STEAM education for social transformation

good morning everybody

i’m little nervous with two

excellent speakers and as an academic

i have some kind of you know

problem i mean some kind of challenges i

use lots of jargons

and this is one of the challenges for me

to speak here today

um my talk is

structure on under this topic the straw

mat that

the straw mat that took us to steam

education back in 2015 i have a

i i i was talking to my research team at

kathmandu university school of education

as to how we can connect different

disciplines

so that students have meaningful

learning experience

so in that context we found this picture

we had several pictures actually

in our laptop and desktops so

we looked into it we discussed

we actually probably spent more than a

week

as to how we can conceptualize this

multi-disciplinary approach to learning

so that time that clicked

to me and some of my colleagues so

then we sort of we pointed out to this

pattern

because myself as a maths educator so i

looked into the math side so what is in

there

okay there is tessellation there is a

pattern so we can take this out

and we can put into the design sort of

thinking

and then we can uh create a floor

sort of mattress okay so we can engage

the students in that process

likewise we can also engage students in

looking into the

haste track that may that that has been

used to make

this uh this mat

strawman so that is science then they

look in they go into the party field

they study that material likewise

they design it in a better way and they

do engineering

you know they take this reference and

design it further

they make it a kind of fine product so

this

idea of you know steam

burn out of this thinking sometime

in uh march april 2015

and we then we also look into we

discussed further

that actually this can

students can also be involved in

marketing in in prototyping in designing

and prototyping this is

the raw material they can make other

designs out of it

what would be what would look like a

classroom

if you use these materials is these

locally available materials

in our rural nepali public schools

how would that be if students engage

in designing you know several ah

mattresses several forms of mattresses

out of this design

you know they can you know use other

forms of designs

out of this one so this was the idea

then in 2016 we applied for a research

grant

r d grant i would say and then we in in

collaboration with other institutions in

norway and in nepal

and then we started working in a school

in a cluster of schools

in daphna and there we actually

look we started looking into those

artifacts how about

the local you know temples local

buildings how about the plot

how about the gardening design of the

school

so in that process we uh

actually engage students and teachers we

engage ourselves with

students and teachers to design a garden

a garden a school garden

in which students and teachers they work

collaboratively

they started with the formation of a

committee

they called gardening committee they

learn social skills

and then they talk to parents and

community people

and then from that they learn which

vegetable can grow there

and then they also pla started designing

the plot

and they use engineering skills they use

word you know basic word because they

had they have around

17 computers in the lab and they use

word processor

to draw the pictures of the plot so they

use a little bit of technology as well

and that was phenomenal because they

started

planting more and more vegetables so

that’s how we

started working with the schools and

this is what we call

steam education that’s how we

conceptualize and we have been working

with this idea of steam education and

this is this has not

stopped here and kids started working on

several community problems for example

deforestation

how can they plant trees so they look

into the

uh you know places open spaces and how

can they utilize open spaces

and there they use this science

mathematics

in a technology engineering and

technology skills

and they use them as tools and they

learn mathematics

because my intention desire

is to help kids learn mathematics

meaningfully but that didn’t

just help in mathematics but also in

other subjects

so stem education is actually

is a radical response to the

compartmentalized education system

around

science technology engineering and

mathematics

the idea is that these subjects which

are very very important

because they are associated with

prosperity

they are associated with growth they are

associated with civilization

but they are taught so badly especially

in nepal

and many parts of what we call third

world countries

because they are disconnected and the

arts are separate from that or arts

that the dimension of arts are demonized

so our approach we sort of came with

this visual image

out of our work but they are not

unconnected

historically they are so connected they

are intertwined

and arts has not been separate from

science and mathematics

mathematics and music they are so

connected

and likewise now with the advent of

technology

you know design thinking is very very

important designing something

is very important skill requiring

from every you know from uh

six year old till uh the adult life

so that’s how we came not just steam

esteem plus us esteem plus plus plus

r several plus there several forms of

artistic representation is there

so art we took it as a glue is a

connecting

dot so and then

how this how i i arrived at this stage

actually there is a history

back in 2003

i started my masters at curtin and

i started with this garden actually that

was my experience of learning

mathematics

i was very good in mathematics but i

experienced

this classroom situation in which almost

90 percent of my classmates would fail

and this continued i i continued the

same project in my phd

and thanks to curtin university who

exposed me in

not just in maths and science education

not just in maths and science

but also in other fields of inquiry

such as cultural studies and arts based

research

that actually helped me to think beyond

within and beyond science and maths

education

and in in during this research i came up

with some very important questions and

some of them

is about our future because we teach in

class

that we are giving the future to

students actually

we are not where we say we are giving

the hope

actually we are making them hopeless

because of the nature of maths and

science that goes inside our classroom

that is very much you know

um imposing and that is very much

disengaging students would not be able

to engage in that one

so they in approach memorizing the

definition formula so on and so forth

so actually our assumption our

assumption is

uh as okay assumptions as educators and

teachers and also as parents

we tend to think that the future is

given

the future is given to children as if

it’s somewhere else and we are putting

in front of them

instead the question would be are

futures created

and next who creates these futures

who is that who who is the person who

creates this piece

is the teacher or the students is the

learner

so i put this you know i color read

uh the front caller is great because i

like this question

i didn’t like the first one the future

is not given

there is no the future as such

there are many features so

then why this these two questions

are left behind because of the

the idea of our education

with the with the notion of departmental

silos so this is

maths this is science this is physics

this is chemistry

and this is arts and this is design this

is engineering

this is medical science so this is how

we have been actually uh

uh focusing on the other side of

the negative side of the education

so these departmental silos

they do not contribute

to interactive creative and meaningful

learning

because they are de-contextualized they

are contextualized within their

disciplines

rather than in the social

socio-political context socio-cultural

context for example if we

study mathematics let’s say

factorization

we we if we have a context of

application then we can better

understand

if we have a physics problem physics

numerical problem

if it has a context outside of physics

it makes better sense

so is the case of many engineering

problems as well

many other problems related to the area

of sciences

so they have been like more liturgical

subjects

rather than more creative and and

empowering

enabling subjects so

uh and then we continue our work then so

this is the assumption that

why we came with the this is the this is

the reason why we came with the idea of

html education

then we continue to work in in public

schools

for example we with nepali teachers

nepali teachers when they came to us

sir

then okay so why don’t you take your

students to observe the plant outside

the classroom

engage them in in different parts of the

plants discuss with science teachers

or study yourself something about

science

it’s grade 5 no problem you can find

some resources

if you need one i can give you and then

why don’t you engage them in painting

and coloring a plant

and likewise why don’t you ask them to

count the word because

there are certain me the meter and

rhythm in in that poetry

so they learn mathematics

you know they learn certain patterns and

by that pattern if you connect with that

pattern

that is group theory in mathematics we

talk about group theory

you know and in an abstract sense that

can be connected with

powerful mathematical ideas and then

they design a plot you know they convert

poetry into story probably they can be a

little creative

and they can convert the poetry into

drama

something like that or monologue

so in this way we also discuss we also

you know this is what we

we’ve been doing with nepali teachers

actually in our idea in our research

program

this is not a mechanical mix actually

this is more synergistic mix

what we mean by this is that a plus b

is more than the combination of

a and b it is like

it’s not two plus two is equals to four

it’s more than four

because this combination effect you know

in many sciences you’d probably

study combination effect is more than

what is

mechanically aided so that’s how we do

that’s why we can work with a plethora

of possibilities

so then what we have been facing

as far as school education as far as the

achievement in mathematics is concerned

estimating mathematics and science is

concerned

in school in a school living certificate

examination

historically if you see that the

achievement

is very low achievement is very low

we continue to test we have several

exams

but achievement is very very low

because our major focus is you can see

in this cartoon

that i see you did well in schools but

what real world

skills do you have test

i can take test that’s the skill we have

that’s the skill as far as math and

science

education is concerned that’s the skill

we are imparting and that is not giving

the hope

that is not helping is our students our

children

to create their future rather we are

imposing our future on them

so why is team then so because there are

problems real world

problems then the problems in the

textbook

because the learner has potential is

earlier presenters already talked about

that creativity is very important the

way how you approach

any question is very important then the

learner is very important not just the

teacher

not just the educator but the person who

is going to receive education

is very important and context is very

important

not just the content but context is very

very important

because we connect context

and then we solve the problem and also

skills what type of skills for example

in maths we have this

skills of algorithmic problem solving so

you have these steps that

steps in conventional sense this is

i’m not talking about this type of

skills i am talking about

what we call 21st century skills

communication collaboration critical

thinking

and so on and so forth so these are the

skills these are called

soft skills they are more

important than your ability to do

factorization

they are more important than your

ability

to uh define certain

theorem or something like that so that’s

why

we need esteem so arriving at this stage

toward the end of my

uh presentation that what we we have

been working with

municipalities in around nepal

that we need this kind of school

actually where you know these are the

key features

collaborative the school has to develop

a collaborative culture

among and across the departments among

and across the teachers

and they have to be communicative they

have to talk to each other

they have to make plan and also they

need to be critical and they need to

help learners to be critical students to

be critical

and also they need to be creative not

just teaching textbooks

and likewise this is actually guided by

the region of holistic education it’s

not just one dimension

there are several dimensions in our life

in there are several dimensions

in our educational process that we need

to inculcate

and likewise the learners has to be

active

have to be active it’s not passive it’s

not

disengaged it’s not sleepy learners it’s

active learners

and also cooperative and facilitative

teacher

teachers they if the teachers

they are interested in imposing their

agenda

or teaching content they cannot be

cooperative teachers

they need to be you know

they need to have the philosophy of

teaching

humans not teaching subjects because

lots of

our idea lots of our teaching idea

is guided by the notion that we teach

subjects i’m a math teacher i’m a

science teacher

this is okay to the extent that if we

focus on individuals

but if we start focusing excessively on

content and subject matter

without looking into the interest

and connect contextualization

in kids life then it has no meaning it

has no value at all

so the the very important dimension is

problem solving intent

if we do not have the intent of problem

solving

then we continue to reproduce the same

content forever

for example i teach factorization and my

children my student will teach the same

content

i teach physics laws of motion and

my uh next generation will teach the

same

and another generation will teach the

same and it’s just

a reproduction and that is happening

so this is absolute this is optional it

actually this is not going to work

and because for several reasons one of

which is that

the world of work is changing because

in earlier centuries probably 400 years

back

when this compartmentalized education

system

was formulated conceptualized

in prejudice europe immediately after

the industrial revolution

that was fine at that time because they

needed clerks

working in assembly line now the

assembly line

is the shape theory and we need to

prepare

creative and

uh innovative uh future citizens who can

address

the problems that we face today the

problem

of global climate change the problem of

poverty

the problem of inequity that is evident

in previous presentation as well

that we’ve been facing in our everyday

life

so this is why i think steam education

is very important this is why we need to

think even

not just in school because my research

is concentrated in

school education it has also

repercussions for higher education as

well

our engineering departments our

management schools engineering school

science schools actually we need to

collaborate we need to work together

we need to actually go beyond this

subject center

curricula and focusing more on problem

center