Online Professional Development of Integrated Approach to STEAM Education
Authentic professional development course for STEAM educators
This online professional development course of integrated approach to STEAM education is designed based on comprehensive research on K-8 teachers' current perceptions of STEAM. Setting teachers’ ability to identify and implement STEAM lessons as two major learning goals, this innovative design incorporates various research-based instructional design approaches, including learning theories, evaluation, interaction design, and information representation in order to ensure high usability and satisfactory learning outcome.
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Problem Statement
STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) receives great attention from researchers and educators in the past decade. STEAM education takes the subjects that are taught separately into an integrative discipline. Through this holistic learning experience, students have the opportunity to explore real-world problems and acquire skills that are crucial in the modern job market, such as problem-solving skills, creativity, and collaboration.
However, despite its promising potential, STEAM education has limited adoption in our current school system. A comprehensive need analysis identifies three levels of challenges regarding STEAM education adoption - conceptualization, implementation, and institutionalization. As a systematic change (i.e., institutionalization) is unattainable at the current stage due to the involvement of many stakeholders, this design aims to solve the challenges at the first two levels - teachers’ conceptual understanding about STEAM and the implementation of STEAM lesson in the classroom.
User Research
Sophisticated user research suggests that a majority of teachers hold a positive attitude about STEAM education by recognizing it as the future of education. However, very few of teachers can express the integrative nature and real-world application of STEAM. At the implementation level, most of the teachers lack pedagogical knowledge and professional training as to the application of the integrated STEAM approach.
Learning Goals
Goal 1: Teachers will be able to identify and understand integrated STEAM education.
Goal 2: Teachers will be able to construct and implement an integrated STEAM lesson.
UX Framework
Design Gallery
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Module 1:
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Helps teachers to understand the concept of STEAM.
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Module 2:
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Guides teachers to create engaging STEAM lessons.
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Online Learning Community:
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Follows a motivation mechanism that aids participation and communication with peers.
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Evaluations Embedded throughout the Course:
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Formative and summative assessments, pre and post survey, chatbox, and back-end user data.
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