The Age of STEM

Across the world STEM (learning and work in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) has taken central importance in education and the economy in a way that few other disciplines have. STEM competence has become seen as key to higher productivity, technological adaptation and research-based innovation. No area of educational provision has a greater current importance than the STEM disciplines yet there is a surprising dearth of comprehensive and world-wide information about STEM policy, participation, programs and practice.

The Age of STEM is a state of the art survey of the global trends and major country initiatives in STEM. It gives an international overview of issues such as:

• • STEM strategy and coordination
  • curricula, teaching and assessment
  • women in STEM
  • indigenous students
  • research training
  • STEM in the graduate labour markets
  • STEM breadth and STEM depth

The individual chapters give comparative international analysis as well as a global overview, particularly focusing on the growing number of policies and practices in mobilising and developing talent in the STEM fields. The book will be of particular interest to anyone involved in educational policy, those in education management and leaders in both schooling and tertiary education. It will have a wider resonance among practitioners in the STEM disciplines, particularly at university level, and for those interested in contemporary public policy.

“"Offering a timely and comprehensive survey of global trends and major initiatives in countries across the globe, this book delivers a well-researched series of reports germane for anybody in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) policy, leadership, or research. The principal aim of the book is to promote understanding and learning through global perspectives on STEM policy, history and trends, practice, and data to both widen and deepen understandings of the potential for STEM to impact society...Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals and practitioners." --D. M. Moss, University of Connecticut, for CHOICE, July 2015 "Every country pays attention to STEM, and also feels a sense of crisis. This is a very interesting book to know the ongoing global competition in the knowledge society." -- Akiyoshi Yonezawa, Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Japan "This book provides an excellent global account of the importance and nature of STEM subjects. It is the first such coverage of key matters for policymakers and will be an essential guide to governments and others looking to encourage more innovative and creative economies and their facilitating education systems." -- Professor Roger King, School of Management, University of Bath, UK "The result is a useful and quite comprehensive overview of the perceptions of the need for urgent action on STEM and the various national responses to these perceptions. The chapters are written to a high standard with a good deal of quantitative information in each. Tables and graphics are clear and sharply reproduced. The data are accompanied by detailed, insightful and well-written descriptions and discussions of developments in each country along with a copious reference list....It is hard to avoid thinking that the world''s STEM worries, described so fully in ''The Age of STEM'', might be a global re-run of the USA''s STEM roller coaster ride of the last sixty-five years. Whether or not this is the case, Freeman, Marginson and Tytler have given us a welcome portrayal of STEM across the globe." -- Neil Mudford, Visiting Fellow with UNSW, casual specialist lecturer with the University of Queensland and a member of the Australian Universities'' Review editorial board, in Australian Universities'' Review (vol. 57, no. 2, 2015) apan "This book provides an excellent global account of the importance and nature of STEM subjects. It is the first such coverage of key matters for policymakers and will be an essential guide to governments and others looking to encourage more innovative and creative economies and their facilitating education systems." -- Professor Roger King, School of Management, University of Bath, UK "The result is a useful and quite comprehensive overview of the perceptions of the need for urgent action on STEM and the various national responses to these perceptions. The chapters are written to a high standard with a good deal of quantitative information in each. Tables and graphics are clear and sharply reproduced. The data are accompanied by detailed, insightful and well-written descriptions and discussions of developments in each country along with a copious reference list....It is hard to avoid thinking that the world''s STEM worries, described so fully in ''The Age of STEM'', might be a global re-run of the USA''s STEM roller coaster ride of the last sixty-five years. Whether or not this is the case, Freeman, Marginson and Tytler have given us a welcome portrayal of STEM across the globe." -- Neil Mudford, Visiting Fellow with UNSW, casual specialist lecturer with the University of Queensland and a member of the Australian Universities'' Review editorial board, in Australian Universities'' Review (vol. 57, no. 2, 2015) d so fully in ''The Age of STEM'', might be a global re-run of the USA''s STEM roller coaster ride of the last sixty-five years. Whether or not this is the case, Freeman, Marginson and Tytler have given us a welcome portrayal of STEM across the globe." -- Neil Mudford, Visiting Fellow with UNSW, casual specialist lecturer with the University of Queensland and a member of the Australian Universities'' Review editorial board, in Australian Universities'' Review (vol. 57, no. 2, 2015)”

"Offering a timely and comprehensive survey of global trends and major initiatives in countries across the globe, this book delivers a well-researched series of reports germane for anybody in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) policy, leadership, or research. The principal aim of the book is to promote understanding and learning through global perspectives on STEM policy, history and trends, practice, and data to both widen and deepen understandings of the potential for STEM to impact society. The initial chapters of this edited volume set the stage by addressing key STEM-related issues, such as women in STEM, curriculum, teachers and teaching, cultural perspectives, innovation, and partnerships. Chapter 2 makes an important contribution to the field by offering a lens on comparative international data while casting doubt on widely accepted myths underpinning the potential of the promotion of STEM as a stand-alone policy to transform economies. Subsequent chapters are essentially national reports, representing a range of challenges and perspectives across such countries as Korea, China, the US, the UK, Russia, Australia, and Finland, among others. Taken as a whole, this book offers much-needed cultural and comparative perspectives on STEM, and it stands as a rigorous and rich resource for those in STEM fields." --D. M. Moss, University of Connecticut, Published in CHOICE connect July 2015 issue

"Offering a timely and comprehensive survey of global trends and major initiatives in countries across the globe, this book delivers a well-researched series of reports germane for anybody in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) policy, leadership, or research. The principal aim of the book is to promote understanding and learning through global perspectives on STEM policy, history and trends, practice, and data to both widen and deepen understandings of the potential for STEM to impact society...Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals and practitioners." --D. M. Moss, University of Connecticut, for CHOICE, July 2015

"Every country pays attention to STEM, and also feels a sense of crisis. This is a very interesting book to know the ongoing global competition in the knowledge society." -- Akiyoshi Yonezawa, Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Japan

"This book provides an excellent global account of the importance and nature of STEM subjects. It is the first such coverage of key matters for policymakers and will be an essential guide to governments and others looking to encourage more innovative and creative economies and their facilitating education systems." -- Professor Roger King, School of Management, University of Bath, UK

"The result is a useful and quite comprehensive overview of the perceptions of the need for urgent action on STEM and the various national responses to these perceptions. The chapters are written to a high standard with a good deal of quantitative information in each. Tables and graphics are clear and sharply reproduced. The data are accompanied by detailed, insightful and well-written descriptions and discussions of developments in each country along with a copious reference list....It is hard to avoid thinking that the world’s STEM worries, described so fully in ‘The Age of STEM’, might be a global re-run of the USA’s STEM roller coaster ride of the last sixty-five years. Whether or not this is the case, Freeman, Marginson and Tytler have given us a welcome portrayal of STEM across the globe." -- Neil Mudford, Visiting Fellow with UNSW, casual specialist lecturer with the University of Queensland and a member of the Australian Universities’ Review editorial board, in Australian Universities' Review (vol. 57, no. 2, 2015)

Brigid Freeman is Research Fellow at Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.Simon Marginson is Professor of International Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.Russell Tytler is Professor and Chair in Science Education at the Faculty of Arts and Education, School of Education, Deakin University, Australia.

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