A systematic review of student STEM competencies in secondary integrated STEM curricula: Recent trends, taxonomy, and challenges

Integrated STEM curricula are increasingly advocated as the technique to enhance students' STEM competencies in secondary education. However, the conceptualisation, operationalisation, assessment and challenges across current studies remain unclear. This systematic review synthesised empirical evidence on student STEM competencies in secondary integrated STEM curriculum published from 2021 to 2025. In accordance with PRISMA guidelines, 40 peer‐reviewed empirical and conceptual studies were identified across 3 databases, including Web of Science, Scopus and ERIC. These studies informed the analysis of research trends and STEM competency conceptualisation, while 31 studies were further analysed to examine reported challenges. The results indicate three key patterns: (1) recent research indicates an increasing interest in competency‐oriented integrated STEM curriculum; (2) most studies neglect to explicitly define ‘STEM competency’ as a cohesive construct; rather, they operationalise distinct skills such as engineering design and computational thinking. A taxonomy of student STEM competencies was created to synthesise these data, categorising reported competences into higher‐order dimensions based on knowledge, skills and attitudes, and (3) notable challenges remain in the implementation and evaluation of STEM competencies, including insufficient teacher preparedness, curricular limitations and misaligned assessment practices. This review introduces a conceptual–instructional–assessment misalignment framework to further clarify the challenges, emphasising how conceptual ambiguity leads to instructional fragmentation and insufficient alignment in assessments. Recommendations for future research, curriculum design, teacher professional development and assessment are provided based on the reviewed findings. It contributes a structured synthesis that enhances conceptual clarity and facilitates more coherent design and evaluation of secondary integrated STEM curricula.