S.T.E.A.M. Education
What is STEAM education?
STEAM Education is an approach to learning that uses the following as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.
- Science
- Technology
- Engineering
- Arts
- Mathematics
At OXFORD, We provide a STEAM Education approach to learning and positively impacting students’ growth and making them ready for the real world by teaching them in environments that are fluid, dynamic, and relevant.
Why is STEAM Education Important?
For far too long in education, we’ve been working with the presumption of teaching to ensure our students get a “good job”. But what does that look like? We are preparing students for jobs that don’t even exist.
We are at a point where it is not only possible, but imperative that we facilitate learning environments that are fluid, dynamic, and relevant. None of us go outside and look at a tree and say, “that’s a tree, so that’s science” or, “the sky is blue, so that’s art.”
Our world is a beautiful, complex, and intricate tapestry of learning all in its own right. Why do we believe that we have the ability or the right to box it in behind brick walls and classroom doors in a place called school?
Integrating concepts, topics, standards and assessments is a powerful way to disrupt the typical course of events for our students and to help change the merry-go-round of “school.”
It takes what we do when we open the doors to the real world and places those same practices in our cycles of teaching and learning. So we can finally remove the brick walls and classroom doors to get at the heart of learning.
What the Research Says:
Recent research shows that STEAM is a promising approach to positively impacting student achievement and teacher efficacy. In a 2016 study, researchers investigated the impact of STEAM lessons on physical science learning in grades 3 to 5 in high poverty elementary schools in an urban district. Findings indicated that students who received just nine hours of STEAM instruction made improvements in their science achievement (Brouillette, L., & Graham, N. J.).
Another study from 2014 shows that connecting STEAM and literacy can positively impact cognitive development, increase literacy and math skills, and help students reflect meaningfully on their work and that of their peers (Cunnington, Marisol, Andrea Kantrowitz, Susanne Harnett, and Aline Hill-Ries.). This is further supported by a study on the relationship between theater arts and student literacy and mathematics achievement from 2014. “Results showed that students whose language arts curricula were infused with theater arts often outperformed their control group counterparts, who received no arts integration, in both math and language arts” (Inoa, R., Weltsek, G., & Tabone, C.).
And in an international study published in the Journal of Educational Change, researchers found that secondary teachers’ reflections “revealed inter-, trans- and cross-disciplinary learning shaped by teacher collaboration, dialogue and classroom organization that fosters critical and creative thinking.” (Anne Harris and Leon R. de Bruin).
STEM vs. STEAM
The STEM to STEAM movement has been taking root over the past several years and is surging forward as a positive mode of action to truly meet the needs of a 21st-century economy. STEM alone misses several key components that many employers, educators, and parents have voiced as critical for our children to thrive in the present and rapidly approaching future.
Much has been proclaimed about the need for more STEM “programs” in our schools. The logic is simple: the wave of future economic prosperity lies in a workforce that is well-versed in rising job markets like science, technology, engineering, and math. Thus, there has been an increased investment in STEM initiatives in schools. This includes (but is not limited to):
- Providing mobile devices for students (sometimes in the forms of computer labs, and other times in the form of 1:1 – a single device for each student)
- After-school STEM clubs or programs
- STEM curriculum, where projects using STEM practices are embedded
- BYOD initiatives (bring your own device)
- STEM days to encourage hands-on exploration within each of these disciplines
- Robotics programs
While these initiatives are a wonderful start to the exploration of these four areas of study, the critical process of creativity and innovation is missing. Students in STEM programs may have more experiential learning opportunities, but they are limited to only science, technology, engineering, and math. Our economy requires so much more than an understanding of these areas – it requires application, creation, and ingenuity. STEM alone does not foster these essential nutrients.
STEAM is a way to take the benefits of STEM and complete the package by integrating these principles in and through the arts. STEAM takes STEM to the next level: it allows students to connect their learning in these critical areas together with arts practices, elements, design principles, and standards to provide the whole pallet of learning at their disposal. STEAM removes limitations and replaces them with wonder, critique, inquiry, and innovation.
Please visit us to know more about our STEAM Education as we understand this is a big decision for you as parents. Please fill out a short Inquiry form on the “CONTACT US” page and we will contact you soon or just Call us at 817-928-5544!
