Resumen de STEM to STEAM Revolution in 21st Century Education: Rational, practices, progress, and considerations for the future
E. Yeboah Owusu, Duishon A. Shamatov, K. L. Malone
STEM (Science, Technology,Engineering, and Mathematics) education hasbeen a dominant approach in education since1990’s. However, in the last two decades, therehas been a growing emphasis on incorporatingthe arts (A) into STEM education, resulting in theSTEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering,Arts, and Mathematics) education approach.This scoping review paper explored the STEMto STEAM revolution in 21st century education byexamining the rationale, practices, progress,and prospects of this paradigm shift. The paperdraws from a wide range of sources, includingacademic research, policy documents, andpractitioner reports, to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the STEM to STEAMrevolution in 21st century education.The findings of the review indicates that therapid transitioning from STEM to STEAM is dueto the potential of STEAM to harness the holisticeducation of workforce with the skills require forthe 21st century economy. This is because theintegration of art and design into traditionalSTEM subjects creates a learning environmentthat sustains students interests in STEM andhands-on learning experience that fosterscreativity, innovation, critical thinking andproblem-solving skills.Despite the emergence of STEAM education inthe United States of America, a significantnumber of countries across the globe haveadopted policy initiatives for the implementationof STEAM. It was found that, whilst mostcountries implement STEAM as national policyframework, STEAM education initiatives incountries such as United states, Canada,Australia are state-based, provincial-based orregional-based and sometimes district-level.Also, policy development for STEAM in mostcontexts are harnessed through cross-sectorcollaboration between education departments orministries and departments concerned withscientific and technological advancement.Aside governmental initiatives, severalorganizations that promote STEAM educationhave been formed. These organizations areestablished with the aim of increasing publicawareness and training teachers teach STEAM.In addition, some higher education institutions inhave reviewed their teacher education curriculato adopt STEAM methods to train teachers.Also, other higher institutions have designedSTEAM teacher certificate, diploma as well asbachelors, masters, and doctoral degreeprograms due to the growing need of teacherswith STEAM teaching competency.STEAM has been implemented in twoapproaches: in-school approach and out-ofschool approach. Thus, STEAM educationmaybe initiated as a reform of regular schoolcurriculum or extra-curricular initiativedepending on the implementation plan in aparticular context. In the teaching STEAM, arts,and STEM teachers’ collaboration to design andco-teach lessons is one of the best practices inSTEAM teaching form both theoretical andempirical literature.The paper concludes with a discussion of thechallenges associated with the implementationof STEAM education and the future directions ofthis paradigm shift which includes adequateinitial teacher training, continual in-serviceteacher professional development, funding andprovision of resources and the need for moreresearch into effective STEAM teachingpractices to ensure that all students to haveaccess to high-quality STEAM education.
