Problems of Using the Term STEM in Russian Education

The article deals with the definition of “STEM education” within the context of legislative, research, and methodological documents in the Russian educational and scientific environment. The authors of the article express a hypothesis about the appropriateness of using the term STEM as a generalization of interdisciplinary pedagogical practice implemented, among other things, through the project method, which allows for the rapid development of future specialists in the digital economy. The need for legislative clarification of the term STEM education was analyzed. Based on the analysis of pedagogical literature in the historical aspect, the relationship between the terms “polytechnic education” in Soviet pedagogy and “STEM education” during the period of digital transformation of the modern economy was revealed. An analogy was drawn in the goals of both didactics, aimed at bridging the gap between the fundamentalism of knowledge and a holistic scientific picture of the worldview. Analysis of federal state educational standards and exemplary general education programs allowed the authors to note the presence in them of some elements that are typical for STEM education (tasks, planned results, forms of educational activities). Thus, the conclusion was made that the didactic system in a modern school involves the inclusion of forms and practices of STEM education, without using the term STEM itself. Summarizing and systematizing the directions of educational activities of institutions of additional education created within the framework of the federal project “The Success of Every Child” of the national project “Education”, the authors noted the significant attention of the government to solving the problem of training engineering personnel in the digital economy, but also without using the term STEM. The article systematizes the experience of introducing elements of STEM didactics using the example of the system of general and additional education in the Khabarovsk Territory.