Chapter 9 STEM Education in the Arab Countries
Rationale, Significance, and Future Prospects
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Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is four-fold: First, I present the rationale for STEM education at the pre-university level as it was conceived in the USA followed by the history of the development of STEM education and the various definitions and conceptualizations that were given to this approach across the past number of years. This is presented to elucidate the rationale for introducing STEM in the USA, the first country in which the concept of STEM was introduced, to benefit from the lessons learned that resulted from implementing STEM in the USA. Second, I provide evidence for the need for STEM education in Arab countries. Third, I describe different approaches used to implement STEM and discuss the research on the effectiveness of these approaches in improving achievement in and attitudes toward STEM fields as well as decisions to pursue STEM fields for further study in higher education. Fourth, I discuss the potential to improve the quality of learning in STEM subjects in Arab countries by adopting STEM education and the need to develop a home-grown form (or forms) of STEM that caters to the needs of Arab youth and Arab society.