3. Research methodology

The research methodology for the SILO project is design-based research (DBR).  “DBR is a methodology designed by and for educators that seeks to increase the impact, transfer, and translation of education research into improved practice” (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012, p. 16). Barab and Squire (2004) were early adopters of this methodology who noted that “design-based research strives to generate and advance a particular set of theoretical constructs that transcends the environmental particulars of the contexts in which they were generated, selected, or refined” (p. 5).  The SILO project is built upon the following five constructs:

1. The international emphasis on STEM is not likely to go away and will probably increase due to the rapid technological era in which we live.
2. “STEM education begins in primary school” (Prinsley & Johnston, 2015, p. 1).
3. Time is scarce in Primary Schools.  This has led to certain phrases such as the ‘overcrowded curriculum.
4. The Australian Curriculum is essentially sound and useful, covering the necessary curriculum content for STEM education but within the component disciplines of science, technology (digital technologies), engineering (design technologies) and mathematics. 
5. The challenge for teachers is to implement the Australian Curriculum in an efficient, equitable and authentic manner focusing on depth over breadth.
   

Sandoval (2014) has noted that there is no clearly identifiable set of methods that can be labeled as DBR and that the commonality is mainly in terms of certain commitments that include “the joint pursuit of practical improvement and theoretical refinement; cycles of design, enactment, analysis, and revision; and attempts to link processes of enactment to outcomes of interest” (pp. 19-20).  Given this, the question of how the SILO project will be assessed is critical.  Sandoval’s contribution here is what he calls ‘conjecture mapping’, which is when articulating and testing opinions or conclusions formed on the basis of incomplete information.  In this sense conjecture mapping could be likened to “hypotheses about how learning happens in some context and how to support it” (Sandoval, 2014, p.20).  Accordingly, the working hypothesis for the SILO project is that students and teachers will expand their knowledge and skills in STEM by having a daily focus built into each day. The challenge then is how to do this in a seamless and sustainable way.  Figure 1 is the initial conjecture map for the SILO project.