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Aspirations within Interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM Education under the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 23317

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Tzu-Hua Wang

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Guest Editor

Department of Education and Learning Technology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Interests: e-Learning; digital assessment; science education; teacher education; interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM education; problematic Internet use/Internet addiction and educational sciences research by using electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking technologies

Dr. Yang Teck Kenneth LIM

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor

National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Interests: adolescent spatial cognition; disciplinary intuitions; learning environment design; makerspaces; six learnings curriculum framework; translation and diffusion

Prof. Dr. Jari Lavonen

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor

Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Interests: science and technology teaching and learning; curriculum development; teacher education; use of ICT in education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD; https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-development), an education concept advocated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), aims to help people cultivate knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that facilitate sustainable development in the future. The vision is highly consistent with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; https://sdgs.un.org/goals). The purpose of ESD is to incorporate the content of SDGs into the design of teaching and learning activities to equip learners with competencies required for sustainable development. The spirit behind ESD also largely aligns with the 2030 Learning Compass proposed by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (http://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/learning-compass-2030/). It points out that the vision of current education is to enable learners to use their learned or cultivated knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values to face or solve daily life problems in the future and to act as a compass that guides learners to address unknown future challenges and further contribute to the well-being of the human race.

The concepts of ESD and the 2030 Learning Compass are of great importance because of the unpredictability of the future society and environment, particularly technological advances that may cause drastic changes in the global economy, society, and environment in the foreseeable future. The ability of social citizens nurtured under the current education system to effectively adapt to and cope with these changes will profoundly affect how countries and society develop in the future. Based on the above, in recent years, competency-based teaching has received considerable attention; competency refers to one’s ability to appropriately apply his or her knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values in daily life. STEM/STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) education, a form of interdisciplinary education, is a way to successfully implement competency-based teaching (Wang, Lim, Lavonen, and Clark-Wilson, 2019). STEM/STEAM education facilitates meaningful learning for students by promoting the interdisciplinary integration of knowledge and skills among the STEAM fields. One of the goals of STEM/STEAM education is to foster the STEM/STEAM skills of students, enhancing their employability, their ability to solve complex industry problems, and their capacity to better the lives of all beings on Earth (White House, 2018). STEM/STEAM education has now received attention from educational institutions, parents, society, and industries, and many countries—seeing STEM/STEAM education as a crucial education model for boosting national competitiveness and talent cultivation—have been formulating policies relevant to the education. Nonetheless, Bybee (2013) indicated the need for further investigation into the various aspects of STEM/STEAM education to ensure its efficacy and values.

This Special Issue aims to prompt deeper investigations on the theory and practice of STEM/STEAM education and to find ways to implement high-quality STEM/STEAM education from the perspective of SDGs, ESD, and the 2030 Learning compass. Papers concerning the following topics all fall under the scope of this Special Issue:

-STEM/STEAM curriculum development

-STEM/STEAM teaching models

-Competency-based teaching in STEM/STEAM education

-Preservice and in-service teacher training and certification of STEM/STEAM education

-Evaluation of teachers’ competences of STEM/STEAM teaching

-Evaluation of students’ STEM/STEAM competencies and learning outcomes

-STEM/STEAM curriculum leadership

-Policymaking for STEM/STEAM education

References

Bybee, R. W. (2013). The Case for STEM Education: Challenges and Opportunities. National Science Teachers Association, NSTA Press, Arlington, Virginia.

Wang, T. H., Lim, K. Y. T., Lavonen, J. & Clark-Wilson, A. (2019). Maker-Centred Science and Mathematics Education: Lenses, Scales and Contexts. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 17 (suppl 1), 1-11.

White House (2018). Summary of the 2018 White House State-Federal STEM Education Summit. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Summary-of-the-2018-White-House-State-Federal-STEM-Education-Summit.pdf

Prof. Dr. Tzu-Hua Wang
Guest Editor

Dr. Yang Teck Kenneth LIM
Prof. Dr. Jari Lavonen
Co-Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
STEM/STEAM Education

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 3200 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Challenges in Implementing STEM Education: Insights from Novice STEM Teachers in Developing Countries

by Sarfraz Aslam, Abdulelah A. Alghamdi, Nisar Abid and Tribhuwan Kumar

Sustainability 2023, 15(19), 14455; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914455 - 3 Oct 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2717

Abstract

Economic growth has been attributed to STEM education in many countries. It is widely recognized as crucial to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, especially for traditionally disadvantaged groups. In this age of the fourth Industrial Revolution, we are going through a rapid change. Several difficulties have been associated with STEM’s implementation, particularly troubling developing countries. In this article, we investigated STEM teachers’ unique challenges in their classroom experiences and how these factors influence their instructional practices and students’ learning outcomes. STEM teachers’ teaching reflections at the secondary level were examined in this qualitative study. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit ten novice STEM teachers. The data were analyzed using NVivo11. Despite their disciplinary expertise and the variety of teaching methods they employed, the teachers faced numerous challenges. Teachers faced difficulties managing classrooms, developing curriculums, and recognizing practical constraints in STEM education. Teacher beliefs about effective STEM education, the tension between these beliefs and the teaching goals of the teachers were closely linked to the teachers’ beliefs about effective STEM education and the educational system’s expectations. For STEM teachers, the mastery of content knowledge is critical. A regular exchange of experience is of significant help to teaching. Teachers’ pedagogy and professional development in STEM education are discussed concerning underdeveloped countries’ contexts. Researchers and educators in developing countries might not understand STEM education’s significance. The reason may also be that STEM education in developing countries faces several challenges. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aspirations within Interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM Education under the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD))

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16 pages, 3137 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Foldscope Embedded Pedagogy in Stem Education: A Case Study of SDG4 Promotion in India

by Parul Kulshreshtha, Sunita Gupta, Rafikh Shaikh, Divya Aggarwal, Deuvshree Sharma and Praveen Rahi

Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13427; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013427 - 18 Oct 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3501

Abstract

Most government schools and colleges run on low budgets in India, yet they cater to a large population of students. In government settings, biology labs lack basic equipment such as simple microscopes or compound microscopes or sometimes possess just one instrument. In the absence of compound or simple microscopes, the students lose interest in science. To solve this issue, the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, introduced the origami microscope, the foldscope, into the Indian educational system. In this article, we describe the design of a sustainable, inclusive, and equitable curricula for teaching biological concepts using the foldscope. We describe the implementation of foldscope-adapted curricula in post-secondary settings to teach natural selection, developmental biology, parasitology, and economic Zoology via individual, small-group, and large-group field trips, and project-based learning that involves experiential learning. We found that these culturally sensitive pedagogies involving translingual instructions had the potential to retain students and make science education accessible for the linguistically and culturally diverse population of India. We could successfully implement our project as per the five priority action areas outlined by UNESCO. Therefore, we propose the adoption of the foldscope-adapted curricula under SDG4 to make STEM education accessible in budget-frugal settings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aspirations within Interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM Education under the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD))

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35 pages, 18886 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Effects of Microclimate on Physiological Stress and Brain Function with Data Science and Wearables

by Kenneth Y. T. Lim, Minh Anh Nguyen Duc, Minh Tuan Nguyen Thien, Rajamanickam Yuvaraj and Jack S. Fogarty

Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10769; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710769 - 29 Aug 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2708

Abstract

This paper reports a study conducted by students as an independent research project under the mentorship of a research scientist at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. The aim of the study was to explore the relationships between local environmental stressors and physiological responses from the perspective of citizen science. Starting from July 2021, data from EEG headsets were complemented by those obtained from smartwatches (namely heart rate and its variability and body temperature and stress score). Identical units of a wearable device containing environmental sensors (such as ambient temperature, air pressure, infrared radiation, and relative humidity) were designed and worn, respectively, by five adolescents for the same period. More than 100,000 data points of different types—neurological, physiological, and environmental—were eventually collected and were processed through a random forest regression model and deep learning models. The results showed that the most influential microclimatic factors on the biometric indicators were noise and the concentrations of carbon dioxide and dust. Subsequently, more complex inferences were made from the Shapley value interpretation of the regression models. Such findings suggest implications for the design of living conditions with respect to the interaction of the microclimate and human health and comfort. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aspirations within Interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM Education under the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD))

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19 pages, 2448 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Assessment of Junior High School Students’ Knowledge, Creativity, and Hands-On Performance Using PBL via Cognitive–Affective Interaction Model to Achieve STEAM

by Hsien-Sheng Hsiao, Jyun-Chen Chen, Jhen-Han Chen, Yu-Ting Zeng and Guang-Han Chung

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5582; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095582 - 6 May 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2955

Abstract

This study aimed to discover the implications of using different teaching approaches for a hands-on STEAM activity for junior high school students’ STEAM knowledge, creativity, and hands-on performance. The teaching contents used in the study were designed based on the project-based learning (PBL) strategy and the cognitive–affective interaction model (CAIM). The students’ learning outcomes were tested through a hands-on activity with the theme of electric boat creation. PBL with the CAIM was the strategy used to implement the hands-on STEAM activity and to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). In this study, a quasi-experimental design was used for 10 weeks, and the 366 students who participated in the experiment were divided into experimental groups (EGs, 199 students using PBL with the CAIM) and control groups (CGs, 167 students using PBL only). Through the analysis of covariance, the results showed that students in the EGs achieved higher academic performance in terms of STEAM knowledge, creativity, and hands-on performance. The study also found that the hands-on STEAM activity had a positive effect on creativity for students in the EGs, allowing them to develop different modes of thinking in the processes of designing and producing the finished product, which in turn enhanced the innovativeness of their products and solutions. In addition, using PBL with the CAIM in the hands-on STEAM activity brought about positive learning outcomes and creative abilities for the students, achieving the SDG 4 objectives. Moreover, the outcomes of this study are in line with the current international trend in the development of education, providing reference examples for the future development of STEAM activities and teaching materials at the junior high school level. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aspirations within Interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM Education under the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD))

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14 pages, 3783 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Humanities and Social Sciences in Relation to Sustainable Development Goals and STEM Education

by Giancarlo Marcone

Sustainability 2022, 14(6), 3279; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063279 - 10 Mar 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4312

Abstract

This article explores the question: How can the humanities and social sciences become key elements for the implementation of quality STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, providing students with the competencies required for a sustainable development agenda? To answer this question, the article seeks to (1) understand the elements that are common in STEM education, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, (2) analyze these relationships in higher education, and (3) evaluate how to integrate them in a classroom. The article presents the experience of a course that explicitly seeks to integrate humanities and social sciences in a STEM-oriented institution of higher education. This discussion will be complemented by the analysis of survey data from two semesters, taken at the beginning and at the end of a course. This will help to discuss how the students shaped their perceptions about these topics and to what extent these perceptions were or were not changed by the course. Finally, the article proposes that the specific analysis of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their targets are educational tools to help achieve interdisciplinarity in the classroom, but only if we help the students to see the relationship of these SDGs to their own lives and with their own careers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aspirations within Interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM Education under the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD))

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Other

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12 pages, 2186 KiB

Open AccessProject Report

Evaluation of Disabled STEAM -Students’ Education Learning Outcomes and Creativity under the UN Sustainable Development Goal: Project-Based Learning Oriented STEAM Curriculum with Micro:bit

by Shih-Yun Lu, Chu-Lung Wu and You-Ming Huang

Sustainability 2022, 14(2), 679; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020679 - 8 Jan 2022

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4070

Abstract

This research aims to discuss the impact of the STEAM curriculum on students with learning disabilities and their learning outcomes and creativity. Teaching for creative thinking is the strategy to deliver a STEAM-structured curriculum and to reach the SDG4 targets. The content is designed in line with project-based learning (PBL), while the micro:bit and paper cutting are used as materials to support it. Methods and Procedures: The single-case research approach (A-B-M) was applied to study three students with special educational needs in primary school. The entire curriculum takes up to 10 weeks with 12 STEAM lessons with activities. The independent variable was the PBL-oriented STEAM curriculum, and the dependent variables were the learning outcomes and TTCT results of pre-tests and post-tests for creativity. There were immediate learning outcomes and retention effects found on the three participants. This paper addresses that the STEAM curriculum had a positive impact on their creativity, which gives affirmative feedback on the curriculum. Conclusion: This PBL-oriented STEAM curriculum under the SDG4 targets gave students with disabilities creativity competency and positive learning outcomes in these case studies. These teaching materials enable teachers to deliver the STEAM curriculum to students with learning disabilities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aspirations within Interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM Education under the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD))

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