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Nowadays, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) play a critical role in a nation’s global competitiveness and prosperity. Thus, there is a need to educate students in these subjects to meet the current and future demands of personal life and society. While applications, especially in science, engineering, and technology, are directly obvious, mathematics underpins the other STEM disciplines. It is recognized that mathematics is the foundation for all other STEM disciplines; the role of mathematics in classrooms is not clear yet. Therefore, the question arises: What is the current role of mathematics in secondary STEM classrooms? To answer this question, we conducted a systematic literature review based on three publication databases (Web of Science, ERIC, and EBSCO Teacher Referral Center). This literature review paper is intended to contribute to the current state of the role of mathematics in STEM education in secondary classrooms. Through the search, starting with 1910 documents, only 14 eligible documents were found. In these, mathematics is often seen as a minor matter and a means to an end in the eyes of science educators. From this, we conclude that the role of mathematics in the STEM classroom should be further strengthened. Overall, the paper highlights a major research gap, and proposes possible initial solutions to close it.
The article deals with the pedagogical content knowledge of mathematical modelling as part of the professional competence of pre-service teachers. With the help of a test developed for this purpose from a conceptual model, we examine whether this pedagogical content knowledge can be promoted in its different facets—especially knowledge about modelling tasks and about interventions—by suitable university seminars. For this purpose, the test was administered to three groups in a seminar for the teaching of mathematical modelling: (1) to those respondents who created their own modelling tasks for use with students, (2) to those trained to intervene in mathematical modelling processes, and (3) participating students who are not required to address mathematical modelling. The findings of the study—based on variance analysis—indicate that certain facets (knowledge of modelling tasks, modelling processes, and interventions) have increased significantly in both experimental groups but to varying degrees. By contrast, pre-service teachers in the control group demonstrated no significant change to their level of pedagogical content knowledge.