Dr. Jose-Manuel Diego-Mantecón
University of Cantabria
The Open STEAM Group (https://www.opensteamgroup.unican.es/) has carried out several initiatives to implement STEAM activities in classroom. These initiatives include KIKS, STEMforYouth, EduMath, and EAMARE-STEAM projects. The research undertaken by this group during the last five years suggests that the elaboration of STEAM activities with KIKS format promote the development of the eight key competencies (Diego-Mantecón et al., 2021), help modifying negative student mathematics-related beliefs (Diego-Mantecón et al., 2019), and motivate learning of students at risk of social exclusion (Blanco et al., 2018). During these years, we have also evaluated the handicaps of implementing STEAM activities with KIKS format (Diego-Mantecón, under review). STEM activities that require several sessions to be completed do not fit well within the schedule of the regular curricula nor within the evaluation methods of the current educational systems. Another significant drawback of the STEM approach implementation is the lack of knowledge teachers have in the interdisciplinary component (Toma et al., 2017). The majority of them are subject-specific with low self-confidence when dealing with interdisciplinary activities (Diego-Mantecón et al., 2019). The absence of continuous training contributes to teachers’ insecurities at implementing innovative teaching approaches.
Acknowledgments: Work carried out within the framework of the project EAMARE-STEAM (FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades – Agencia Estatal de Investigación/ under grant agreement EDU2017-84979-R).
References
Blanco, T. F., Gorgal-Romarís, A., Salgado, M., Salinas-Portugal, M. J., Sequeiros, P. G., Rodríguez-Vivero, D., Núñez-García, C., & Diego-Mantecón, J. M. (2018). Interdisciplinary Activities for an Inclusive Mathematics Education. In E. Bergqvist, M. Österholm, C. Granberg, & L. Sumpter (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 5, p. 208). Umeå: PME.
Diego-Mantecón, J. M., Arcera, O., Blanco, T. F., & Lavicza, Z. (2019). An Engineering Technology Problem-Solving Approach for Modifying Student Mathematics-Related Beliefs: Building a Robot to Solve a Rubik’s Cube. International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education, 26(2), 55-64. https://doi.org/10.1564/tme_v26.2.02
Diego-Mantecón, J. M., Blanco, T. F., Ortiz-Laso, Z., & Lavicza, Z. (2021). STEAM projects with KIKS format for developing key competences. [Proyectos STEAM con formato KIKS para el desarrollo de competencias clave]. Comunicar, 66. https://doi.org/10.3916/C66-2021-03
Toma, R. B., Greca, I. M., & Meneses-Villagrá, J. Á. (2017). Dificultades de maestros en formación inicial para diseñar unidades didácticas usando la metodología de indagación. Revista Eureka sobre Enseñanza y Divulgación de las Ciencias, 14(2), 442-457. http://doi.org/10.25267/Rev_Eureka_ensen_divulg_cienc.2017.v14.i2.11