The current state of the art in STEM research: A systematic review study

Abstract

In the 21st century, when the knowledge-based economy is steering improvement and development, STEM education has gained increasing momentum and importance. This study aims to identify the current trends in STEM education, and also explores and identifies research trends and patterns in articles published between 2014 and 2016 on STEM education through a systematic review study. The research findings indicate that interest in STEM education in scholarly venues has witnessed a marked increase since 2014, with researchers preferring mostly quantitative, conceptual/descriptive, qualitative, mixed and practice-based research methods. In contrast, no interest is currently being shown in data mining and analytical methodologies. The patterns being in STEM education are identified as follows: (1) the scope of the STEM education, (2) the need for a new curriculum for the STEM in higher education, (3) gender studies in STEM education and (4) the need for student-centred future studies on the effectiveness of STEM education. Keywords: STEM, research trends, systematic review, content analysis, text mining.