Abstract
Abstract This study employed a multi-phased process to guide the development of an approach for integrating socio-scientific issues (SSI) and science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education in a way that can reform how science is taught in schools to improve scientific literacy. This approach can help teachers connect science authentically to real-world issues that have social and cultural relevance to students’ everyday lives. To demonstrate how the approach could be used for curriculum development, the authors defined the dimensions and key principles of SSI-based STEAM teaching and translated the approach into a climate change program by using a 6E inquiry model, which emphasizes an “enactment” stage. This program was used to discuss the benefits and challenges of employing an SSI-based STEAM approach in classroom contexts. We conclude by discussing implications for using this approach to improve science learning opportunities in cross-cultural contexts, and we raise questions about the need for future research.
Highlights
In recent years, science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education has been identified as a potential pedagogical approach for reforming the science curriculum to better prepare students for the 21st century
Using an socio-scientific issues (SSI)-based STEAM approach can help to achieve Vision III by making science learning more relatable through holistic experiences that place equal emphasis on emotional learning, values, systematic thinking, and multiple perspectives (Sjöström et al, 2017; Sjöström & Eilks, 2018)
1.5 Purpose of This Study Our goal is to provide an approach that can be used by teachers to plan and implement SSI-based STEAM teaching and learning
Summary
Science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education has been identified as a potential pedagogical approach for reforming the science curriculum to better prepare students for the 21st century. The common emphasis on these three education approaches demonstrates how SSI can be integrated into STEAM This SSI-based STEAM approach can help provide teachers with an innovative way to teach science that emphasizes the importance of cognitive, emotional, and social learning (Colucci-Gray et al, 2016). Using an SSI-based STEAM approach can help to achieve Vision III by making science learning more relatable through holistic experiences that place equal emphasis on emotional learning, values, systematic thinking, and multiple perspectives (Sjöström et al, 2017; Sjöström & Eilks, 2018) This in turn helps nurture students’ capabilities to engage as socio-cultural and -political participants in the real and complex world, while using their sense of empathy and multiple perspectives when they make decisions for themselves (Wickman et al, 2012). How would the key principles of the SSI-based STEAM approach translate into program development?
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