effective to cater for the legal and policy demands of the 4IR by bringing forth a more current and inclusive legal protection for all the relevant beneficiaries. Using doctrinal methodology, thispaperexamines4IR and right to education in Nigeria with a view to establishing the relationship between the legal instruments and STEM education with the objective of advancing the agenda of the relevance of all fields of education for the next generation.The paper is divided into six sections and the findings show that, education (STEM education inclusive) is bedeviled with many challenges andthe extant laws are inadequate to solve them.Thus, making the goal of 4IR unachievable in Nigeria. To reach the greatest dexterities in all works of life, the paper concludes by bringing the significance of laws and policies that wouldaccommodate free STEM education in secondary and tertiary school levels in order to answer the call for 4IR. It recommends research collaboration across STEM fields for integrated curriculum and an amendment of the Constitution. It also advocates for gender equality and investing more in STEM education for having a transformative shift in Nigeria for the purpose of achieving 4IR.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
George Kehdinga Formunyam

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us, and it comes with implications for the higher education curriculum and organisations within Africa. Technology that was ubiquitous in previous decades, is now becoming obsolete. Artificial intelligence and digitization, which are features of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, are now the order of the day. Organisations are moving with such technological advancement by adopting newly created technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Without doubt, the currently used curriculum in Africa is obsolete; and does not capture the changes being ushered in by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the higher education curriculum must be responsive to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as this will prepare students in Africa for the challenge ahead. This study theorises on, and has concluded, that deterritorialization and reterritorialization are useful in making the African higher education responsive to the curriculum. The study recommends the introduction of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education into the African higher-education curriculum in Africa. STEM will produce students who are technically savvy, helping students in Africa to acquire the needed skills to perform seamlessly in organisations operating within the Fourth Industrial Revolution era.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
Huy Minh Lam ◽  
Hue Thi Dang ◽  
Tien Nhut Le ◽  
Ngan Tuyet Huynh

With the development in the fourth industrial revolution, there have been urgent demands for new human resources in the world. The mission set for the education sector is to prepare students with skills and knowledge in line with global standards to keep up with the industrial age 4.0. Among the educational trends that serve the fourth industrial revolution, STEM education has been demonstrating its superiority through various studies. This study applies the STEMTech model, which connects the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics with a central technological factor, to create STEM products in the context of high schools in Vietnam recently. Firstly, the research trains students about STEM education, STEMTech model, and some new technologies; then divides the class into multiple groups of students to conduct a project based on STEMTech model; finally, surveys students. Statistical analysis was used to evaluate STEMTech model, whose results show that STEMTech model can engage students in learning, develop their creativity, and promote other competencies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 739-752
Author(s):  
Hanife Gamze Hastürk ◽  

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education is an approach that develops 21st century skills such as career choice in science and engineering, entrepreneurship, innovation, creative and critical thinking. The acronym STEM stands for the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. When looking from the past to the present, it has been observed that there has been an increase in STEM studies. However, there was no study which was conducted on STEM education in Turkey mostly consisted of studies which aimed at determining the interests, attitudes and achievements of students and prospective teachers, and there was no study on the relationship between students' tendencies to technology in STEM education and their STEM perceptions. It is necessary for societies that can rapidly keep up with developing technology and innovations Therefore, in this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between the perceptions of secondary school students towards STEM fields, determining their attitudes towards technology, students' attitudes towards technology and its use in lessons, and the total perception levels of STEM fields and sub-dimensions. The study was completed in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. The data of the study were analyzed by quantitative survey model. In the study, ‘Attitude towards Technology Scale’ and ‘STEM Perception Scale’ were used as data collection tools. In the tests applied, the data were analyzed using the Independent Sample t-test, ANOVA, Pearson Correlation Analysis and Regression Analysis. According to data analysis and findings, it was determined that there was a moderately significant negative relationship between the students' attitude level towards technology, and the STEM perception level. In the light of the findings, the importance of STEM education was emphasized and recommendations were made to program designers, researchers and practitioners on this subject.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1500 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pérez-Pérez ◽  
Emilio Gómez ◽  
Miguel Sebastián

The term additive manufacturing (AM) groups together a set of technologies with similar characteristics forming part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. AM is being developed globally, as evidenced by the standards published by and the agreements between the ISO and the ASTM in 2013. The purpose of this paper is to anticipate the main changes that will occur in AM by 2030 as forecast by more than 100 Spanish experts through Delphi prospection performed in 2018. In this way, the areas, aspects, and business models with the greatest probabilities of occurrence are obtained. The need for technical experts with specific knowledge and skills requires changes to current training syllabuses. Such changes will enable students to have the profiles foreseen in these job trends. The encouragement of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) training through the introduction of AM in study plans may be an appropriate alternative. Finally, the consequences of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the employment market and on jobs, particularly in Spain, are set out and the latest Spanish Research, Development, and Innovation (R&D + I) plans are summarized as the framework for the possible implementation and development of AM.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-593
Author(s):  
Jayaluxmi Naidoo ◽  
Asheena Singh-Pillay

Globally, as society enters the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we require a transformation in pedagogy. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related subjects are vital to succeeding within the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To provide quality STEM education, teachers’ perceptions related to the teaching and learning of STEM-related subjects is essential to understand. This qualitative research took place at one university in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and explored teachers’ perceptions of using blended learning for STEM-related subjects. Wenger’s Communities of Practice Theory framed this research. Data were generated from workshops and semi-structured interviews. The results of this research indicated that blended learning is impeded by the lack of technology-based tools; is hampered by teacher professional development; offered the use of virtual hours for consultation and feedback and increased engagement and collaboration within STEM-related milieus. These results provide a glimpse of what teachers perceive regarding the use of blended learning for secondary school mathematics and technology. Globally, these results have relevance when considering the importance of teachers’ perceptions of using blended learning for STEM-related subjects, as society embraces the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Keywords: blended learning, communities, practice, fourth industrial revolution, mathematics teaching, qualitative, STEM-related subjects, STEM teachers, technology teaching, technology-enabled learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Husni Mubarok ◽  
Nur Shabrina Safitri ◽  
Alif Syaiful Adam

One of the meaningful learning implications is the formation of Long-Term Memory (LTM). Through the development of concepts related to the problems of everyday life that bridge LTM and the implementation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as an educational approach, it enables students to realize the importance of knowledge for society. However, some aspects of society are excluded from STEM, in that way a transformation needs to be carried out. Art and Religion need to be developed in STEM to nurture students, environment, and society to the full. Several examples are presented to represent the relationship between STEM with art and religion, not only in terms of learning outcomes in schools, but also the expectations to create resilient people in facing the future challenges. With Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STREAM) education approach.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lonneke Dubbelt ◽  
Sonja Rispens ◽  
Evangelia Demerouti

Abstract. Women have a minority position within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and, consequently, are likely to face more adversities at work. This diary study takes a look at a facilitating factor for women’s research performance within academia: daily work engagement. We examined the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between two behaviors (i.e., daily networking and time control) and daily work engagement, as well as its effect on the relationship between daily work engagement and performance measures (i.e., number of publications). Results suggest that daily networking and time control cultivate men’s work engagement, but daily work engagement is beneficial for the number of publications of women. The findings highlight the importance of work engagement in facilitating the performance of women in minority positions.


Author(s):  
Kathryn Strong Hansen

AbstractGreater emphasis on ethical issues is needed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The fiction for specific purposes (FSP) approach, using optimistic science fiction texts, offers a way to focus on ethical reflection that capitalizes on role models rather than negative examples. This article discusses the benefits of using FSP in STEM education more broadly, and then explains how using optimistic fictions in particular encourages students to think in ethically constructive ways. Using examples of science fiction texts with hopeful perspectives, example discussion questions are given to model how to help keep students focused on the ethical issues in a text. Sample writing prompts to elicit ethical reflection are also provided as models of how to guide students to contemplate and analyze ethical issues that are important in their field of study. The article concludes that the use of optimistic fictions, framed through the lens of professional ethics guidelines and reinforced through ethical reflection, can help students to have beneficial ethical models.


Author(s):  
Yeping Li ◽  
Alan H. Schoenfeld

AbstractMathematics is fundamental for many professions, especially science, technology, and engineering. Yet, mathematics is often perceived as difficult and many students leave disciplines in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as a result, closing doors to scientific, engineering, and technological careers. In this editorial, we argue that how mathematics is traditionally viewed as “given” or “fixed” for students’ expected acquisition alienates many students and needs to be problematized. We propose an alternative approach to changes in mathematics education and show how the alternative also applies to STEM education.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Teruni Lamberg ◽  
Nicole Trzynadlowski

STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education has been gaining increasing nationwide attention. While the STEM movement has ambitious goals for k-12 education, a lack of shared understanding exists of what STEM is as well as how to implement STEM in the elementary classroom. This study investigates how seven elementary teachers in three STEM academy schools conceptualize and implement STEM in their classrooms. Teacher interviews were conducted. The findings reveal that the majority of teachers believe that STEM education involves integrating STEM subject areas. STEM activities consisted of student-led research and reading activities on STEM topics. Two teachers described STEM as involving “hands-on” science activities. Teachers at each STEM academy school conceptualized and implemented STEM differently. How STEM was implemented at each school was based on how teachers interpreted STEM and the resources they had access to. The STEM coaches played a central role in supporting the elementary teachers to plan and implement lessons. Teachers relied on them for ideas to plan and teach STEM lessons. The results of this study indicate that as more schools embrace the STEM movement, a unified understanding and resources are needed to support teachers.


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