Development and Effect of H-STEAM centering on Secondary Education of Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop and analyze the meaning and contents of the “H-STEAM teaching & learning model” which combines Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics (STEAM) with the elements of Humanities. We developed this model based on the key competencies linked with career path for middle school students in Korea, with the recognition of two issues. First, the existing Korean STEAM education lacks the elements of humanities, thus failing to achieve an authentic convergence education. Second, it is necessary to develop a program that might correspond to the Free Semester Program that was first introduced in 2013, and implemented at full scale in 2016 for middle school students in Korea. The advantages of H-STEAM are as follows: First, H-STEAM enables students to flexibly think while traversing the physical world and the symbolic world in the process of dealing with the daily problems. Second, it combines advanced technology with human sensibility and imagination, and enables students to derive creative outcomes that stimulate their minds. Third, it makes students feel and realize a point of contact between the subject that students learn, and jobs of the real world.