While a mutually agreed-upon definition of STEM education remains elusive, there is no doubt that instructional models and ideas put forward with the STEM label have had a tremendous impact on thinking, debate, and practice in schools worldwide. At issue is the degree to which some or all the STEM disciplines must be taught in a concurrent or combined way, so curricula can qualify for the STEM education label. In this manuscript, we unpack the various perspectives of STEM that have evolved recently and propose the acronym I-STEM for any integrated instructional blending of the individual STEM elements. We examine some problematic issues related to what seems a premature acceptance of I-STEM and conclude with some suggestions for the science education community relative to the emergence of STEM. This article is written from the perspective of improving the teaching and learning of science, and if I-STEM can be shown to further advance that aim, it would be foolish not to embrace it. However, if I-STEM is being promoted on the tenuous empirical and philosophical foundation we see presently, we must slow down. We must ensure that we really want this revolution in science education to succeed. We worry that science content and process learning opportunities might too easily be lost in a rush to teach STEM in a manner that gives substantial instructional time and energy to all of the disciplines regardless of the context of the classroom in which it is taught.

中文翻译：

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对“STEM”教育的批判

虽然双方一致同意的 STEM 教育定义仍然难以捉摸，但毫无疑问，带有 STEM 标签的教学模式和理念对全球学校的思考、辩论和实践产生了巨大影响。问题在于某些或所有 STEM 学科必须以并行或组合方式教授的程度，因此课程可以有资格获得 STEM 教育标签。在这份手稿中，我们解开了最近发展起来的 STEM 的各种观点，并提出了首字母缩写词 I-STEM，用于单个 STEM 元素的任何综合教学混合。我们研究了一些与似乎过早接受 I-STEM 相关的问题，并就 STEM 的出现向科学教育界提出了一些建议。这篇文章是从改善科学教与学的角度撰写的，如果 I-STEM 能够进一步推进这一目标，那么不接受它就是愚蠢的。然而，如果 I-STEM 在我们目前看到的脆弱的经验和哲学基础上得到推广，我们必须放慢脚步。我们必须确保我们真的希望这场科学教育革命取得成功。我们担心科学内容和过程学习机会可能会因为急于以一种为所有学科提供大量教学时间和精力的方式来教授 STEM，而不管其教学的课堂环境如何。如果在我们目前看到的脆弱的经验和哲学基础上推广 I-STEM，我们必须放慢脚步。我们必须确保我们真的希望这场科学教育革命取得成功。我们担心科学内容和过程学习机会可能会因为急于以一种为所有学科提供大量教学时间和精力的方式来教授 STEM，而不管其教学的课堂环境如何。如果在我们目前看到的脆弱的经验和哲学基础上推广 I-STEM，我们必须放慢脚步。我们必须确保我们真的希望这场科学教育革命取得成功。我们担心科学内容和过程学习机会可能会因为急于以一种为所有学科提供大量教学时间和精力的方式来教授 STEM，而不管其教学的课堂环境如何。