Find the published findings for the Annual STEM Professional Learning Surveys 2020/21 on Education Scotland’s National Improvement Hub: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/a-summary-of-stem-resources/. The 2020/21 reports can be found in the National Data Section of this webpage.
The reports include the findings of the:
- STEM Practitioner Survey (ELC, primary, ASN and secondary)
- Technician Survey
- Community Learning and Development Survey
Some interesting points to note from the surveys:
- There has been a significant increase in those who say it is easy or very easy to access STEM professional learning – highest ever result – 42% up from 30% in 2018/19.
- Two thirds of practitioners (ELC, Primary, ASN and secondary) are reporting that they accessed the same or more hours of STEM professional learning than in the previous year.
- Confidence levels are up across all aspects of STEM.
- Professional learning priorities include pedagogy, skills progression and support for developing a STEM curriculum.
The surveys results also show some declines. For example, over the last two years the number of STEM partnerships has decreased significantly – most likely due to the impact of the pandemic.
The findings also show that there is a need to provide more professional learning support for early learning and childcare, ASN and community learning and development sectors, School-based technical support staff seem to have very little access to appropriate professional learning and we are particularly keen to encourage more support in this area.
