General Lecture by Prof. P. John Williams on STEM Education for Science and Mathematics Teachers Preparation
Bandung, 27 June 2019
The Faculty of Mathematics and Science Education held the general lecture with the theme “STEM Education for Science and Mathematics Teachers Preparation.” The guest lecturer is Prof. P Jhon Williams as director of STEM Research Group from School of Education Curtin University. This event was held at the Auditorium Faculty of Mathematics and Science Education A (JICA Building) on Thursday, June 27th, 2019. Ikmanda Nugraha, M.Pd as moderator, guided the general lecture. In this public lecturer. Prof. P Jhon Williams explained the student interest, processes, the implication of STEM education for science, and mathematics teachers preparation.“Development in thinking happens through the interaction with doing (making), the context must be interesting and relevant, and has a high level of students choice because students learn best when they are interested”, said Prof. P Jhon Williams.
STEM education (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education) is a way of teaching that enhances the 21st-century skills of a student, which is essential. He explained that STEM education starts from a real-life problem as the focus and students learn the content while solving the problem. He also elaborates why STEM education gives students chances to learn better. The reason is that students will try to come out with a solution to the problem using a multidisciplinary approach: not only science, not only technology, not only engineering or math but all of them. STEM education diminishes the false barrier between the subjects.
Moreover, with a student-centered approach, STEM education makes the learning process more meaningful and engaging for students. It makes students feel like they have choices and can make their own decision. It also accommodates students to learn in series rather than parallel. This means rather than separating between generating ideas than doing it; students will make an idea, try it, evaluate it, generate an idea to improve it, etc. STEM education also lets students learn from their failure and experience because it puts process over the content.
The general lecture sparks a lot of interest among the audience. Beside STEM is an exciting topic moreover most of the audience are students in the education field. Hopefully, with STEM, students will have useful, productive, intentional, personally meaningful, purposeful, fun, and enjoyable learning activities. (Rossy Andini, Putri Sekar Melati)
