Teacher STEM Competency Framework in Mathematics for Developing 21st Century Skills

STEM is in the focus of researchers and in recent years has taken over interdisciplinary research and international educational projects. Almost every school in Bulgaria has a STEM classroom, but the STEM environment cannot function without teachers' STEM competencies, curriculum content and the application of technologies in the digital school of the 21st century. Around the world, when planning school programs, the question of including integrated STEM in the classroom and beyond is raised. This raises important questions: Are teachers teaching STEM subjects ready to integrate curriculum content and do they know levels and technologies for educational integration? What are the STEM competencies of teachers for implementing integrated learning? This article attempts to answer these questions through theoretical research and a survey of 148 teachers teaching STEM subjects (mathematics, information technology, etc.). As a result of the theoretical analyses and survey results, a framework of STEM competencies for mathematics teachers for developing 21st century skills has been developed. The framework can be used as a diagnostic toolkit to measure teachers' skills in implementing STEM.