Teachers’ Instructional Practices and Students’ Responses in Middle School Integrated Stem Learning Environments

This paper describes integrated STEM (iSTEM) education in middle school learning environments. Using an instrumental case study approach, five STEM teachers from four mid-west schools were observed and qualitative field notes were made using Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) (Pibum et al., 2000). The observations were systematically analyzed until thematic saturation, revealing six key themes: context setup using design challenge, engineering design process, STEM disciplinary knowledge, building connections, pedagogical practices, and effective student engagement. These themes were utilized to construct an iSTEM framework, grounded in design challenges and enriched by the engineering design process, STEM knowledge integration, real-life applications, pedagogical strategies, and enhanced student engagement, depicting a unique pedagogical synergy in iSTEM education. Keywords: integrated STEM, Middle school, engineering design, student engagement, pedagogy, instructional practices.