Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Education in STEM

This book provides an international platform for educators from different STEM disciplines to present, discuss, connect, and develop collaborations in two inter-related ways: (1) sharing and discussing changes and innovations in individual discipline-based education in STEM/STEAM, and (2) sharing and discussing the development of interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM education. Possible relationships and connections between individual disciplines (like mathematics or physics) and STEM education remain under explored and the integration of traditionally individual discipline-based education in STEM education is far from balanced. Efforts to pursue possible connections among traditionally separated individual disciplines in STEM are not only necessary for the importance of deepening and expanding interdisciplinary research and education in STEM, but also for the ever-increasing need of reflecting on and changing how traditional school subjects (like mathematics or physics) can and should be viewed, taught, and learned. Scholars from eight countries/regions provide diverse perspectives and approaches on changes and innovations in STEM disciplinary and interdisciplinary education. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Education in STEM will be a great resource to students and researchers in STEM education as well as STEM curriculum developers and teacher educators internationally.

Yeping Li is a professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M University, USA. His research interests include promoting and establishing STEM education as a distinct field, international studies in mathematics education and teacher education. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of STEM Education (#1 research journal in STEM education worldwide) since 2014 and the Journal for STEM Education Research since 2018, both published by Springer, and is also the editor of several monograph series including, Advances in STEM Education also published by Springer. In addition to editing and publishing over 15 books and special journal issues, he has published numerous articles that focus on mathematics and teacher education in East Asia, disciplinary and interdisciplinary research in STEM education. His work has been supported by various funding agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation and Spencer Foundation. He also organized and chaired many group sessions at various national and international professional conferences. He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Studies in Education from the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Zheng Zeng is a professor at the School of Mathematics and Big Data and the director of the Institute of South China Mathematics Education at Foshan University, China. His research interests include STEM education, mathematics education, and teacher education. He is an editorial board member of the Journal of Mathematics Education. He has published 10 books and 170 articles, also edited or participated in the compilation of 30 textbooks. His works have been awarded the provincial teaching achievement award first prize for three times and second prize for four times.

Naiqing Song is a second-level professor and doctoral supervisor at Southwest University, the national-level teaching master, the contemporary education master, the first batch of experts stationed in the National Outlook Think Tank, and the first advanced individual in the construction of national teaching materials in China. He is also the director of both the Southwest Basic Education Curriculum Research Center of Ministry of Education and the Basic Education Research Center of Southwest University, as well as the Chief Expert of China Basic Education Quality Monitoring Collaborative Innovation Center. He was the deputy director of expert working committee on basic education curriculum and textbooks of Chinese Ministry of Education, as well as the vice chairman of the Chinese society of education, and the vice president of national mathematical educational research association. More importantly, He is the former executive vice president of Southwest University and the former president of Southwest Normal University, who received a special allowance from the State Council of China in 1993.

He has been sponsored with more than twenty-four national and provincial fundingprograms. He was also the editor-in-chief (or deputy editor-in-chief) of eight sets of mathematics textbooks for primary and secondary schools (four of them have been approved by the national state committee of China) and ten sets of academic books and university textbooks (three of which are college planning textbooks).

Till now, he has been published more than 240 academic papers in the core journals of China, such as Chinese Social Science, Educational Research, Journal of Chinese Education, Journal of Curriculum, Teaching Materials and Teaching Methods. He has also been awarded twenty-three national and provincial prizes. Including the first, second, and third prizes of humanities and social sciences of Chinese higher education, the first prize of national excellent teaching achievements (mathematical education) in higher education, the first prize of excellent achievements in national educational scientific research, the second prize of Chongqing Science and Technology Progress, and the third prize of Chongqing Humanities and Social Sciences.