STEAM LEARNING AS A BASE FOR DEVELOPING COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS

Abstract

This research addresses the problem of how to tackle STEM education and its transformation into STEAM education in an inclusive school. It highlights the need for communication competence in collaborative teaching supported by problem-based (PBL), project-based (PrBL) and game-based (GBL) learning. At the same time, it is necessary to highlight the importance of arts in all the listed innovative forms of learning and teaching, as teamwork and cooperation between the members of these teams are extremely important. The key competence of this participation in the mentioned forms of knowledge is communication competence, which is manifested in students' self-confidence/lack of self-confidence, in their level of well-being, collaboration, motivation, their active role and awareness. The empirical research was conducted on a sample of eleven classes from six Slovenian-inclusive schools, with at least one student with SEN in each class. The research focused on the differences between students with and without SEN regarding their perception of STEAM lessons supported by gamification elements. The results showed that using innovative teaching methods can connect and positively affect STEAM, which, with the help of technology, engineering and art, consequently, improves a deeper understanding of the field of Science and Mathematics (S-tea-M). Keywords: communication skills, collaboration-based learning, game-based learning, inclusive school, innovative learning environment, special educational needs (SEN)