STEM and STEAM in contemporary education: challenges, contemporary trends and transformation : a discussion paper (original) (raw)
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2020
This article, research review, focuses on STEM and STEAM in contemporary education as research literature review and viewed by experts from different countries: Austria, Poland, Russia, Spain and Ukraine. The article aims to provide opinions, views and reflections by an international team of experts from 6 universities from West, Central and East Europe on important topics: A. Robotics and STEM Education: Challenges, Contemporary Trends and Transformation; B. Microlearning-Effective Methods of E-Learning. The paper includes the theoretical background of the topics discussed, research literature review, analysis of national and international experience, examples of practical achievements and a description of contemporary trends as well as reflections and conclusions.
Recent reports coming out of Australia proclaim a number of " STEM in school " issues among them the need for more students to engage in STEM at school; insufficient numbers of students pursuing STEM pathways post-school; and the school Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) pathway that results in too many students missing out too early. Succeeding in STEM at school is one thing but being passionate about working on society's great challenges is another. We need young people who are passionate and committed to continuing their study in STEM related areas. Traditional strategies like trying harder, committing more funding and adhering to current practices are clearly not working. We argue that innovation in school design and pedagogy is required. In this article we will describe how this kind of innovation might look in three ways by first, expanding STEM to STEAM and explaining how the A(rts) can contribute to STEM education in more engaging ways; second, using the Big Picture Education (BPE) design for learning to create opportunities for deep learning around student interests through internships; and third, illustrating how students' interest in the compelling challenges of our time can generate motivation, depth of learning, and better outcomes for STEAM areas in the future. We conclude by illustrating how a BPE school can make a substantial contribution to both the local and wider community and serve as a national model for alternative STEM/STEAM schools. Why the focus on STEM in school education? Recent national reports argue for an increased focus on STEM education in Australia highlighting a STEM skills shortage in the workplace and the growing demand for STEM related skills and knowledge (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013, 2014). However, this is not just an argument for more scientists and mathematicians being developed. Research indicates that 75% of the fastest growing occupations now require STEM skills and knowledge (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013, p. 10). Ian Chubb (2016), Australia's Chief Scientist neatly summarises the importance of science: Science and the application of scientific principles can be found everywhere. Our nourishment, our safety, our homes and neighbourhoods, our relationship with family and friends, our health, our jobs, our leisure are all profoundly shaped by technological innovation and the discoveries of science (p. 1). It appears we need all citizens to be more confident and capable users of STEM knowledge. Most people will have to deal with a life where the specialist knowledge and skills that develops the innovations, the scientific claims, and the technological breakthroughs remains 47
Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, 2021
In recent years we have observed a clear trend for the transformation and evolution of teaching practices using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and in particular educational robotics. As modern society gives great importance to scientific and technological literacy and new technologies, the educational process must play a central role in the development of the respective skills. Thus, the training of future teachers in corresponding fields is especially important. In this paper, we present the curriculum design of a course named "S.T.E.A.M Teaching Scenarios using Educational Robotics" implemented for undergraduate pre-service teachers at the Elementary Education Department of the University of Western Macedonia in Florina, Greece. The objectives of the course include the development of critical and computational thinking, familiarity with robots, and the process of their integration in curricula focusing on interdisciplinary practices facilitated by embod...
Social STEAM Learning at an Early Age with Robotic Platforms: A Case Study in Four Schools in Spain
Sensors
Robotics is one of the key learnings in a world where learners will interact with multiple robotic technologies and operating systems throughout their lives. However, school teachers, especially in the elementary and primary education stages, often have difficulties incorporating these tools in the classroom. Four elementary teachers in three schools in Catalonia were trained to introduce robotics in the classroom to seventy-five students. The main actions consisted in classroom accompaniment by a university-trained support teacher, curricular materials’ development, and assessment of the students’ and teachers’ learning. The designed contents and evaluation criteria took into account the potential of educational robotics to improve soft skills and to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) interdisciplinary learning. Teachers perceived the training to be supportive and useful and ended the school year feeling confident with the used robotic platform ...
International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2016
The article discusses issues related to STEM education; it is emphasized that the need to prepare students with twenty-first-century skills through STEM-related teaching is strong, especially at the elementary level. The authors stress that workshops, using kits to build and program robots, are a modern form of interdisciplinary education of children and youth. The rationale for conducting such activities in schools is found in the European reference framework in the context of training of key competences. Classes in robotics – properly taught – will have an impact on the development of mathematical literacy and scientific-technical information and social competences. At the same time, competence is understood to mean a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the situation. Besides, an analysis is presented of basic legal regulations in this matter as well as some results of a survey, conducted in Poland and Ukraine among in-service teachers and prospective tea...
STEM education to fulfil the 21st century demand: a literature review
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) was developed to answer challenges in the 21st century; where students are not only smart in terms of cognitive, but also skilled. STEM in education has the aim of preparing students to be competitive and ready to work according to their preferred fields. The benefits of applying STEM Education are to improve critical thinking skills and be creative, logical, innovative, productive and directly related to real conditions. The purpose of this study is to review the implementation of STEM Education models in the early 21st century. Technique of collecting data was through literature study. The results of this study: 1) STEM has been applied in various countries and in various branches of science; 2) History of STEM Education, 3) Implementation of STEM in non western country, 4) Skill that required in 21 st century, 5) STEM to face 21 st challenge.
International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET)
The purpose of this study is to analyses the studies about science, technol-ogy, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the world by using the content analysis method and to reveal the trend in the field. In this study, which was carried out in a survey design to analyses the articles pub-lished in the Institute for Scientific Information web of science database be-tween 2010 and May 2020 and to determine the research trends of the arti-cles published in this direction, 100 articles selected by criterion sampling method were examined. In the selection of articles, attention was paid to in-clude studies on ‘STEM Education’ with respect to perspective of emerging technologies in learning. After examining the articles, the articles were analyses by content analysis method. The articles were examined in terms of descriptive information about the identity of the article, cate-gory field, article subject area, method, sample, data collection tools, data analysis methods and discu...
2021 International Symposium on Computers in Education (SIIE), 2021
In recent years and after the strong impact of the last global health emergency (COVID-19) information and communication technologies have had a great impact on society but particular in the teaching-learning process. Education has been impacted at all its levels. Therefore, education models have been to be adapted to this new challenging paradigm by using different tools such as videoconferences, simulations, on-line interactive applications, virtual and remote laboratories, robots, etc. The objective of this work is to elaborate a systematic mapping to know what scientific from its beginning to 2020, identifying the most literature exists regarding simulators, remote and virtual laboratories focused on STEM/STEAM skills development in the educational context. To do so, bibliographical data gathered of four of the most popular and complete electronic databases (ACM, IEEE, Scopus and Web of Science). At the begging we selected 1232 articles after applying the acceptance criteria defined as part of the search and select strategy, we had 61 articles that help us to answer some questions like what are the most popular virtual and remote labs? or what are the current trends and issues of these tools? and the future ones?
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning , 2023
Background: The advent of new and emerging technologies and industries has highlighted the need to equip youth with a unique skillset necessary to cope with a rapidly changing and complex digital era and adapt to modern societies' demands. This need has led to the development of teaching approaches to equip students with creative and innovative skills to help prevent any future skills gap. This shift has fuelled the growth of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Education worldwide. Our goal was to engage in a systematic review of the literature to identify the application and prevalence of emerging technologies within the landscape of STEAM Education.