Abstract:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a prevalent diagnosis, and estimates say that 1% of the world population has some form of autism. Individuals with autism may exhibit self-destructive behavior, physical and/or verbal aggressions, refusal to follow directions, breaking of social norms, and outsized emotional reactions. However, the same individuals have behaviors, such as intense focus on their interest areas and attention to detail, that can lead them to be highly successful in appropriate contexts. This may be especially the case in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) fields, where detail, focus, and iterative behavior can be necessary to solve problems; the question is how to support students with autism that are interested in pursuing these fields. Previous work has shown the efficacy of active learning - in which the student takes an active role in their education - in teaching STEAM areas, although this application to the population with autism is not known to have been systematically studied. This work presents a systematic literature mapping on active learning STEAM education for students with autism. Researchers followed the PRISMA methodology to find 23 works focused on teaching STEAM areas to students with autism using various active learning methodologies.

Keywords:

STEAM, systematic literature review, mapping, active learning, autism.