The European Journal of STEM Education is an academic international journal that publishes original research related to STEM education. The aim is to contribute to scholarly understanding of teaching and learning practices and policies in the area of STEM, as well as to contribute to the improvement of educational practices.
The journal is an open access, double blinded peer reviewed journal. You may expect rapid peer-review and publication as long as academic standards are met. New articles are published after acceptance in one continuing digital issue each year. Additionally, there is one special issue each year.
EJSTEME welcomes studies and reviews that may be empirical or reflective in character. There are no specific methodological guidelines, except that the method of investigation should be in concordance with the research questions.
Articles may focus on formal and in-school education, from early childhood and pre-school education to well into university and vocational schooling and to continuous professional development. They may also focus on learning in informal and out-of-school settings and on co-operation with the community, science centres, businesses, or other organizations.
EJSTEME accepts articles from all over the world. The fact that the journal is based in Europe, with its forty-plus countries and a multitude of educational systems and practices with regard to STEM education, should remind authors not to take their own situation and curriculum for granted, but to write for an international audience that may be unfamiliar with this system.
STEM education can be a ‘fuzzy concept’, and the educational rationales for STEM education can be quite different across countries and within various academic circles. In EJSTEME, we regard STEM to be an inclusive concept that includes all disciplines and domains that deal with the material world.
We welcome articles that focus on classic school subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and design & technology. However, STEM also comprises geology, health, food, agriculture, textiles, communication, transportation, construction, digital media, the universe, climate and weather, and environmental issues.
Articles may investigate the development of disciplinary skills and conceptual knowledge in the domains mentioned above. They may also reflect on philosophical issues and the Nature of STEM, and on ways to integrate or connect various subjects or domains in the curriculum.
STEM education may be seen as a body of knowledge to be taught through direct instruction, but also as inquiry-based education, reflecting the idea that science is a practice. It may focus on design-based education, reflecting the methodology of engineering. STEM education may focus on modelling and hypothetical and logical thinking, reflecting skills that are important in mathematics.
STEM education is about preparing children for the future, so we welcome articles that reflect on the constant pressure from various stakeholders in society who hope that STEM education will help solve their problems, ranging from more jobs in engineering to equity and global warming.
Although in our view STEM education primarily is about learning to understand the material world, we think that STEM also can provide a rich context for the attainment of learning objectives from other areas. Student talk about their experiences in the material world can help to development an understanding of science concepts but also assist the acquisition of language skills. ‘Design’ is as much an activity to solve engineering problems as it is a vehicle for the arts and for fostering a key skill like creativity. Reflecting on choices made in a technology project can be a way to learn about citizenship and responsibility, and it may develop skills for critical thinking. Pre-schoolers fantasy play of a tea room may help them develop language and arithmetic skills, may teach them to cooperate and develop executive functions, as much as it can help to develop an understanding of STEM concepts like fragility, gravity, heat and flowing.
In short, EJSTEME welcomes articles that enlarge our understanding of learning and teaching in all these areas and that pay attention to the implications for educational policy and practice.
For further information, see the Submission Guidelines.