JONAED

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education can be described as the foundation for development education since modern development is largely steered by science and technology. Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), as a special area in STEM, is responsible for preparing the personnel to translate science and mathematics into consumable products. As technology is founded on science and mathematics, so also must effective TVET education be built on effective basic science and mathematics education. The combined effects of the unfortunate inabilities of these essential subjects in Nigerian education system to produce the desired impact are major culprits in the perpetuated techno-economic dependency of Nigeria and the high rate of poverty among her citizens. Some perceived shortcomings in teacher preparation with implications for curricula implementation for these subjects are seen as contributing factors to the inability of STEM education to catalyse development in Nigeria. This paper, underpinned by the need to explore the relationships between teacher preparation, teacher readiness and effective curricula implementation, after a brief introduction, gives an overview of the place of STEM in technological and economic development. It then highlights the roles of STEM teachers in effective implementation of STEM curricula as well as STEM teacher competencies required for effective teaching. It further highlights conceptual relationships between pedagogy, andragogy and teacher preparation. Overviews of international best practices in teacher preparation are provided and then the perceived comparative weaknesses of STEM teachers’ preparation in Nigerian are discussed. Finally, approaches to enhance the Nigeria trained STEM teachers competencies are suggested.