STEM Teacher Capacity Building in Batam, Indonesia
Indonesia President, Mr Joko Widodo, launched the National Movement of Digital Literacy in May 2021. The goal is to raise digital awareness and ensure that Indonesians are capable and competent in using information technology, for productive activities and educational purposes (Antaranews.com, 2021). Yet, existing data shows that Indonesia is experience a digital gap as there are not enough digital talents to fill technology-related positions in the country (see e.g., Setiawan et al., 2022). More can be done to level up the digital literacy of its citizens for instance, through STEM education.
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education offers learning opportunities for learners in solving authentic problems through integrating knowledge and practices from two or more of the disciplines. Digital literacy should not be developed in isolation. Rather, learners can develop digital knowledge and skills (e.g., coding, computational thinking, troubleshooting, and optimization) through the process of engaging technology in solving real problems.
The goal of this programme is to scale up our current STEM teacher capacity work in West Java to Batam. We aim to work with 100 STEM teachers in Batam. STEM teachers refer to teachers who teach STEM subjects such as biology, physics, chemistry, computing, mathematics, and design and technology. Ideally, 10 schools with a strong interest in STEM education will be identified and 10 teachers who will spearhead STEM curriculum in the school will be selected to attend the programme. These teachers will have a responsibility to teach the other teachers in their school and school district. The selected teachers will acquire knowledge and skills in coding devices such as Micro:bits and integrated STEM curriculum design, enactment, and assessment.
On the whole, the programme will build the teachers’ capacity in harnessing technologies in creating and enacting technology-based STEM lessons. This is aligned to the Indonesia’s reformed Merdeka Curriculum rolled out by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MOECRT) in 2022. The Merdeka Curriculum is a curriculum model that leads to the formation of a Pancasila student. A student who embodies Pancasila is one who bears the following characteristics – faith, fear of God Almighty, noble character, global diversity, mutual cooperation, independence, reasoning critically, and creatively (Ismail, et al., 2021; Juliana & Bastian, 2021). Project-based learning has been espoused as one of the approaches to imbuing these characteristics. As such, an integrated STEM curriculum, typically involving students working collaboratively in solving authentic problems, is aligned to the goals of the Merdeka curriculum.
