Abstract:

International recommendations emphasize the importance of STEAM education in preparing students to deal with complex social, economic and environmental challenges. The predominant use of routine tasks is still a common practice in many countries and by many teachers, who devalue essential skills in today's society known as the 4Cs skills: critical thinking and problem solving, collaborative work, creativity and communication. So, the STEAM approach emerging in the context of active learning and the establishment of connections, where the use of attractive problems in authentic contexts are open to multiple approaches and solutions, encourage the 4Cs skills which is often lacking in more traditional classes. In particular tasks’ solutions based on engineering-based problems provide a rich source of meaningful situations that capitalize on and extend students’ learning where the engineering design serves as a rich source of attracting authentic contexts that trace on school mathematics, science, and technology knowledge. By integrating these tasks into curricula, students have the opportunity to see the usefulness of what they learn in school about math and science when solving problems in the world outside of the school walls. The approach to STEAM education involves the use of engineering design, starting from problems of reality that enable the articulated mobilization of concepts from various disciplinary areas, promoting interdisciplinary, where teamwork and context play a fundamental role. We consider that engineering design can be interpreted as an approach that promotes a bridge between math and science concepts, as well as arts, starting from problems from the real word that foster creativity, collaboration, decision-making, critical thinking, communication and reasoning, promoting a natural STEAM integration. In this context students engage in a cyclical process composed by seven-steps.

This presentation reports a study, with future teachers of basic education, which aims to analyze the learning processes and difficulties underlying the use of engineering design in solving STEAM problems. The participants were 45 preservice teachers, working in small groups to solve problems that involved the application of design/redesign processes, based on knowledge of mathematics and science. A qualitative methodology was adopted and data were collected through observation, collection of documents (individual records; poster – synthesis of the design cycle), artefacts and photographic records. Preliminary results show that participants valued the experience, having the opportunity to solve reality problems in a collaborative way, mobilizing mathematical concepts (geometry and measurement) and physical sciences (centers of mass and forces) in an integrated way. The participants had great engagement showing persistence and motivation in solving the problem, particularly following the different stages of the engineering design cycle, being able to create a model that fulfilled the requested conditions. From the participants' point of view, this approach constituted an opportunity to favor the establishment of connections between different disciplinary areas. Difficulties were detected in the identification of some concepts from mathematics and physical sciences and in the mobilization of adequate scientific language in the reasoning of their decisions.

Keywords:

Engineering design, Mathematics, Sciences, STEAM Education, Elementary teacher training.