Designing STEAM Education: Fostering Relationality through Design‐Led Disruption

A significant contention underpinning the commentary around STEM / STEAM is the evidence of discipline hierarchies, and inherent binary perspectives and/or biases that lend themselves to privileging one or more disciplines over another in an interdisciplinary education context. The current focus on increasing engagement with STEM in Australian schools provides opportunities to explore how the creative and liberal arts, and arts‐based approaches to teaching and learning are being adopted to significantly enhance teaching and learning outcomes in and for STEM education. This article examines how design for a STEAM education programme evolves and is adopted in an Australian context. Tasmania represents one of the most vibrant creative communities in Australia. At the same time it has one of the lowest levels of educational attainment. Entrenched teaching habits and disciplinary hierarchies often create significant barriers to the implementation of STEAM despite genuine goodwill and enthusiasm for STEAM among teachers and within schools. This article argues that, despite the contrasting dynamics extant in the Tasmanian educational context, it is here that some of the nation’s most curious and exciting examples of STEAM teaching and learning have emerged. It offers an example of an innovative learning project and proposes the means by which these disciplinary strands have been effectively entwined.     

Examining technology integration in middle school STEAM units

ABSTRACT

This research draws on a longitudinal study in which middle school math and science teachers enacted STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) teaching in their classroom after participating in intensive STEAM professional development aimed at increasing effective STEAM teaching. The authors address one important aspect in STEAM teaching, technology integration practices of teachers during instruction, and theorise their work using connected learning theory. Qualitative case study is used to identify and describe technology integration themes which emerged during STEAM instruction. Results suggest 17 of the 21 teachers participating in the study demonstrated technology integration involving one or more areas of instructional approaches, assessment and student use. The research expands what we know about how technology can be integrated in STEAM instruction and suggests ways to capitalise on technology to broaden access and appeal to all students during STEAM instruction.     

“Finding the Joy in the Unknown”: Implementation of STEAM Teaching Practices in Middle School Science and Math Classrooms

In response to a desire to strengthen the economy, educational settings are emphasizing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum and programs. Yet, because of the narrow approach to STEM, educational leaders continue to call for a more balanced approach to teaching and learning, which includes the arts, design, and humanities. This desire created space for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education, a transdisciplinary approach that focuses on problem-solving. STEAM-based curricula and STEAM-themed schools are appearing all over the globe. This growing national and global attention to STEAM provides an opportunity for teacher education to explore the ways in which teachers implement STEAM practices, examining the successes and challenges, and how teachers are beginning to make sense of this innovative teaching practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of STEAM teaching practices in science and math middle school classrooms, in hopes to provide research-based evidence on this emerging topic to guide teacher educators.     

Toward a Philosophy of STEAM in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This paper proposes a philosophy of STEAM education in the current moment, the Anthropocene. Whereas many proponents of STEAM focus on outcomes related to cultivating a more creative and competitive generation of STEM workers, it is, more importantly, an approach to education that can foster spaces for transdisciplinary conversations surrounding critical issues of the Anthropocene – those of ethics, sustainability, and relationality. Thus, the question arises, How might we understand/practice STEAM education differently? This philosophy of STEAM in the Anthropocene is inspired by the guiding notions of Braidotti’s affirmative ethics as well as Stengers and Ulmer’s conceptions of slow(ing). These perspectives challenge the ideologies and practices that have created and sustained divisions between the arts and sciences, while also promoting different ways of engaging in/with the world. Entangled in this conceptual framework are three concepts that might guide STEAM education moving forward: transdisciplinarity, relationality, and responsibility. With these notions as inspiration, this paper asserts a philosophical vision that takes seriously the realities of our Anthropocenic present and considers how educators might move with, rather than push against, the challenges that continue to present themselves.     

浅谈STEAM教育中加入自主阅读的必要性

STEM教育作为国际最新教育模式之一,研究热度一直不减,逐渐演变为STEM+、STEAM教育、STEAM+教育以及STREAM教育等。其中,STEAM教育获得普遍认同,但STREAM教育存在争议,认为R的定义不甚明确。另外,有学者认为,过多元素的加入会无法突出重点。这里仅从教学评价、教学过程以及教学目标三个角度,讨论将Reading(自主阅读)作为R加入STEAM教育中的必要性。     

基于STEAM的幼儿园科学教育变革策略

当前STEM教育已经成为国内外K-12教育领域的热点话题,它与我国幼儿园科学教育具有内在契合性,是变革我国幼儿园科学教育的重要参照。因此,我国幼儿园科学教育改革可以在四个方面寻求突破:一是以STEAM素养为参照确立科学教育目标体系,克服幼儿园过多关注科学知识掌握而忽略幼儿简单问题解决能力培养的问题;二是以STEAM教育主题项目为抓手组织教育内容、促进学科融合,从而培养幼儿核心素养;三是以STEAM问题探究为驱动,开展幼儿园科学教育活动,调动幼儿探究积极性;四是以STEAM教育生态为纽带开发和利用科学教育资源,促进优势资源积累和整合,提高科学学习品质。     

STEM-Focused Academies in Urban Schools: Tensions and Possibilities

Drawing on data from a study of learning, race, and equity in an urban high school organized around specialized learning academies, we examine the ways in which the design, framing, construction, and organization of learning spaces deeply influences the types of access to rigorous learning that students experience. We draw on the notion of racialized learning pathways to examine access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning spaces and the ways in which decisions about engaging these learning settings are bound up in notions of race, racial identity, gender, and belonging. We also take up the questions of how researchers and educators can intentionally design for positive racialization toward more inclusive school organization and classrooms. This article contributes to understanding of (a) how learning and identity development are mediated by broader processes of racialization tied to schooling organization and access structures and (b) how racial and gender inequities in STEM can be both reproduced and contested in large urban schools serving racially and socioeconomically diverse students. We contribute to the literature on equity and access in STEM by attending to the racialization processes that we argue are always at work in urban schools, particularly so in schools that are organized into pathways demarcated along racialized lines.     

Understanding inclusive STEM high schools as opportunity structures for underrepresented students: Critical components

Inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) can be viewed as opportunity structures for students underrepresented in STEM. By opportunity structures, we mean an education that provides not only access to high quality STEM curriculum and instruction or “opportunity to learn,” but also the capacity to create learning environments where students can build STEM social capital and the dispositions, knowledge, skills, and networks to be successful in STEM college majors and careers. This is a cross‐case analysis of case studies that describe the design and implementation of eight “exemplar” ISHSs. Beginning with 10 hypothesized critical components, we found evidence for all 10, but present in unique patterns of prominence, depending on the school context. Further inductive analysis located an additional four emergent critical components that complete the picture of how these successful ISHSs were able to achieve their goals. Importantly, across schools, four components stood out as foundational: a flexible and autonomous administrative structure; a college‐preparatory, STEM‐focused curriculum for all; well‐prepared STEM teachers and professionalized teaching staffs; and supports for students in underrepresented groups. Although many of the critical components found in the ISHSs are also found in the school reform literature, these schools also had characteristics unique to STEM education. This paper is important in understanding STEM high schools as opportunity structures and as a school reform alternative that can help solve equity and social mobility gaps in STEM.     

Education for women: whose values count?

This article looks at how far educational approaches to gender equity can be packaged and exported to developing countries. I analyze current discourses on women's education at international, national and local levels. Drawing on detailed ethnographic data from Nepal, I argue that issues around gender and education need to be addressed as ideological in nature, rather than a technical matter of tackling ‘drop out’ from women's literacy classes or getting more girls into school. From talking about ‘change’, ‘transformation’ and ‘access’, we need to think more about what is being changed to what and whose values underlie specific educational approaches.     

Social Equity and Access to a Philippine STEM School

Like most developing countries in the world, there is a huge gap in opportunities to access quality science education between students from the high- and low-socioeconomic strata of Philippine society. In establishing its own science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) high school, despite limited public funding in 1964, the government embarked on a hopeful project for continuously building up its scientific and technological work force to support modern economic development. The initial focus on elite talent development, however, eventually had to give way to legislative reforms that address issues of social equity. Greater accessibility for scholarships by underprivileged students in the provinces was accomplished, first, through the regionalization of its admission system and then, later, through its transformation into a network of science high schools across the nation. In my home country, sustaining equitable access to STEM education also means enhancing school participation through partnerships with community constituents and the private sector.     

Contemporary education policies in Southeast Asia: common philosophical underpinnings and practices

This article examines the various education policies in Southeast Asian countries, highlighting the underlining philosophies and current practices in the region. The conceptual framework of the presentation includes key concepts such as access and equity, unity and identity, quality and relevance, efficiency and effectiveness. Each of these key concepts will be analysed using a framework consisting of key questions, guiding philosophies, policy options as well as issues and challenges. The article reviews policies relating to questions such as “who get access to what kinds of education?”, “how to widen access?”, “how to ensure success?”, “what kinds of education for a multicultural society?”, “how to promote national integration and social cohesion through education?”, “how to improve quality of education?”, “how to manage and administer the school delivery system?”. It draws examples from different countries in the SEA region to illustrate the issues and challenges in formulating and implementing contemporary education policies.     

Educational Equity in the Access to Post-Secondary Education: A Comparison of Ethnic Minorities in China with Aboriginals in Canada

This study provides insight into equity issues in post-secondary education by exploring and assessing the history, the reality and the potential developments in higher education for minority students in China, in comparison to post-secondary education for aboriginal students in Canada. It highlights access to post-secondary education by these minorities in both countries in terms of educational policy enactment, orientation, and its enforcement. The study examines both commonalties and differences in the educational policies of both countries to shed light on how each country is able to grapple with the issue of equity in their respective post-secondary educational systems in response to the principles of liberty, equity and dignity as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This study employs a historical approach to identify the common trends by examining issues concerning access to post-secondary education for ethnic minorities in China and the aboriginals in Canada. Specifically, the study employs a comparative method analyzing how access and equity are defined, how policies have evolved, and the impact that the policy has on the minority students in China and aboriginal students in Canada. The assessment of the access issues in these two countries not only reveals some common trends in the evolution of access norms in the post-secondary education of both countries, but also identifies certain differences in response to their historical traditions, national cultures, and diverse educational structures. The findings are presented in three sections: growth and gap, equality versus equity, and equity and the difference among the difference.     

幼儿教育中“项目活动”与“STEM教育”的区别

早期STEM教育是近年来继项目活动后出现在学前教育领域的一种新的教育形态。STEM教育与项目活动非常类似,两者都是基于问题的学习,都有助于培养幼儿解决问题的能力;但同时两者在其价值取向、整合方式、探究内容、对幼儿个性化发展的促进以及教师的角色与作用等方面也有着明显的区别。项目活动更多看重的是教育的个人发展功能,而STEM教育更多追求的是教育的工具价值;项目活动是一种跨越学科领域的、大范围的整合,STEM教育则是一种围绕同类型学科的、小范围的整合;项目活动以幼儿的兴趣为出发点,探究的内容往往极为丰富多彩,基本上可以囊括幼儿生活的全部,而STEM教育主要集中在幼儿对周围物质世界的探究方面,其内容主要涉及到"物理知识"及"逻辑数理知识"两个方面;项目活动能满足所有幼儿的个性化发展需要,故而能促进所有幼儿的适宜性发展,而STEM教育则相对只能更好地满足某些特定学习风格(场独立型)的幼儿的个性化发展需要;在项目活动中,教师的"引导"作用更多地表现在对幼儿已有兴趣的合理引导,在STEM教育活动中教师的"引导"既有对幼儿已有兴趣的"引导",更有对兴趣的"引发",带有一定的"外烁论"的痕迹。厘清这些差异,有助于幼儿园教师提升相关教育理念,从而更好地开展这两种教育活动。     

STEAM与创客教育的问题及其整合路径探究

STEAM与创客教育在实践中分别存在着偏"软"、偏"硬"的问题,而两者融合可以相互取长补短。基于此,文章梳理了国内外STEAM与创客教育整合的相关研究进展,提出了包含课程、教学与评价的STEAM与创客教育整合的三层架构。具体来说,文章构建了STEAM与创客整合课程的三维矩阵模型,设计了分别与"知识主题式创客课程"和"工具主题式STEAM课程"相匹配的教学策略,建立了"知识-能力-素养"三维一体贯通的评价体系,以期更好地推进STEAM与创客教育的整合和可持续发展。     

Secondary school creativity,teacher practice and STEAM education: An international study

How creativity in education is applied by teachers to secondary school contexts is dependent on how the term ‘creativity’ is grounded, politicised, and practised. This paper reports on an international study of secondary schools in Australia, USA, Canada, and Singapore investigating how creativity is understood, negotiated, valued and manifested in secondary schools, focusing on teacher and student understandings, actions, benefits and impediments to creative and critical thinking. Participant reflections revealed inter-, trans- and cross-disciplinary learning shaped by teacher collaboration, dialogue and classroom organization that fosters critical and creative thinking. Implications are made for the ways practicing teachers develop and foster creativity via pedagogical approaches that enhance connectivity and interdisciplinarity of teaching practices between domains of learning. An education-based Creativity Index through which administrators and teachers can gauge, assess and implement creative skills, capacities, pedagogic practices and assessment of creativity within secondary schools is posited. Implications for STEM/STEAM education and centralizing creative capacities in teaching, learning, and educational change are offered.     

Gendered education in a gendered world: looking beyond cosmetic solutions to the gender gap in science

Young people in countries considered to be at the forefront of gender equity still tend to choose very traditional science subjects and careers. This is particularly the case in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects (STEM), which are largely male dominated. This article uses feminist critiques of science and science education to explore the underlying gendered assumptions of a research project aiming to contribute to improving recruitment, retention and gender equity patterns in STEM educations and careers. Much research has been carried out to understand this gender gap phenomenon as well as to suggest measures to reduce its occurrence. A significant portion of this research has focused on detecting the typical “female” and “male” interest in science and has consequently suggested that adjustments be made to science education to cater for these interests. This article argues that adjusting science subjects to match perceived typical girls’ and boys’ interests risks being ineffective, as it contributes to the imposition of stereotyped gender identity formation thereby also imposing the gender differences that these adjustments were intended to overcome. This article also argues that different ways of addressing gender issues in science education themselves reflects different notions of gender and science. Thus in order to reduce gender inequities in science these implicit notions of gender and science have to be made explicit. The article begins with an overview of the current situation regarding gender equity in some so- called gender equal countries. We then present three perspectives from feminist critiques of science on how gender can be seen to impact on science and science education. Thereafter we analyze recommendations from a contemporary research project to explore which of these perspectives is most prevalent.     

美国STEAM教育的发展脉络、特点与主要经验

当前,STEAM教育已被不少国家视为培养复合型创新人才、提升国家竞争力的重要途径.STEAM教育发源于美国,经历了STS-STEM-STEAM几个发展阶段.美国STEAM教育的特点是:聚焦于现实世界存在的问题与困难;强调通过工程设计流程来制定解决方案;倡导通过协作学习开展开放式探索;鼓励答案的多样化且认可失败是学习的必要部分.为了促进STEAM教育的有效实施,美国不仅将STEAM教育提升到国家战略层面、出台STEAM教育政策和法案,而且还持续加大对STEAM教育的经费投入,构建了一体化的STEAM教育体系,对开展STEAM教育的学校进行认证.     

Innovations in science education: infusing social emotional principles into early STEM learning

We report on the development of an after-school and summer-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum infused with the arts and social emotional learning content (STEAM SEL). Its design was motivated by theory and research that suggest that STEM education is well-suited for teaching empathy and other emotion-related skills. In this paper, we describe the activities associated with the development and design of the program and the curriculum. We provide expert-ratings of the STEAM and social emotional elements of the program and present instructor and participant feedback about the program’s content and its delivery. Our results revealed that infusing the arts and social emotional learning content into science education created a holistic STEM-related curriculum that holds potential for enhancing young children’s interest in and appreciation for science and its applications. The data also suggested that the program was well-developed and, generally well-executed. However, experts rated the STEAM elements of the program more positively than the SEL elements, especially with regard to sequencing of lessons and integration among the lessons and hands-on activities, indicating that program revisions are warranted.     

STEAM教师学科教学知识的基本构成与建构逻辑

教师学科教学知识(PCK)的形成是STEAM教育的发展之基。STEAM教师PCK是教师面对具体的跨学科的内容主题时,所特有的将不同学科的知识和技术转化为学生易于理解的教学形式的整合性知识,具有知识范畴的跨学科性、知识来源的实践性和知识形成的融合性等特点。通过对已有PCK研究的梳理,结合STEAM教育的特征,STEAM教师PCK可分为跨学科内容知识、教学对象知识、教学情境知识和教学策略知识。在此基础上,STEAM教师PCK的建构逻辑:一是立足理论性学习为教师建构PCK打“地基”,促进公共性PCK向个体性PCK转化;二是基于经验性学习为教师建构PCK竖“框架”,推动内隐性PCK向实践性PCK转化;三是通过实践性学习为教师建构PCK添“砖瓦”,实现陈述性PCK向程序性PCK转化。