www.jobstem.eu - News

Projects JOBSTEM and "Be STEMpatic!" presented at Scientix conference in Brussels

Mon, 07 May 2018 08:31:00 +0000

At the invitation of the European Commission and Scientix, a European network that coordinates activities in STEM field and education, JOBSTEM project leader, prof. dr. Josip Burusic, was invited to present the activities of two projects that he leads in a selective meeting that brings together key actors and projects in this area. Professor Burusic had the opportunity to present the JOBSTEM project, which is the first Croatian scientifically reviewed project in the STEM area and "Be STEMpatic!" - a project aimed at developing a model of recognition and work with STEM gifted students, which is conducted in cooperation with Virovitica-Podravina County. At a meeting held from 4 to 6 May at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Croatia was one of the few European countries that had the opportunity to present their two STEM projects which involve representatives of the Ivo Pilar Institute and Virovitica-Podravina County.

JOBSTEM research findings presented at AERA annual meeting

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 09:49:00 +0000

The annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) took place this month in New York City, between April 13 and April 17, 2018. The aim of the AERA organization is to raise the quality of the educational process through the stimulation of research work and evaluation in educational domain and through the dissemination and application of educational research findings. The topic of this year’s annual meeting was contemporary challenges and needs in the domain of public education. The JOBSTEM project leader, prof. dr. sc. Josip Burusic, held a lecture on April 14, presenting some of the research findings from the Croatian public education system created within the JOBSTEM project. The theme of the lecture was the complex relationship between family characteristics such as parental education and family income and student achievement in the STEM school domain. Professor Burusic first explained why it is important to explore the family processes in the context of STEM education and the so-called STEM problem, and which parent and family constructs are covered in the research of parents that is implemented within the JOBSTEM project. The presented results confirmed some previous findings that indicate that among the various socio-demographic indicators in the family, parent education has the greatest impact on children's academic achievement. Through the lecture, possible mediation mechanisms were discussed in the form of specific parental beliefs and family practices that could explain such finding, especially in the context of STEM education and school achievement. The significant influence of the family in explaining the differences in students’ motivation, achievement, and aspirations in the STEM area, calls for more attention in exploring the variety of family mechanisms in educational research. On the other hand, besides these research efforts, there is an obvious need to design and implement more educational interventions that will target groups such as families and parents, especially socially vulnerable families who have limited access to cultural and social resources important in the context of STEM education.

New research paper published from the JOBSTEM project!

Sun, 15 Apr 2018 17:25:00 +0000

A new paper „How important is it to my parents? Transmission of STEM academic values: the role of parents’ values and practices and children’s perceptions of parental influences“ written as part of the JOBSTEM project, has been published in the „International Journal of Science Education“. The study described in the publication deals with the students' and their parents' beliefs about the importance of success in STEM school subjects and the beliefs about the usefulness of these subjects, as well as the levels of encouraging interests in the domain in their immediate family. Our results show that students' perception of their parents' valuation of STEM and their perception of their family's encouragement of STEM interests was the best predictor of students' beliefs about the usefulness and importance of STEM subjects. These perceptions were, for the most part, incongruent with the parents' self-reports of these beliefs and behaviors. The students' skewed perception of their parents' values might be part of the reason why parental STEM values are relatively weakly correlated with their children's. Our results further suggest that parents find it easier to impart beliefs about the usefulness of STEM school subjects than those about the importance of high achievements in the STEM school domain. The paper discusses theoretical and practical implications of these results.

You can find the full text at:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500693.2018.1460696?scroll=top&needAccess=true

Last testing wave of the JOBSTEM project comes to an end

Sun, 25 Mar 2018 17:20:00 +0000

The third and final testing wave with students in the JOBSTEM research project is coming to an end. In this wave, students from the 6th, 7th and 8th grades of 16 elementary schools completed the project battery of tests: two classes in each cohort, amounting to 1800 students in total. Testing sessions were organized in two parts, with the first focusing on a JOBSTEM questionnaire about students' self-concept and success expectancies in STEM domains, subjective value of STEM school subjects and interests for careers in STEM, and lasting for 2 periods. The second part included an objective test of students' knowledge in the STEM domains, a general intelligence test, and personality and self-esteem measures. STEM knowledge was assessed in all three cohorts, whereas the intelligence and personality tests were only used with students in the 6th grade. As in the first part, all tests were organized during periods of students' usual lessons, in their classrooms, and were carried out by trained collaborators. The longitudinal data collected through these three research waves will allow us to gain insight into the development and changes of students' STEM aspirations, as well as their achievement and motivational beliefs in the STEM area.

Advanced STEM program carried out for for gifted highschool students

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 19:00:00 +0000

The planned STEM „camp“ for gifted student was carried out as part of the „Be STEMpatic!“ project, with 10 students from highschools in the Virovitica-Podravina county. The camp took place from the 2nd to the 4th of March at the Information and Education Centre „Noskovačka Dubrava“, a public institution which governs the county's natural resources. The representatives of the county opened the Camp by expressing their delight at the opportunity to host such a unique program which is the first of its kind when it comes to gifted students in the STEM domain in Croatia, in their midst.

Seven workshops were carried out in the duration of the Camp, which included topics such as: „Assemble and breathe life into your robot“, „Competition of robot performance in different tasks“, „Atomic cores, everywhere around us“, „Chemistry – the less, the better“, „Electricity without dinosaurs“, „What are my interests and what is best for my future: A vocational guidance workshop“. The workshops were lead by scientists from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb and the Institute of Social Sciences in Zagreb.

The participants of the first STEM gifted students Camp were selected based on the Model of identification of STEM giftedness, which was developed for the project. The students were selected from a pool of approximately 200 potential candidates, who were also highschool students. Tens of measures were collected via testing about all the candidates, and only ten were selected based on the criteria of the postulated model of STEM giftedness. Apart from the results of psyhological tests and STEM knowledge measures, the researchers had access to additional information about the candidates (such as their current and past grades). Conversations with the students in the camp and their teachers showed that most of the candidates had participated in national, regional and other highly selective competitions which exist in the educational system. STEM gifted!

Vienna study trip of the „Be STEMpatic!“ project

Sat, 17 Feb 2018 18:00:00 +0000

As part of the activities of the „Be STEMpatic!“ project, a study trip to the city of Vienna was organized for the representatives from 14 partner elementary schools and 7 partner highschools from the Virovitica-Podravina county, from the 14th to the 16th of February 2018.

The participants visited the Regional Education Board for Vienna (Stadtschulrat für Wien) where they were familiarized with the educational system of the city of Vienna, the functioning of its elementary schools and highschools, as well as new initiatives and programs aimed at modernizing teaching. A visit to the Institut für Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung (IUS), a network Austrian institution which functions in several regional centres, followed, where participants heard about recent Austrian projects in the STEM area, the development of the regional centres of competence in the domain, and the development of regional networks of excellence in desirable practices of teaching STEM school subjects.

The third part of the study trip involved a meeting and introduction to the workings of the Austrian ScienceCenter-Network, the leading network which connects nearly 200 organizations in the STEM domain. Through the presentation of Dr. Barbara Streicher, its executive director, the participants of the trip had the chance to get acquainted with formal, non-formal and informal teaching programs in this domain which take place in different regions in Austria.

At the end of this whole-day visit, a formal reception was held at the Croatian Embassy in Austria, where the participants were welcomed by the Croatian ambassador to Austria, dr. sc. Vesna Cvetković.

Identification of gifted students finished in the „Be STEMpatic!“ project

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 17:00:00 +0000

The testing of students from partner schools on the „Be STEMpatic!“ project in the Virovitica-Podravina county was finalized last month. The project is focused on identifying, following and working with students gifted in STEM domains, and is being carried out in 14 elementary schools and 7 high schools. Members of the JOBSTEM research team came up with and participated in the implementation of the comprehensive identification procedure which started in November of 2017 in the role of the project's expert advisors. Apart from gathering teachers' suggestions, the identification procedure included the collection of data on general, spatial and numerical intelligence, measures of motivational constructs and creativity in STEM areas, as well as an objective test of knowledge of the STEM domains.

The identification procedure and the choice of measure inclusion were based on a review of current theoretical models of giftedness and talent and empirical findings about the specific area of STEM giftedness. The students who were determined to show a potential for giftedness in STEM domains according to the data will have the opportunity of participating in specifically tailored activities in the frame of a several days long advanced STEM program in March.

Results of the JOBSTEM project presented at the „The International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement“ in Singapore

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:38:00 +0000

Josip Burušić, the JOBSTEM project principal investigator, attended the 31st conference of The International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement in the beginning of the year. This international organization was founded in the 1980s and functions as a forum for investigators from all over the world, policy makers, teachers and decision makers in the domain of education to exchange ideas, promote educational research and suggest practices which enhance the quality of education on all levels.

The ICSEI conference was held in Singapore this year, from the 8th to the 12th of January, and some of the results of the JOBSTEM project were presented in two talks.

The first talk, titled „Data-Driven Teacher Professional Development in STEM area: Translating a research based experiences obtained in JOBSTEM research project into everyday school practice“, advanced a number of guidelines for professional development of teachers in the STEM domain and their implications for contemporary STEM education, which were borne out of our empirical findings.

The second talk was titled „Low-Performing STEM students in Croatian primary schools: The possible gains of JOBSTEM project in improving students STEM performance“ and summed up our findings about the key differences in motivational beliefs, curricular and extra-curricular behaviors and interests which differentiate low-performing from high-performing groups of students in the STEM domain. The talk concluded by outlining a set of recommendations for engaging lower-performing students with STEM lectures and the areas in which these students would benefit from teacher support the most.

Third annual meeting of the project team concluded!

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 18:00:00 +0000

The third meeting of the JOBSTEM research team took place on the 13th of November 2017.

We first discussed the most relevant activities from the second year, including the ending and evaluation of the STEM intervention, the completion of the second wave of testing, data analyses conducted by the members of the team, dissemination of the project results through peer-reviewed papers and other channels, and setting up future collaborations through the project.

Furthermore, we reviewed the third-year plan for the project. As the STEM intervention and related activities have ended, the focus will shift to disseminating research findings through peer-reviewed articles, as well as popular science booklets, coming up with and organizing workshops for students and their parents, collaborating with other experts in the area and turning some of the project activities international.

After the final wave of testing is over, we plan to put special focus on drawing conclusions from the gathered data and establishing a set of guidelines which stem from the longitudinal data analysis.

Collaboration established with the Virovitica-Podravina county on the „Be STEMpatic!“ project

Thu, 09 Nov 2017 12:21:00 +0000

The „Be STEMpatic!“ project is financed by the European Social Fund, related to the call for proposals „Encouraging work with gifted children and students at the pre-tertiary level“. The project will last for 16 months, and be implemented by the Virovitica-Podravina county in cooperation with 14 elementary schools and 7 high-schools.

The Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar will also collaborate on a number of project activities which concern the development and evaluation of models used to identify gifted students in the STEM domain.

Further activities are planned to take place in the context of the project, such as training teachers and skilled workers to successfully recognize, educate and monitor STEM gifted students; and preparing educational handbooks with comprehensive guidelines for teaching these groups.

The JOBSTEM team can offer expert insight and evidence-based recommendations to aid in the successful completion of these activities. This collaboration presents an opportunity to use the research findings from the JOBSTEM project and implement them in practice through translating scientific observations directly into the educational process, thus addressing the concrete educational needs in the STEM domain.