What are we talking about when we talk about STEAM education? A review of educational experiences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/revistafuentes.2024.15412Keywords:
Systematic review, STEAM education, STEM education, science education, mathematics education, technology education, engineering education, arts educationAbstract
From the origin of emerging STEAM educational approach to present, various perspectives have emerged that entail the adoption of different ways to implement an educational intervention. This fact seems to be leading to a dangerous polysemy that does not facilitate the teaching task and could even reduce the potential of its initial intention: to show the links between disciplines and favor a taste for learning. This study pursues two objectives: (1) to elucidate the authors' conceptualization of STEAM education; and (2) analyze those educational interventions that integrate five disciplines of the acronym. To shed light on the matter, a systematic review of the literature published during the 2015-2020 period and indexed in Web of Science has been carried out. After applying the inclusion criteria, 20 articles were selected. The main results point out that: (1) the quality of theoretical foundation determines the quality of the "STEAM intervention" developed; (2) there is no consensus regarding the meanings given to the “A” of STEAM; and (3) the preferred mode of disciplinary integration is based on a specific context, with those of a historical or cultural nature being the most used. It ends by pointing out the convenience of continuing this line of work until a consensus is reached on a theoretical framework for STEAM education that guides the design of educational proposals, as well as the need to evaluate their effectiveness in the classroom.
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