Research and design activities are important focus points in international policies for secondary Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. It is up to school teachers to implement and supervise these activities in the STEM classroom. However, not much is known about the attitudes teachers hold towards supervising research projects or design projects. In this study, a questionnaire to measure teacher attitudes towards supervising research activities and design activities in secondary school was completed by 130 Dutch teachers who taught the relatively new Dutch STEM subjects O&O (research and design) and NLT (nature, life, and technology). These integrated STEM subjects are project and context based and are taught in a limited number of schools. Important differences between these integrated STEM subjects are their student and teacher populations: NLT is taught in grades 10–12 by teachers with a qualification in a science subject, while O&O is taught in grades 7–12 and can be given by any teacher in secondary school. The results showed that on average, both O&O and NLT teachers had high self-efficacy scores on supervising research and design projects even when they had received no special education in doing so. Furthermore, the teachers in general viewed supervising research projects as a more relevant activity than supervising design. Since research and design activities are becoming more important in (inter)national curriculum standards, STEM teacher education and subsequent professional development should not only familiarize teachers with supervising research projects, but with design projects as well.

Technological design is a core activity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. During the design process, students often employ research activities to enhance the quality of their design decisions and to rise above a mere trial-and-error approach to designing. There are many functions of research within the design process, for example theoretical research, user research, or testing a prototype. In this study, we aimed to examine student and teacher perceptions of the functions of research in the context of a design-oriented STEM module in Dutch secondary education. To do so, we first examined in what ways students and teachers who conducted or respectively taught the STEM module recognized functions of research within design. We also looked at the value students attributed to these functions, and how teachers described their facilitation of the functions of research within design. During the STEM module, students conducted a design project related to an authentic problem in biomedical technology, while using research activities to support their design decisions. Results from student focus groups and teacher interviews showed that they recognized several ways in which research activities contribute to a design process. Students valued the functions of research within design as important for the end product, although some students preferred to skip research and start building their design right away. Some teachers employed strategies to ensure students learned to do research steps, for example by a reverse design exercise. The results from this study raise the question whether all students should apply research activities in the same order during a design process, since different students seem to prefer different ways of designing. A design-oriented STEM module like this one is an appropriate way to start showing students the functions of research within design, however differentiation between different students’ preferences could possibly enhance this learning process.

Research and design activities are becoming more important in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and D&T (design and technology) education. Research and design are often taught separately from each other, while in professional STEM practices, many projects are neither ‘research only’ or ‘design only’—they are both. In this study, we aimed to provide insights in teachers’ personal and shared knowledge on how research and design can be connected. To this end, we examined the development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and beliefs of six teachers of the Dutch STEM subject O&O (research and design), who participated in a professional learning community (PLC) aimed at connecting research and design within this subject. Results of pre and post-PLC interviews showed that teachers’ personal PCK was very diverse, probably due to their different beliefs, backgrounds and teaching contexts. Through jointly designing instructional strategies for connecting research and design, teachers contributed to a collective knowledge base. The results of this study indicate that a professional learning community in which teachers with varying backgrounds construct knowledge and instructional strategies together, can be a powerful method to enhance personal PCK and collective knowledge. These are promising outcomes in the light of shaping professional development activities for STEM and D&T teachers, which in turn aims to provide students with a holistic and realistic view on current professional STEM fields.

Research and design activities are often employed in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) education. This study aims to examine students’ attitudes towards doing research and design activities in secondary school, among two groups of students: (1) students that take the quite recently introduced Dutch subject O&O (research & design), in which students perform authentic research and design projects related to STEM disciplines; and (2) students that do not take O&O. The subject O&O is only taught at a limited number of certified, so called ‘Technasium’, schools. A questionnaire, developed by the authors, was completed by 1625 students from Grades 8 and 11. Unlike previous studies on student attitudes, which usually use abstract concepts like ‘science’ or ‘technology’, the questionnaire used in this study contains active verbs to characterise research and design activities. The results showed that, in general, students who took the subject O&O had more positive attitudes towards doing research and design activities than regular students. Both student groups appeared to find doing design activities more enjoyable than doing research activities. The results of this study provide useful information for teachers as well as teacher educators about the existing attitudes of students, for example their preference for design projects over research projects.