STEM, STEAM, and STE2AM Education for Effective Citizenship
In a world with greater population, global interconnection, technological advancement, and large-scale problems than ever before in human history, complex problems require sophisticated problem solving skills and innovative, complicated solutions (Maddena , Baxtera , Beauchampa , Boucharda , Habermasa , Huffa , Ladda , Pearona , Plaguea, 2013). Infact, 21st century economies needed individuals with expert competence in their own fields with a good understanding of other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Although the need for individuals with sufficient knowledge in these areas increased, current education system fell short at this point to raise such people (Yıldırım & Selvi, 2015). For all these reasons, many countries tried and are still seeking to improve quality of the education given in subjects such as science, technology engineering and mathematics (Yıldırım & Selvi, 2015).
(Yakman, Georgette. (2017). STEAM Education Professional Development Practicum & Research 2007-2017)
From STEM education to STEAM education (with A that corresponds for Arts) to STREAM education (with reading / writing ability ‘Reading / wRiting’), to STE2AM (Al Daghidy, 2016) (where the other E corresponds to Education for sustainable development), interdisciplinarity was the core goal to foster convergence talents, based on the concepts of improving students’ interest, connect the principles studied with their real life, and enhance convergent thinking (Park et al., 2012).
Establishing the criteria of these learning approaches, a framework is comprised of: a) situation, b) creative design, and c) emotional touch (Kim and Kim, 2016). Situation is defined as learning to feel concretely the necessity of solving problems, creative design encourages students to look for a way of solving problems for themselves, and emotional touch engenders students’ enthusiasm for challenging new problems through interest, motivation, and the joy of success.These approaches could be implemented through project-based learning, problem-oriented project based learning, and performance tasks.
In Lebanon, where the general and ultimate goal of our curricula is to establish a good citizen, STE2AM education is a must. Although the standardized tests in grades 9 and 12 are a big challenge for the implementation of STE2AM, however; we can adapt through designing our own instructional methodologies, integrating the values of sustainable development, and linking the curricula competencies to the main goal, the whole picture, creating a good citizen.
When using STE2AM as an instructional methodology, our warm up activities for every lesson would start by discussing a contextual problem and the suffering it is causing to population. As we proceed, we highlight some problem’s causes and effects through inquiry-based strategies. We direct students to the problem solving principle:” The more you know the cause, the faster you find the solution”. This requires providing students with effective researching skills throughout our teaching learning processes. By finding the solution, students think of processes that prevent the causes of the problem through designing certain technologies. These technologies work according to certain scientific concepts. Students’ designs could be inspired from natural processes (Biomimicry) or even from similar technologies that are used for different purposes (Mimicry).
The main challenge for such implementation is the teachers’ competencies to implement STE2AM approach. Therefore, pre-service and in-service teacher training is recommended.
Finally, we need to remember that the success of our teaching learning methodologies is not only in students’ engagement and high achievement grades but mainly in creating a change in their lifestyles to become more sustainable oriented. This is the main goal of our every single lesson plan, a change in their values, decisions, and behaviors towards effective citizenship.
