Fostering STEAM Education in Schools- EDUSIMSTEAM Project report for presenting teachers' needs in STEAM education is published. The main purpose of the report is to provide pedagogical reference for the frameworks, STEAM content, and the innovative platform to be developed within the Project which is coordinated by the Directorate General of Innovation and Educational Technologies, MoNE. You can view the report for the opinions of teachers from Turkey, the Netherlands, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain here.

EDUSIMSTEAM Needs Analysis

The study carried out by the project partners from Europe aims to uncover the content and activities of the trainings required for designing the innovative platform of the Project as well as the needs towards STEAM activities. In this way, challenges faced by teachers and possible solutions in interdisciplinary education will be presented.  A total of 1929 teachers from Turkey, Spain, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal and the Netherlands participated in the needs analysis.

According to the findings of the EDUSIMSTEAM Needs Analysis Report, the youngest and the most dynamic teacher group participating in the study is found to be present in Turkey considering the teacher experience. According to the findings, participating teachers from Ireland (32,86%), Lithuania (69,57%), Portugal (41,38%) and Spain (43,22%) have more than 20 years of teaching experience while the Netherlands (44,44%) for 16-20 years and from Turkey 11-15 years (28,68%). While experience rates vary in countries, the rate of receiving STEAM Professional Development Training shows that more than 25% of teachers in the majority of countries have already participated in STEAM trainings.  Teachers stated that the reasons for not participating in trainings are that the trainings didn't meet their needs and they didn't have sufficient time. The topics of STEAM training they would like to receive are Artificial Intelligence, Virtual reality, Space sciences, Robotics, 3D printer, Energy storing, Critical thinking, Creative thinking, Leadership, Social skills and Problem solving.

The preferred method for receiving the trainings by the majority of teachers are webinars and online courses (MOOCs) in almost all countries. Teachers preferring traditional instruction for trainings are less than 25% in all countries. Teachers stated that the most appropriate time for participating in webinars and online courses are lunch time or evenings during weekdays. The maximum number of hours they could spare for the training, are two hours in Turkey (43,38%) and Lithuania (43,10%); an hour (38,57%) to two hours (37,14%) in Ireland, and only an hour in Portugal (65,52%) and Spain (45,23).  Consequently, participating teachers are clearly found to have faith in STEAM education and have the need for receiving further training in STEAM education and supportive 21stcentury skills. Besides, teachers believe that STEAM education will improve teaching process and be beneficial for students in their schools. Knowing the fields on which teachers need to have trainings and the time they could spare for trainings thanks to EDUSIMSTEAM Needs Analysis Report, they can be supported by future trainings and programs planned according to the findings.

About EDUSIMSTEAM

One of the 27 Projects supported on European scale as central projects of the European Commission, "Fostering STEAM Education in Schools-EDUSIMSTEAM" KA3 Project aims to improve STEAM education by helping teachers and students gain computational thinking skills. Coordinated by DGIET, the Project will include a robotics education platform to be developed in an online simulation with 10 partner organizations from 6 countries. The project partners are METU and Robotsan from Turkey, BothSocial from the Netherlands, H2Learning and Blackrock Education Centre from Ireland, Kaunas Technology University and Vilnius University from Lithuania, CTEM Academy from Portugal and the Ministry of Education of Spain. The main priority of the Project to be implemented in 2019-2022 is to develop multidisciplinary and innovative approaches in STEAM education. Within the Project:

• The Framework for STEAM teacher trainings will be prepared; 
• Learning scenarios in STEAM will be developed; 
• An innovative and simulation-based platform will be developed for STEAM Education. 
• Guidelines for policymakers will be prepared.