It is now nearly two years since the decisions were taken to make Design and Technology Education: An international journal open access and take it online. The reasons for taking these decisions were outlined in the Editorial and a Statement…

When we suggested, almost two years ago, the idea of a special edition of this journal related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) we could never have imagined the way world and political landscape was about to change. Whilst the…

This paper gives a short overview of the UK government’s STEM agenda and then considers one aspect in depth – the STEM Advisory Forum. It explains how the Forum operates to draw together views from across the STEM community through…

I’m writing this after a fantastic village bonfire night with loads of colourful and explosive entertainment. It was certainly a big thumbs-down in terms of our carbon footprint – but it was fun. Being a STEM Special Edition, it seemed…

The French school system is a subjects-centred curriculum from the beginning of 1960s. This deep-rooted organisation tends to block the several attempts made to integrate the teaching of scientific school subjects. From an historical point of view, this paper describes…

This handbook for teachers is made up of 28 separate chapters that have been divided into three different parts and seven sections. There are also two forwards, a preface, an introduction and an epilogue. It has been complied by Ai-Girl…

The fact of global climate change is, famously, contested but, as the scientific evidence has accumulated, a broad consensus has emerged that warming of the earth is indeed happening and that this is anthropogenic. Now the main debate (we will…

This paper explores the foundational principles of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as an integrative teaching strategy designed deliberately to cross discipline boundaries in order to make meaningful and lasting connections. The authors suggest that while PBL has in recent times has…

Proposals for science, technology, engineering and mathematics to be presented in the secondary curriculum in an integrated way have been developed in some countries for at least three decades now, but are recently becoming more common and more significant. Some…

Engineering, the ‘E’ in STEM, is seldom taught as a distinct curriculum subject in English and Welsh schools to pupils under the age of 14 years. This contrasts with design and technology (D&T), taken in this paper to represent the…