Examining the Quality of Art in STEAM Learning Activities

The practice of the science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education has bettered the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning to a more advanced level. However, although the other four areas (S, T, E, and M) have been extensively integrated into learning activities, the inclusion of the arts (A) has often been considered as merely an approach to improve the esthetics of an artifact/product. We recruited three experts to examine 62 selected STEAM learning activities from Taiwan, in which the quality of the five areas of S, T, E, A, and M and the meanings of the A within the learning activities were examined. We propose that the A in the STEAM acronym may stand for three different roles: arts/esthetic learning, contextual understanding, and creativity. Results showed that the areas of technology, engineering, and creativity were presented with deeper knowledge, whereas the other topic areas (science, mathematics, arts/esthetic learning, and contextual understanding) were presented with limited knowledge. Specifically, the contextual understanding, which represented practices that promote the reflection of others' life situations or the sociocultural context, contained lower quality than that of all other areas. Evidence indicated that most STEAM activities in Taiwan failed to incorporate the sociocultural context to pose more unique questions to humanity. Furthermore, it is found that compared to individual authors, the collaboration of team authors improved the qualities of STEAM activities. Examples of the STEAM activities with and without the arts are offered. The implications of providing instructions for STEAM learning are discussed.