En este artículo se presenta un análisis crítico sobre los desafíos y limitaciones de propuestas e investigaciones didácticas enmarcadas en el movimiento STEM. Se argumenta que la mayoría de las propuestas didácticas catalogadas como STEM son educativamente deficitarias, además de poco novedosas respecto de planteamientos anteriores para la enseñanza de las ciencias, la tecnología y las matemáticas. Se cuestiona también la viabilidad de un enfoque STEM en el contexto educativo español, y se discute sobre el uso abusivo del término, empleado a menudo como eslogan para atraer financiación, o hacer propaganda de iniciativas y materiales educativos añosos, rebautizados ahora como STEM. Se finaliza con una reflexión sobre la necesidad de un proceso de validación didáctica riguroso que oriente sobre las posibilidades y limitaciones de una enseñanza STEM.

Background: There is a growing interest in investigating attitudes towards science and views of Nature of Science among elementary grade students in terms of gender, cultural backgrounds, and grade level variables. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes toward science and views of Nature of Science among Spanish students, Spanish students of gypsy ethnicity and second-generation Spanish students with east-European heritage, and to determine if their attitudes are related to their views of Nature of Science. Sample: Data for this study was gathered from seven elementary schools in Spain, forming a convenience sample of 149 students enrolled from 2nd to 5th grade. Design and Methods: The Nature of Science Instrument (NOSI) and an adaptation of the Test of Science Related Attitudes scale (TOSRA) were used. Follow-up structured interviews were performed with 15 participants. Results: Regarding gender, boys had better attitudes toward Science than girls but more naïve views of the empirical Nature of Science. In relation to cultural background, second generation Spanish students with east-European heritage reported significantly better attitudes toward Science than Spanish students and Spanish students of gypsy ethnicity. No differences in Nature of Science views were found. Concerning grade level, third graders had more positive attitudes toward Science than fifth and sixth graders and more informed views of the tentative Nature of Science. Finally, no relation between Nature of Science views and attitudes towards Science were identified. Conclusion: This study stress the need to address the steady decline in positive attitude toward Science and to improve students’ views of Nature of Science from early elementary grades, and to use gender and culturally inclusive science teaching strategies.

As science education shifts toward integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) approaches, guidelines for designing teaching and learning episodes that integrate curricular content and procedures from multiple disciplines become increasingly in demand. The existing plethora of conceptualizations of STEM makes difficult such an endeavor, leading to ill-defined lesson plans focused on only two –mainly science and technology or science and mathematics– out of the four STEM disciplines. The question addressed, therefore, is how the integrated STEM approach could be translated into classroom practices that integrate the four STEM disciplines in a way that is consistent and coherent with elementary education curricula. This manuscript advances a theoretically informed didactic model for the design and implementation of integrated STEM in elementary education. The article discusses how the model uses socio-constructivist principles to establish intentional and explicit connections between STEM disciplines via scientific inquiry, engineering design, and computational thinking practices. The model is rooted in learning theories developed by Piaget, Vygotsky, Ausubel, and Bruner and could serve as a roadmap for educators and researchers designing integrated STEM lessons. Future empirical research testing the model is warranted.

Concerns have arisen regarding the potential negative impact of long-term ChatGPT use on creative thinking. This study investigates these effects using a one-group, pretest–posttest design involving 31 undergraduates over a 10-week intervention period. Participants used ChatGPT to complete academic assignments focused on designing teaching units on bacterial growth, chronic disease, and the human body. Creativity was assessed using the CREA-Creative Intelligence test, a valid and reliable instrument. Data were analyzed using both frequentist and Bayesian methods. The results showed that 25% of participants experienced decreased creativity, 21.43% remained unchanged, and 53.57% showed improvement. Overall, the study found no evidence that ChatGPT negatively impacts creative thinking.

La competencia global como objetivo de aprendizaje, ha tomado relevancia desde su inclusión en el Programa para la Evaluación Internacional de los Estudiantes (PISA), una competencia que se construye en base a distintos modelos de educación global como la educación intercultural, la educación para la ciudadanía o la educación para la democracia. Pese al creciente interés por esta competencia, son numerosas las cuestiones que requieren de una reflexión profunda, tales como ¿Qué es la competencia global? ¿Cómo se ha construido? ¿Desde qué enfoques se parte en los procesos discursivos para su construcción? y ¿Qué aporta la educación intercultural a este constructo? Para dar respuesta a estas preguntas, este artículo discute los antecedentes, las conceptualizaciones, enfoques y teorías en base a las cuales se ha construido el concepto. Se ha encontrado que en la conceptualización ha predominado el enfoque instrumentalista de eficiencia social, aunque sea de manera subyacente, frente a un enfoque de re-construccionismo social que suele aparecer en primer plano y que en muchas ocasiones la competencia global y la competencia intercultural se utilizan indistintamente debido al gran peso que esta última aporta en la competencia global, aunque la tendencia a nivel internacional es adoptar el uso de competencia global por ser más integral para afrontar los desafíos de la globalización. Por último, se destaca que existen desafíos y limitaciones conceptuales y de medición que dificultan comparar a nivel internacional e intercultural la adquisición de esta competencia y que requieren por tanto de más estudios que investiguen sistemáticamente la construcción del concepto, su desarrollo y medición.