STEAM Modules – Professional learning modules for educators
Written by Jessica Mantei and Lisa Kervin
STEM/STEAM in early education
This package explores STEM/STEAM across disciplines and settings. It draws on the expertise of academics in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child and practitioners (classroom teachers, educators and consultants) locally and internationally who are recognised by their peers as interested and expert in STEM and or STEAM pedagogies.
There are three modules in the package, each focussed on a different topic related to philosophies and practices for teaching STEM/STEAM with children. The modules can be self paced or completed with a facilitator. They could be part of professional learning for teachers, initial teacher education students, as a provocation for research students and so on.
The package shares research from a core project within the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child examining the ways teachers understand STEM/STEAM, through both their studies and their broader teaching experiences. It commenced with a survey of preservice teachers to gather understandings of STEM/STEAM, their opinions about its relevance to contemporary teaching, and the ways their university studies supported (or not) their learning of STEM/STEAM. Data were also collected as semi structured interviews with experienced educators, consultants, researchers and other experts who described and explained the nature of STEM/STEAM in their work, provided examples and insights into the interdisciplinary nature of STEM/STEAM teaching, and offered advice to those intending to teach with STEM/STEAM pedagogies. Participants were located in Australia and the United States.
Each module combines the insights, expertise, and advice across sectors and settings, and uses these as springboards to further reading, reflection and activity.
The three module topics are:
- What is STEM?
- Including the Arts in STEM
- Connecting, planning and assessing in STEM/STEAM
The modules have been designed by A/Prof Jessica Mantei and Prof Lisa Kervin and have been used with two cohorts of exit year Bachelor of Education students at UOW.
Acknowledgements
The creation of these modules was made possible by the generosity of educational researchers and classroom teachers as well as the many anonymous preservice teachers who completed our survey. We extend particular thanks to our colleague Dr Mike Karlin at California State University, Dominguez Hills who supported the collection of data for this project. Jessica and Lisa extend their most sincere thanks to all our research and teacher colleagues who have so generously shared their expertise and provided feedback in the development of these modules.
