Exploring college students’ perceptions of STEAM education in China—Taking Jiang’xi province as example

Fei Yi, Jasmine Anak Jain, Hashimah Mohd Yunus

Article ID: 7479
Vol 8, Issue 13, 2024


Abstract


STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education has recently been encouraged and attracted much national attention. This qualitative study aimed to conduct a thematic analysis of college student STEAM open responses to provide an examination of college students’ perceptions of their STEAM experiences into the STEAM field. Based on transformative learning theory, a thematic analysis of 756 written responses to seven prompts by 108 college student participants revealed three primary themes: (1) exciting and challenging difficulties, and transdisciplinary learning in STEAM; (2) STEAM learning of gradual process, problem-oriented instruction, and creative problem solving; and (3) metacognition development in STEAM. The findings revealed that undergraduates’ STEAM perceptions provide strong support for STEAM implementation to enhance teaching effectiveness in higher education.


Keywords


STEAM; STEAM education; STEAM experience; perception; transdisciplinary learning

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd7479

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