Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Advanced Research in Teaching and Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Pillars of a Research Project on Steam Projects in The Basque Country
Ainhoa Berciano, Araitz Uskola
ABSTRACT:
In this work we present the main pillars that define a research project that analyzes the development of mathematical and scientific competencies in STEAM contexts in Primary Education (PE) and Secondary Education (SE) classrooms (6-12 years, 12-18 years respectively) in the Basque Country. Specifically, the Project has been designed from a holistic vision, integrating six differentiated and, at the same time, complementary dimensions, which take into account the relationships between the project participants: university and PE and SE schools: 1) co- construction of a culture of continuous evaluation of educational practice; 2) creation of ties between the schools and the university, and acknowledgement of the schools; 3) adaptation to the circumstances of the schools; 4) commitment of the management and teaching teams of the schools in the Project; 5) transfer of knowledge constructed in schools´ practice and reflection to university teacher training; and 6) transfer of the knowledge generated in the research group at the university to the schools. Five public schools have participated in the first part of the project, two from Primary Education and three from Secondary Education. Results were: 1) 22 meetings between research group and school teachers, in which the evaluation of the projects and its importance have been discussed; 2) organization of two conferences in the Faculty of Education of Bilbao, where 3 talks were given by the schools and 9 communications presented in international congresses; 3) one of the schools has high social-risk students and in two of them there is a lack of experience in implementing interdisciplinary projects; 4) the number of participants school commitment all are 5 headmasters, 4 innovation managers and 13 teachers; 5) some stem projects of the schools have been adapted to pre-service teacher training and one conference about the project results related to the development of mathematical and scientific competences have been given to more than one hundred in-service innovation managers; 6) analysis and identification of activities inside the projects who facilitate the development of mathematical or scientific competences. Based on those results, it is expected to determine the possible areas of improvement to be considered in the second stage of the project and in the design of similar research projects in the future.
keywords: action-research, mathematical competence, primary education, secondary education, scientific competences, STEAM.