Formal Assessment in STEM Higher Education: A General Analysis and Recommendations for Improvement

A recent report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) promulgated the importance of developing classroom-based STEM assessments (Harris et al., 2023). This report highlighted the challenges that STEM educators, particularly those at the tertiary level, face when seeking to introduce STEM-based activities into their classrooms. Assessment is seen by educators and researchers alike as one of the main characteristics that define an educational system (Grangeat, et al., 2021). So as the field of STEM education looks to map out a path forward it is incumbent upon educators, teachers, and researchers alike to help advance knowledge on effective assessment in the classroom. Due to the inherent interdisciplinary nature of STEM education, assessment in this area offers unique challenges that teachers of monodisciplinary subjects may not face. With this stated, our focus in this paper will be to discuss the role and importance of assessment in STEM classrooms and address the challenges of assessment when taking an interdisciplinary approach to STEM education (Gao, 2020). Additionally, our focus will be on the formal assessment of STEM education at the tertiary level.