The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasized teachers as the cornerstone for the betterment of education. Teachers’ practices are strongly affected by teachers’ perceptions. The purpose of this study was to identify teachers’ perceptions to sustain STEM education development, regarding STEM education, STEM competencies, and difficulties in STEM implementation. We collected the data from 186 Vietnamese teachers, including STEM sub-field teachers and no STEM sub-field teachers. We used a survey method to capture teachers’ perceptions of STEM education. The one-way ANOVA was employed to examine the differences in teachers’ perceptions of STEM education in terms of the categorization of teaching experience, education background, and teaching subjects. The quantitative analysis showed that most Vietnamese teachers had positive views on STEM education. The higher educational background teachers and science teachers have the highest statistically significant scores in (1) STEM education, (2) STEM competencies, and (3) difficulties in implementation. The novice teachers have more positive views of STEM education, in terms of a better understanding of STEM education and assessing STEM competencies as being more valuable. There are no statistically significant differences in teachers’ difficulties among teaching experience groups. These results provide valuable information to design effective teacher professional development to sustain STEM education.

This study aims to test the effectiveness of a socio-scientific issue (SSI) based instruction through STEM-6E (engage, explore, explain, engineer, enrich, and evaluate). Controversial science topics (e.g. genetically modified organisms) in many countries, especially Indonesia, can be approached via integrated STEM education. One hundred and nine junior-high-school students from two different schools were involved in this study. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses were used to interpret the data obtained. Furthermore, a multi-level assessment framework (proximal and distal assessment) was employed in the quantitative analysis. The study results revealed that socio-scientific issue-based instruction by STEM-6E can probe a unique natural classroom interaction initiated by the teacher. The results also showed that both proximal and distal assessment had significant pre-test and post-test score differences (t-test value: proximal = −14.89; distal = −8.92). Practical significance from Cohen's d in the two assessments also showed a large effect (distal: d = 0.85; proximal: d = 1.42). The students’ perceptions of this curriculum intervention, are extensively discussed. In conclusion, this current study's results support the claim that STEM-SSI can foster students’ understanding, performance, motivation, and self-awareness in learning science. Furthermore, such findings contribute to science teachers in planning, processing, and evaluating classroom learning via controversial science topics through integrated STEM education.

This study explores how new communication technology is implemented in education by mainly focusing on the teacher’s role. With a questionnaire and interview surveys, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was carried out to understand the factors that affect implementing new communication technology in education. New technologies such as the fifth-generation (5G) technology contribute to the realization of ubiquitous and effective learning. Effective adoption of this technology for education is pedagogically based on teachers’ capability and determination to improve students’ learning activities. The results indicate that teachers and students prefer traditional teaching methods to the new technological methods, with a high weight recorded for the “maintaining the traditional teaching tools” criteria in the solution layer. The importance of the criteria layer shows that there are possibilities of implementing new technologies into education with appropriate support. When considering teachers’ effort, time spent, and resources used to prepare adequate materials, teachers are hesitant about using new technology. However, support helps to implement new communication technology successfully into education, especially teaching. Even with the many advantages of new technology, such as 5G, its problems prohibit teachers from actively using new technology. To provide a basic understanding of how to encourage teachers to successfully implement new technology into education, especially teaching, the results of this study help promote the applications used for sustainable education to narrow the educational divide.

Organizing STEM activities based on scientific inquiry and engineering design processes is recommended for competency-based education in many countries, including Vietnam, to develop vital 21st-century practices. However, one of the challenges in the scientific inquiry process is the lack of equipment for conducting experiments. Therefore, there is a need for cost-effective and flexible instrument initiatives that students and teachers can design, create, and operate on their own. Additionally, real-world contexts like designing experiments for studying are also essential to engage students in engineering design processes. With its open-source platform, user-friendly interface, and limitless creative potential, Arduino is a valuable tool for STEM education. Hence, this study aims to develop Arduino-based experiments and suitable lesson plans to facilitate the implementation of STEM lessons following scientific inquiry and engineering design processes. In this study, we have proposed three Arduino-based experiments, followed by instruction plans, that students can build through engineering design processes to study several Physics concepts. The results show that microcontroller systems combined with common sensors are a low-cost yet effective approach with acceptable accuracy, allowing students to quantitatively and professionally investigate the relationship between physical quantities. In addition, 21st-century practices such as STEM literacy and design thinking are also concentrated in the context of working with the solutions for STEM problems.

This study examines the development and effectiveness of four board games designed to promote cognitive learning activities and STEM education, focusing on kinematics and energy. We used the Engagement - Purpose - Deign - Prototype - Evaluation process to develop four board games. The study involved 53 senior high school students in Vietnam. We used a mixed methods approach to evaluate the impact of these board games on students’ cognitive understanding and motivation in STEM education. Data collection included multiple-choice tests before and post-tests from the previous literature study to measure cognitive gains. We also surveyed students using 5-point Likert scales and open-ended questions to explore their motivation and engagement. Quantitative and qualitative analyses assessed whether board games significantly improved students’ motivation and learning outcomes. These results suggest that integrating board games into STEM education can improve student engagement and understanding of STEM learning. In light of the results, we discussed the implications of the Engagement - Purpose - Deign - Prototype - Evaluation process and the effectiveness of four board games.

The rapid developments of Science and Technology call for individuals to have strong academic knowledge and creativity. Research shows that students acquire creativity after either curricular or extracurricular activities in subject matters. However, there is not much research examining students’ creativity through integrative learning activities, such as STEM activities. In this current study, we examine the potential of STEM clubs in terms of fostering students’ creativity. We used the survey method to assess students’ creativity in engineering design. We collected the data from 244 Vietnamese students, including members and non-members in STEM clubs. The quantitative analysis was performed to examine the differences between members’ creativity and non-members’ creativity. The results show that STEM club members have significantly more creativity than non-members. The results also show that STEM club members have significantly more creativity than non-members. Based on the results, STEM clubs demonstrate a significant impact on students' creativity. Consequently, STEM clubs should be implemented in high school to enhance students’ creativity.