“How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st Century, given that we can’t anticipate what the economy will look like next week?”
-Sir Kenneth Robinson (2010 New Jersey Educators Association Convention)
Convergence education through the US National science foundation is defined as “the deep integration of knowledge, techniques, and expertise from multiple fields to form new and expanded frameworks for addressing scientific and societal challenges and opportunities” (Herr, et. al., 2019). This concept became popular in the middle part of the 20th century, and combined the subject areas of science, technology, engineering, and math to form what we know as STEM education to help drive the concepts of critical thinking and innovation (Reitenbach, 2015). It was thought that these were the main collaboration areas in developing industry, and training students together in these areas would build a more competent and efficient workforce, leading to national economic growth and leadership.
This model started strong, but in time there was noticeable difficulty translating innovation to the consumer world. The convergent nature of the thought processes of these disciplines grouped together began to illuminate challenges in the innovation process, and with the 21st century quickly approaching it was time to update this model with a more divergent and creative approach (Land, 2013). It was at this time that STEM became STEAM by incorporating the addition of the arts and design to help offer a different approach to problem solving and how we as a nation innovate.
Technology continues to develop at a rapid speed, which changes the processes and procedures of every-day life. Job positions are not immune to this rapid development, and there has been a shift from teaching students how retain specific information, to teaching students how to develop the ability to think critically and adapt. Our students benefit from STEAM education and 21st Century Learning Skills to be prepared and productive future innovators in the workforce. Convergence research and education is progressing just as rapidly, and as a result education is continuing to evolve and incorporate non-traditional learning experiences for students.
In order to properly prepare our students we need to support our educators to confidently go forth with the tools they needs to transform the learning process. The STEAM Learning Lounge is place to help teachers wherever they are in their journey and support them as they move to new levels of comfort and expertise through collaboration and training in a supportive environment.
References
Herr, D.J., Akbar, B., Brummet, J., Flores, S., Gordon, A., Gray, B., Murday, J. (2019). Convergence education- an international perspective. Journal of nanoparticle research 21(11). DOI: 10.1007/s11051-019-4638-7
Land, M. (2013). Full STEAM ahead: The benefits of integrating the arts into STEM. Procedia computer science. Vol. 20. 547-552. Retrieved from file:///Users/dmason/Desktop/FullSteamAhead.html
Reitenbach, G. (2015, June). From STEM to STEAM education. Power. Vol 159(6). 6-6. Retrieved from http://draweb.njcu.edu:2073/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=343a4b26-14e7-4ad8-9918-9de8f727dfa%40sessionmgr101