Abstract:

CHOICE is a European project co-financed by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and implemented by nine organisations from Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, and Belgium.

CHOICE intends to innovate the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by emphasising the need for interdisciplinarity and stressing the role of STEM disciplines in addressing current environmental and social needs. The project builds on and promotes the STEAM approach to STEM education. The proposed methodology aims to connect STEM with Arts and - in a broader interpretation - All the other disciplines.

Using this approach, CHOICE intends to make STEM subjects more appealing and tangible for students, encouraging them to pursue academic studies and careers in this field. Thus the project strives to contribute to a new generation of STEM experts capable of tackling complex societal challenges.

The project consists of three phases:
State-of-the-Art Analysis:
Firstly, existing STEM education practices were analysed, followed by primary research on students’ attitudes towards STEM subjects (691 students involved) and teachers’ approaches to STEM teaching (167 teachers involved). Additionally, 33 experts from companies, HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) and public authorities discussed the needs of STEM education in reflective groups.

The results suggest that less than half of students feel confident in STEM subjects and imagine starting a career in the field. A quarter of the teachers do not feel at ease when explaining complex problems requiring familiarity with multiple disciplines, and find it hard to make STEM interesting for learners. Some successful practices promote STEAM methodologies; however, these attempts should be considered exceptions rather than parts of a mainstream approach.
The key findings set a base for the CHOICE Framework for reforming STEM curricula.

Development & testing of innovative resources for STEAM-based education:
In compliance with the Framework, teams consisting of teachers, students and experts from the STEM field co-developed 20 Open Educational Resources (OER), which have been collected at a later stage and made available on the CHOICE MOOC (Massive Open Online Course).

The OERs cover five macro-areas:
-STEM & Arts - connecting STEM with artistic and creative features, making STEM subjects more attractive for a more extensive range of students.
-Experiential projects - engaging students in interactive experiments, demonstrating the practical application of more STEM subjects at once.
-STEM & languages – enriching STEM teaching with linguistics, using foreign and sign languages, and binary codes.
-Technology in social sciences - using digital technologies in social research, analysing data to explore social phenomena while improving students’ digital and analytical skills.
-STEM & sports - connecting STEM education with sports, adding hands-on experience and fun to teaching STEM, and promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Currently, 800 students and 60 teachers are testing CHOICE OERs and MOOC. They will then undergo an impact evaluation, measuring the change in their attitudes towards STEM learning and teaching in relation to using the proposed approach.

Mainstreaming and policy reform:
From April 2022, CHOICE will launch an awareness-raising campaign to promote the STEAM approach, draw recommendations, encourage policy-makers to innovate existing STEM curricula and build on the project’s results.

Keywords:

STEM teaching, STE(A)M approach, Integrated STEM approach, Interdisciplinarity, Digital-based Open Educational Resources.