STEAMonEdu project consortium developed a Guide on STE(A)M education policies and educator’s needs that was launched at the end of December 2020. The guide presents in a comprehensive way the STE(A)M education policies identified and/or produced by the community members and the needs of the educators in order to implement them. This document contains existing needs and policies and a selection of the policies produced by the community members.

Project partners developed a methodological framework in order to identify, select, and analyze STE(A)M in education policies.

The process to identify and collect policies has been supported by desk research as well as data collection through online surveys. In the context of STEAMonEdu project, the following STE(A)M policies have been collected and analyzed in order to be included in the guide:

• EU policies
• National (governmental) policies
• Regional policies
• Institution level policies (e.g. schools)

The analysis of the collected policies has been carried out by using a series of criteria and policy questions. Beyond analyzing the policies, the STEAMonEdu consortium performed an analysis of the policy context in each project country and at the EU level, by researching a number of existing publications as well as by gathering information from the wider project community.

An analysis of the efficiency and impact of STEAM educational policies at EU and national level was conducted by project consortium and all these findings were included and integrated in the guide together with a short analysis of the STE(A)M educators needs.

Main conclusions drafted after conducting the research and policy analysis activity are the following:

1. Quantity and quality of STE(A)M policies. The research performed within the project identified only 20 policies both at EU level and in the five countries of the project partners. The quantity and the quality of STE(A)M policies are still very low, and this translates into education systems that are not fully reformed in order to respond to the current societal challenges and opportunities.

2. STEAM vs STEM. STEAM is largely unknown as a concept, and, as a consequence, it is not addressed by policy makers at national level, as the large majority of policy initiatives are related to STEM only. At EU level, the new Digital Education Action Plan introduces the concept of STEAM only to encourage women to consider technical studies. Despite an official communication between the EU Parliament and the European Commission, and a funding programme to promote integration of STEAM, the challenge to achieve a full integration of the STEAM disciplines remains.

3. Integration of STEM. Significant policy support for integration of STEM in education can be found at EU level. STEM Education is thus currently recognised as an effective integrated and multidisciplinary approach able to meet the growing demands of businesses and allowing professionals to excel and perform outstandingly in a highly technical and evolving fast-paced environment. Most of the EU countries have integrated STEM in education by now at various levels, but impact is still low due to the lack of proper policy support.

4. Efficiency of STE(A)M policies. Most of the identified policies are still ongoing or do not include a monitoring and evaluation framework, thus it is very difficult to assess the efficiency and impact of these policies. In all five countries where the research has been performed, very little information has been found regarding policy efficiency. Ultimately, there is currently no official and transversally accepted framework which enables comparisons across different EU member states. The OECD’s PISA programme offers insight on the separate disciplines, but does not offer a full assessment of STEAM opportunities and practices.

5. STE(A)M educators’ needs. The research identified a large and diverse set of needs for the STE(A)M educators, from lack of infrastructure to teach STE(A)M disciplines to low levels of confidence and competences, and to difficulty to assess and evaluate. This only proves that there is an urgent need for coordinated support from the policy side both at EU and at the national level.

By EOS Romania

Featured image from the Microbit class at Nicolae Titulescu Theoretical High School in Slatina, Romania

STEAMonEdu MOOC started on the 10^th of May and lasted for 6 creative, learning, challenging, fascinating weeks.

The MOOC’s participants had the chance to meet their peers and tutors and familiarise themselves with the platform during the introductory week. Moreover, they acquired deep knowledge in the STE(A)M education approach, in teaching and learning techniques that promote STE(A)M education, in content, tools, content creation and educational activities design for STE(A)M education. Furthermore, other topics developed within the MOOC have covered the relevant methodologies within STE(A)M related to teaching organization, classroom management, educational resource management, lab management, human resource management, communities of educators, research and business communities, policies to promote STE(A)M education, research activities, lifelong learning, professional development, digital and transferable skills, frameworks and tools for STE(A)M educators.

Our STEAMonEdu researchers made great efforts towards the creation of a MOOC providing the maximum support to learners and the learning process by adopting and adjusting a student-centred learning approach in order to cover the needs of all different learner audiences. Also from the early stage of the design to the actual creation and operation, special attention was given to the effective communication among participants to support student learning complemented by high levels of engagement as well as the monitoring and assessment of students’ activities in order to ensure a qualitative effective MOOC performance. Some first input referring to the satisfaction of the participants can only reinforce our partnership’s endeavours for the Blended MOOC to come in early September!

Dear STE(A)M educators and members of the STEAMonEdu community thank you for your trust and your commitment!!

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

By RDEWG

The concept of STE(A)M has evolved under the impulse of a large number of stakeholders, which have sought to develop a support mechanism that encourages learners to take up studies in areas that were seen as key to economic growth. The first chapter takes a look at how STE(A)M education has evolved, trying to make sense of the different iterations that can be found concurrently in educational practices and policies.

An educator needs to map the personal position in the field of STE(A)M education to be able to practice in a responsible and effective manner. In the second chapter, we consider three of the elements that shape the STE(A)M educator’s position:

1. Context created by policies
2. Roles an educator is expected to perform
3. Agendas of the partners of the education system.

There is a growing movement at European level to offer students and educators the opportunity to assess their competences in different areas, in order to facilitate self-direct learning. Based on the DigCompEdu model, the STEAMonEdu Project has undertaken the production of STEAMComp competence framework, with six domains of competence:

1. Content

2. Teaching and learning

3. Organization and Management

4. Professional Engagement

5. Assessment

6. Empowering Learners

Chapter three gives an overview of the STEAMComp model, alongside considerations about frameworks mapping students’ competences.

The report also includes a review of curricular approaches and didactic methodologies associated with STE(A)M education. The rationale behind it was to give the STE(A)M education framework a practice-oriented outlook and to facilitate its deployment in educational contexts. In terms of curricular approaches, it describes six possible routes:

1. Transdisciplinary
2. Interdisciplinary
3. Multi-disciplinary
4. Cross-disciplinary
5. Arts-integration
6. Neo-disciplinary.

The educators’ professional development has emerged as a recognised area of research, due to its importance for the learning process and its influence on student achievement. Chapter five presents some of the elements that define the continuous professional development of educators, such as competence frameworks and the use of MOOCs. The second part of the chapter is dedicated to educator agency within their professional development, because it is very important that educators feel reasonably in control of their own professional development and that they incorporate new content in a meaningful way.

STE(A)M education is still undergoing development, both in terms of theory and practice. What was initially an educational marketing tool, has taken on the shape of a vibrant pedagogical approach, that interrogates both its own nature and the articulation of educational systems across the world.

The entire framework document can be consulted here.

By EOS

Photo by Possessed Photography and Kevin Jarrett on Unsplash