Education Scotland has published two important STEM education reports:

Evaluation of the STEM Grants Programme Rounds One to Three

Factors in Successful STEM Learner Engagement: A case study approach

These reports provide valuable and timely recommendations as we embark on the Curriculum Improvement Cycle process. Importantly, they provide a summary of what has been achieved to date, and what more remains to do, in relation to our vision to build Scotland into a world-leading STEM nation. This ambition is critical to the success of Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation, Scotland’s Innovation Strategy, Green Industrial Strategy and our Net Zero ambitions, amongst others.

These latest reports build on previous Ekosgen reports commissioned by Education Scotland including:

• Evaluation of STEM Grants Programme (Round 1): Final report (May 2020)
• STEM Grants Programme: Case studies (Sept 2020)
• STEM evaluation (Year 2): Final report (Sept 2021)
• Case studies from the STEM Grants Programme (Year 2)
• The Structural Barriers to STEM Engagement – Final Report for Education Scotland (November 2022)

Highlights from the latest reports are as follows:

STEM Grants Programme (SGP) – Year 3 (Part 2) Report

Watch our short highlights video.

• Over four grant rounds, overall funding awarded was £4,576,251 supporting 307 projects, 3,102 professional learning sessions, resulting in 69,349 practitioner engagements and providing 196,090 hours of professional learning.
• The SGP has consistently delivered high quality learning (86% saying this was good or very good in the 2020/21 Ekosgen practitioner survey) and with 87% saying the level of expertise of the provider was good or very good.
• 98% of practitioners felt the SGP had improved their STEM learning and teaching capabilities, with 49% saying it had significantly improved.
• Almost half of all the practitioners surveyed in the 2020/2021 practitioner survey said the knowledge gained through supported professional learning benefited their whole school or setting (48%) and a further 18% said it would benefit their whole cluster.
• The 2021 survey of practitioners indicated that the SGP made a substantial difference to the practitioner understanding of the need to ensure equity and equality in their approach with learners. Although 40% said they were “very aware” of the need to ensure equity and equality in their approach prior to the SGP support, this increased to 68% following support.
• From the 2021 survey, more than eight in 10 practitioners reported that learners had an improved understanding of STEM subjects (81%, 47% significantly so). Further, 77% report improved engagement with STEM amongst learners and 82% increased motivation to learn about STEM.
• Some 87% of practitioners believe that learners increased their attainment in STEM as a result of the SGP, almost a third significantly so. Practitioners also report that learners have enhanced STEM skills (84%) and improved performance (78%). More than half also think learners have more STEM-related job and career aspirations (54%).

Factors in Successful STEM Learner Engagement Report – we hope this valuable report helps to guide and support your STEM planning activities and strategies within your own contexts and in your work with settings and schools.

Watch our short highlights video.

The report’s key findings are:

• It has been found across the study that both challenge-focused activities and pupil-led initiatives (where pupils are at least partially responsible for the club) are the most well-received activities and lead to the highest levels of engagement.
• The importance of project-based learning, inter-disciplinary learning, and out-of-class activities in supporting STEM engagement should not be underestimated.
• Refreshing the curriculum – Where reconsideration of the subjects and topics on offer within a school has taken place, there have been notable improvements to engagement and attainment in STEM.
• Where there is a broad level of support for STEM learning within a school’s Senior Leadership Team, generally attainment and performance are better in these subjects.
• Creative use of Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) resourcing and creation of new pathways were the most common methods of retaining learners on the STEM journey, where the pupils came from deprived areas.
• New pathways (with greater focuses on practical learning) had also been developed in some schools, which had resulted in greater uptake in STEM subjects in cohorts from more deprived areas.

If this leaves you hungry for more data then visit our STEM summary page (National STEM Data Section) to see the positive evidence of impact identified through our Education Scotland Annual STEM Practitioner Surveys and Data Gathering Exercises from 2016/17 to 2022/23.