Non-Formal Education as a Factor in the Development of STEM Education in Higher Education in Ukraine and the USA

Abstract

The article provides a scientific, pedagogical and comparative analysis of the development of non-formal education in the USA and Ukraine during the 20th–21st centuries in order to determine its role in the formation and development of STEM education in higher education. The relevance of the study is due to the increasing importance of non-formal educational practices in the formation of STEM competencies of higher education students in the context of digitalization, rapid updating of scientific and technological knowledge and the transition to a lifelong learning model. The methodological basis of the study is a systematic, historical, pedagogical and comparative approach. The work uses methods of analysis and generalization of scientific sources, content analysis of regulatory documents, comparative pedagogical and chronological analysis. The study found that in the USA, non-formal education was formed as a holistic and institutionally supported system, which since the beginning of the 20th century has included vocational schools, educational societies and public initiatives with elements of natural and mathematical training. In the second half of the 20th century, with the support of federal organizations, the STEM component was actively integrated, and in the 21st century, digital courses, online platforms and teacher training programs were developed. In Ukraine, the development of non-formal education was staged from educational forms of the early 20th century and technical circles of the Soviet period to modern STEM centers, online platforms and interdisciplinary programs for teachers. It was concluded that the USA STEM education, while in Ukraine this process is gradual, but strategically significant for the modernization of higher education.